Dealing with food budget constraints in Denmark: vagabondic and touristic experiences

TY - ABST

T1 - Dealing with food budget constraints in Denmark

T2 - ESA 12th Conference of the European Sociological Association 2015

AU - Nielsen, Annemette Ljungdalh

AU - Lund, Thomas Bøker

AU - Holm, Lotte

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - How does an economic crisis influence food related practices? This study explored how shopping, storing, cooking and eating practices changed in Danish households as a consequence of experienced restraints on food budgets. The study applied a mixed method design. The qualitative data source consisted of interviews with 30 individuals from Danish households with different socio-economic characteristics, who experienced food budget constraint. The quantitative data consists of a survey among 1650 members of a household consumer panel. The quantitative results revealed how differences in terms of application of various types of strategies are related to different levels of food budget restrictions. Strategies applied to storing and cooking food in more efficient manners were widely practiced across all groups. Strategies which affected eating experiences, first seemed to appear when food budget restriction increased. The qualitative study revealed important factors that link strategies toeither positive or negative experiences. Interviewees who made a positive experiences out of coping with food budget restraint reported extra resources in the shape of e.g. more secure life circumstances, higher cooking skills, and a supporting social network compared to interviewees who had more negative coping experiences. We propose that Zygmunt Bauman's metaphors of the tourist and the vagabond can inspire us towards an improved understanding of different experiences of and reactions to restrained food budgets.

AB - How does an economic crisis influence food related practices? This study explored how shopping, storing, cooking and eating practices changed in Danish households as a consequence of experienced restraints on food budgets. The study applied a mixed method design. The qualitative data source consisted of interviews with 30 individuals from Danish households with different socio-economic characteristics, who experienced food budget constraint. The quantitative data consists of a survey among 1650 members of a household consumer panel. The quantitative results revealed how differences in terms of application of various types of strategies are related to different levels of food budget restrictions. Strategies applied to storing and cooking food in more efficient manners were widely practiced across all groups. Strategies which affected eating experiences, first seemed to appear when food budget restriction increased. The qualitative study revealed important factors that link strategies toeither positive or negative experiences. Interviewees who made a positive experiences out of coping with food budget restraint reported extra resources in the shape of e.g. more secure life circumstances, higher cooking skills, and a supporting social network compared to interviewees who had more negative coping experiences. We propose that Zygmunt Bauman's metaphors of the tourist and the vagabond can inspire us towards an improved understanding of different experiences of and reactions to restrained food budgets.

M3 - Conference abstract in proceedings

SP - 295

EP - 296

BT - Differences, Inequalities and Sociological Imagination

Y2 - 25 August 2015 through 28 August 2015

ER -