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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores vegan transition from a practice theory perspective with specific focus on what vegans and vegan manufacturers do, specifically with food, and the relationship between these practices and food norms, modes of sociality and aesthetic constructions of food.

Paper long abstract:

Vegan eating practices constitute an important point of investigation within contemporary discussions on sustainable food transitions (Twine 2014). This paper continues a research project aimed at understanding vegan transition from a practice theory perspective (e.g. Shove et. al. 2012). It affords the opportunity to focus on the role of materials in potentially facilitating more plant-based eating and vegan transition. It explores what vegans and vegan manufacturers do, specifically with food materials, and the relationship between these practices and food norms, modes of sociality and aesthetic constructions of food. This focus illuminates the close relationships between materialities, meanings and competences. For example certain vegan food practices (such as some practices of substitution) can be read as a way of normalising and domesticating the meanings of vegan food. Three sets of data inform this paper. Firstly interview data conducted with 40 UK based vegans. Secondly, focus group data with participants in a South Manchester plant-based cookery course, and thirdly, online data associated with the 'invention' of aquafaba - the use of chickpea brine as a new ingredient in plant-based cooking practices. The paper contributes to the growing literature on practice theory and food (e.g. Warde 2015), relationships between design, experimentality and everyday life (Scott et. al. 2012; van der Weele & Driessen 2013) and a better understanding of the agency of food materialities in achieving transitions to plant-based eating.