Our project seeks to develop nuanced understanding of food citizenship and its impact on consumption choices, individuals, and society.
How, what, where, when, and why we eat affects not only our individual wellbeing, but also the world we inhabit (OECD/FAO 2021). Consumers are now increasingly encouraged to make food consumption choices consistent with normative ‘‘citizen-consumers’’ who act not solely in their narrow self-interest, but the greater good (Chaudhury and Albinsson 2015).
Consumers make numerous food choice decisions every day and many are detrimental for the individual’s health and to society. For example, Public Health England estimates that obesity is responsible for more than 30,000 deaths each year and imposes a £27 billion cost to society due to the harm obesity causes to an individual’s life and ability to contribute to economic growth.[1] To some consumers this implies that choosing unhealthy foods is irresponsible and irrational (De Tavernier 2012). However, this focus on healthfulness of food consumption decisions ignores other factors such as the sensory properties of the food, family meal preparation and consumption practices, cultural and interpersonal relations around food and eating, and contemporary approaches to food production and retailing (Fox et. al 2018), some of which are incorporated into food wellbeing (FWB), which reflects the psychological, physical, emotional, and social relationships individuals and society have with food (Block et al 2011).
We are looking for PhD applicants motivated to understand food citizenship as an aspect of consumption citizenship, and who wish to do so as a means to develop professional research careers.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-obesity-and-the-food-environment/health-matters-obesity-and-the-food-environment.
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