Engagement and communication strategies for sustainable food and nutrition literacy

The overall aim of the project is to understand the public view on nutrition and food production & consumption (sustainable food and nutrition literacy). More specifically, it is envisaged to investigate how the value of and trust in food is related to what people know about nutrition and food production and consumption and how they learn about it. Related to the latter, the project wants to analyse what role institutional and organisational actors play in communicating the complexity of food production, consumption and nutrition and to understand why existing information strategies of institutional and organizational actors do not lead to the expected outcomes (gap between consumer behaviour and attitudes). Recommendations will be given to food businesses, retailers, associations and other protagonists in developing strategies for effective communication and engagement with stakeholders. The PhD is part of a collaborative project between Nottingham Business School (Prof. Dr. Christian Herzig) and the University of Gießen, Germany (Prof. Dr. Jasmin Godemann, Chair in Communication and Engagement). Travel costs (for interviews and project meetings) as well as transcription costs will be through the project.

The project follows a three-stage data collection process:
1. Exploratory interviews in the UK with key actors to enhance understanding of their roles for developing sustainable food and nutrition literacy
2. Case-study based research (4-5 UK retailers) to understand how retailers perceive their role for sustainable food and nutrition literacy and what stakeholder engagement and communication strategies they use
3. A survey on sustainable food and nutrition literacy (recipient perspective) and possibly further case study research on communication and engagement strategies by different protagonists of the food industry, related associations,