Studying the vegetalization of food practices: eaters and associations supporting agri-food transitions focusing on legumes

PhD :

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Preview :

The aim of this research is to look at the way in which eaters are involved in the process of greening their eating habits and the ways in which associations can support them in this process. The project therefore focuses on the issue of dietary change, its levers and obstacles, and the conditions under which it exists, is constructed and evolves within dietary trajectories. The literature on this subject highlights the fact that, although legumes could be a considerable asset for the dietary transition, they are not widely consumed in France. There are both practical (mainly convenience) and symbolic reasons for this low level of consumption: pulses are sometimes associated with a form of asceticism linked to the vegetarian diet, with a frugal diet that is depreciated because it is associated with poverty, or with a food category reserved for women. Work in the social sciences on dietary change also points out that the knowledge that eaters have about their diet and the possibility (or even the necessity) of changing it is not enough to bring about and sustain a change in dietary behaviour. The aim of this thesis is to explore the symbolic, practical and interactional dimensions of dietary change, in order to understand how dietary experimentation can become rooted in the habits of eaters, through a process of routinisation deeply embedded in a social context.

Supervisor :

Béatrice Maurines - Maxime Michaud

Graduate School :

Université Lumière Lyon II - Centre Max Weber