What's Eating the Eater? Perspectives on the Everyday Anxiety of Food Consumption in Late Modernity
(2003)- Abstract
- Consumers today are constantly showered with a vast array of different messages about what and how they should and should not eat in order to lead a healthy life. This bombardment has escalated over the last decades as various actors, such as representatives from the medical community and public policy makers, have increasingly stressed the connections between individuals’ food consumption habits and the state of their health. On top of this, food producers are trying to capitalize on the increased focus on health by developing, or repositioning, products that cater to the health conscious market segments. These developments lead to a situation where consumers are faced with various different, and sometimes contrasting, groups of experts... (More)
- Consumers today are constantly showered with a vast array of different messages about what and how they should and should not eat in order to lead a healthy life. This bombardment has escalated over the last decades as various actors, such as representatives from the medical community and public policy makers, have increasingly stressed the connections between individuals’ food consumption habits and the state of their health. On top of this, food producers are trying to capitalize on the increased focus on health by developing, or repositioning, products that cater to the health conscious market segments. These developments lead to a situation where consumers are faced with various different, and sometimes contrasting, groups of experts that tell them what they are supposed to do. This dissertation looks at how consumers navigate between and make use of the available cacophony of different voices of food and health. The emerging picture is one of consumers reflexively incorporating bits and pieces of this expert knowledge of food consumption and health into their day-to-day lives. However, the consumers are also plagued by an everyday anxiety, as they feel unable to determine whether they are really able to make sense of the incoming expert information or not. Furthermore, the picture includes consumers constantly having to deal with a nagging sense that they are not able to live according to the norms they have set up for themselves. (Less)
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Popular Abstract in Swedish
Dagens konsumenter översköljes ständigt av en aldrig sinande ström av budskap om vad man ska och inte ska äta för att leva hälsosamt. Detta bombardemang har ökat under de senaste årtiondena då diverse aktörer, så som representanter från hälso- och sjukvårdssektorn och statliga myndigheter, ytterligare har poängterat kopplingarna mellan individers matkonsumtion och deras hälsa. Utöver detta har aktörerna i matvarubranschen försökt kapitalisera på dessa utvecklingar genom att försöka ta fram nya, eller ompositionera gamla, produkter för att tillfredställa de hälsomedvetna marknadssegmenten. Alla dessa olika utvecklingar leder för konsumenterna till en situation där de ställs inför många olika, och... (More) - Popular Abstract in Swedish
Dagens konsumenter översköljes ständigt av en aldrig sinande ström av budskap om vad man ska och inte ska äta för att leva hälsosamt. Detta bombardemang har ökat under de senaste årtiondena då diverse aktörer, så som representanter från hälso- och sjukvårdssektorn och statliga myndigheter, ytterligare har poängterat kopplingarna mellan individers matkonsumtion och deras hälsa. Utöver detta har aktörerna i matvarubranschen försökt kapitalisera på dessa utvecklingar genom att försöka ta fram nya, eller ompositionera gamla, produkter för att tillfredställa de hälsomedvetna marknadssegmenten. Alla dessa olika utvecklingar leder för konsumenterna till en situation där de ställs inför många olika, och ibland motstridiga, grupper av experter som talar om för dem hur de ska agera. Denna avhandling tittar på hur konsumenter navigerar mellan och använder den tillgängliga kakofoni av olika expertbudskap som finns om kopplingarna mellan mat och hälsa. Den bild som framträder visar konsumenter som reflexivt inkorporerar olika bitar av expertbudskapen i sitt dagliga liv. Dock uppvisar konsumenterna också en slags vardagsångest då de känner att de inte kan avgöra huruvida de har kunnat ta till sig informationen på ett korrekt sätt. Vidare visar avhandlingen på hur konsumenter går omkring med en konstant gnagande känsla av att de inte lyckas leva upp till de normer som de ställt upp för sig själva. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/21161
- author
- Östberg, Jacob LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Thompson, Craig, Associate Professor, University of Wiconsin-Madison
- organization
- publishing date
- 2003
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Consumers, Health, Body, Risk, Semiotics, Market study, Interpretive Research, Food, Marknadsanalys
- pages
- 248 pages
- publisher
- Lund Business Press
- defense location
- EC3:207
- defense date
- 2003-05-16 13:00:00
- ISBN
- 91-971179-6-X
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 7d50c4d7-a542-40d0-a292-18f538e0f55f (old id 21161)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 11:25:27
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 21:04:46
@phdthesis{7d50c4d7-a542-40d0-a292-18f538e0f55f,
abstract = {{Consumers today are constantly showered with a vast array of different messages about what and how they should and should not eat in order to lead a healthy life. This bombardment has escalated over the last decades as various actors, such as representatives from the medical community and public policy makers, have increasingly stressed the connections between individuals’ food consumption habits and the state of their health. On top of this, food producers are trying to capitalize on the increased focus on health by developing, or repositioning, products that cater to the health conscious market segments. These developments lead to a situation where consumers are faced with various different, and sometimes contrasting, groups of experts that tell them what they are supposed to do. This dissertation looks at how consumers navigate between and make use of the available cacophony of different voices of food and health. The emerging picture is one of consumers reflexively incorporating bits and pieces of this expert knowledge of food consumption and health into their day-to-day lives. However, the consumers are also plagued by an everyday anxiety, as they feel unable to determine whether they are really able to make sense of the incoming expert information or not. Furthermore, the picture includes consumers constantly having to deal with a nagging sense that they are not able to live according to the norms they have set up for themselves.}},
author = {{Östberg, Jacob}},
isbn = {{91-971179-6-X}},
keywords = {{Consumers; Health; Body; Risk; Semiotics; Market study; Interpretive Research; Food; Marknadsanalys}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Lund Business Press}},
school = {{Lund University}},
title = {{What's Eating the Eater? Perspectives on the Everyday Anxiety of Food Consumption in Late Modernity}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/5770558/1693261.pdf}},
year = {{2003}},
}