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Accepted Paper:

Imagining future sustainable eating: a netnography of Danish meat discussions  
Amalie Scheel (Aarhus University)

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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores future meat-eating imaginaries in Danish online discussions through netnography. Employing the concept of social imaginaries, the paper demonstrates how pasts and presents are used to argue for different imaginaries and underlines the importance of affect in food politics.

Paper long abstract:

How do people imagine the future of sustainable eating, and in particular the future of meat-eating? This paper addresses such question through a netnographic (Kozinets, 2015) study of Danish Facebook discussions around the topic of meat-eating and meat reduction. Through the concept of social imaginaries (Taylor, 2004), this paper understands social imaginaries as both discourse and practice filled with normative and prescriptive ideas of sustainability. Studies of contemporary cultural models, such as comment section discussions, are crucial to identify both problems and opportunities for sustainable eating. Following STS-work on sociotechnical imaginaries (Jasanoff & Kim, 2009) and its focus on temporalities, the paper identifies four distinct future scenarios of eating as expressed by commenters and demonstrates how presents and pasts are used to argue for different scenarios. The analysis reveals the notions of national or regional belonging as well as ‘human nature’ as important ideas for people engaged in meat discussions. The paper argues that a future attentiveness towards affect and cultural feelings (Highmore, 2010) is crucial to unpack the politics of sustainable eating as they are constructed by and between people.

Highmore, B. (2010). Affect, Food, and Social Aesthetics. In M. Gregg & G. J. Seigworth (Eds.), The Affect Theory Eater. Duke University Press.

Jasanoff, S., & Kim, S.-H. (2009). Containing the Atom: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and Nuclear Power in the United States and South Korea. Minerva, 47(2), 119–146.

Kozinets, R. V. (2015). Netnography: Redefined (2nd ed.). SAGE Publication Ltd.

Taylor, C. (2004). Modern Social Imaginaries. Duke University Press.

Panel P373
Cultural climate models: interactions and mobilities between the 'is' and 'ought' in climate futures
  Session 1 Thursday 18 July, 2024, -