Prelims

Consumers and Consumption in Comparison

Comparative Social Research

Series Editor: Fredrik Engelstad

Recent Volumes:

Comparative Social Research Volume 37

Consumers and Consumption in Comparison

Edited by

Eivind Jacobsen

Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway

Pål Strandbakken

Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway

Arne Dulsrud

Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway

And

Silje Elisabeth Skuland

Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Emerald Publishing Limited

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First edition 2025

Editorial matter and selection © 2025 Eivind Jacobsen, Pål Strandbakken, Arne Dulsrud and Silje Elisabeth Skuland.

Individual chapters © 2025 The authors.

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ISBN: 978-1-83549-315-1 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83549-314-4 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83549-316-8 (Epub)

ISSN: 0195-6310 (Series)

Dr Eivind Jacobsen is a previous Director of Consumption Research Norway (SIFO), Oslo Metropolitan University (Norway). He is trained in Sociology and Science studies. He has published widely on consumer issues related to food, food provisioning, food consumption as well as on marketing, and retailing.

Dr Pål Strandbakken is Researcher at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). He is trained as a Sociologist and has published on sustainable consumption, social theory and participatory democracy.

Arne Dulsrud is Research Professor at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). His current research focuses on food security and sustainability with a global approach, encompassing projects in both India and Latin America. His most recent project addresses how processes of digitalization impact household consumption practices.

Silje Elisabeth Skuland is the Head of research for the research group Consumption Policy and Economy at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Oslo. She has researched on food practices and economic differences, packed lunch, health and safe food practices, loan problems and children's and youth consumption. Silje is especially interested in children's and young people's lives.

Johanna Sofia Adolfsson is a Researcher at the Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo. Adolfsson is a Cultural Psychologist with an overarching research focus that investigates the dominant role of Western psychological theory and practice in global development policy and intervention, including a focus on the individualization of human ways of being.

Andreea Ioana Alecu is a Senior Researcher at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). Alecu is a Political Scientist currently working on topics related to the impact of policy design and implementation on different forms of social inequalities. Her PhD dissertation examined social divisions in access to social capital and their influence on interpersonal trust.

Mattia Andreola is a PhD candidate in Agrifood and Environmental Sciences at the University of Trento. During his doctoral studies, Andreola focused on the sociology of food and agriculture and contributing to the ‘Nutrire Trento’ project, the local urban food policy. As part of his PhD, Andreola gained valuable experience as a Visiting Researcher at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO), where he broadened his expertise in the sociology of consumption and quantitative methods. He is currently involved in the NUECity project, studying new urban economies through the analysis of online platforms and lifestyles in food, mobility and care.

Julia Brannen is an Emerita Professor of the Sociology of the Family, Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education, London, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Sussex. A Fellow of the Academy of Social Science, she has an international reputation for methodology and international research on family lives. Recent work with Professor Rebecca O'Connell concerns families and food poverty in Europe.

Kia Ditlevsen is an Associate Professor in Sociology of Food and Eating at Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen. Ditlevsen is a Qualitative Sociologist interested in social inequality, social difference and everyday food practices. Her recent work explores class differentiated food cultures in a Nordic welfare state and gendered food practices.

Jamie Evans is a Research Fellow at the Personal Finance Research Centre, University of Bristol. He is a Human Geographer whose research focuses predominantly on the financial wellbeing of low- and middle-income households in the United Kingdom, exploring issues of financial inclusion, fintech, the poverty premium and consumer vulnerability. His applied policy work has been used by UK Government organizations, including the Money and Pensions Service and Financial Conduct Authority.

Francesca Forno is an Associate Professor at the University of Trento (Italy), Department of Sociology and Social Research. She has published and done research on political consumerism, collaborative consumption, eco-social innovation and alternative food networks (AFNs). She is currently leading the project FOODEMOCRACY – Investigating and experimenting with how food policies work.

Arve Hansen is a Senior Researcher at Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo, where he leads the centre's research group on sustainable consumption and energy equity. His research focuses on consumption and sustainability, both in affluent societies and emerging economies. His recent work includes Consumption and Vietnam's New Middle Classes (Palgrave 2022) and Consumption, Sustainability and Everyday Life (Palgrave, 2023; edited with Kenneth Bo Nielsen).

Vilde Haugrønning is a Researcher at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). She holds a Master's from the Centre for Environment and Development (SUM) at the University of Oslo and a Bachelor's degree in Social Anthropology and Visual Culture from NTNU. She has previously researched food consumption in Norwegian households and is currently doing her PhD on clothing consumption, gender and sustainability.

Ingrid Haugsrud is a PhD student at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). Her research interests lie within sustainable consumption – especially related to clothing in everyday life, theories of care, wardrobe studies and consumption and childhood.

Marie Hebrok is a Research Professor at Consumption Research Norway, Oslo Metropolitan University. Hebrok is a Design Researcher interested in the relationships between design and sustainable consumption practices. She is currently leading the project REDUCE – rethinking everyday plastics and working on the project IMAGINE – contested futures of sustainability. Her recent work has revolved around food practices and product durability.

Nina Heidenstrøm is a Senior Researcher at Consumption Research Norway, Oslo Metropolitan University. Heidenstrøm is a Sociologist interested in how consumption organizes everyday life and the importance of consumption to sustainability and risk management. She is currently leading the research project IMAGINE – Contested Futures of Sustainability. Her recent work has revolved around imaginaries, food consumption and household preparedness.

Elaine Kempson is an Emeritus Professor of Social Policy and Personal Finances at the University of Bristol and a Visiting Professor at OsloMet University. She is known, internationally, for her work on financial inclusion, payment problems, financial capability and most recently financial well-being. She is currently researching the links between mental health and payment problems.

Unni Kjærnes is retired from position as Research Professor at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). As Sociologist, Kjærnes has worked on a range of issues on consumption and consumer policy. Topics include changes in eating habits, trust and power, food security and sustainable regulation. She has coordinated a large number of projects in Norway, the Nordic countries and Europe.

Sabina Kuraj is a Researcher at Consumption Research Norway, Oslo Metropolitan University. Kuraj is a Political Scientist interested in the relationships between agricultural policy and sustainable food consumption. She is currently part of two research projects: DISCo – Digital infrastructures for sustainable consumption: Redirecting, reorganizing, reducing and reimaging consumption funded by the Belmont Forum, and NKJ – A Nordic-Baltic framework for sustainable food systems funded by The Nordic Joint Committee for Agricultural and Food Research (NKJ). Her recent work has revolved around sustainable food production and consumption and food security.

Mikko Laamanen is a Research Professor at Consumer Research Norway (SIFO). His research focuses on the everyday politics of technology, inclusion and social change; his current projects examine inclusive digital platforms, alternative consumption communities and sustainability in arts. His research has been published in Current Sociology, Information Communication & Society, International Journal of Consumer Studies, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Management and Social Movement Studies.

Rebecca O'Connell is a Professor of Food, Families and Society at the Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care (CRIPACC), University of Hertfordshire and Visiting Professor at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education. Her research examines the economic, social and cultural determinants shaping what children and families eat and the part food plays in their everyday lives. Recent work with Julia Brannen concerns families and food poverty in Europe. She is currently co-leading a project, Adapt-Ed, that is co-designing improvements to food in special schools with children with special educational needs and disabilities, their families and other stakeholders (NIHR163616).

Christian Poppe holds a PhD degree in Sociology. He is a Senior Researcher at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). His research interests include personal finance, borrowing practices, debt problems and debt settlements. He has contributed to the Russia Trust Fund-funded Financial Capability project, where he served as a consultant for the World Bank. Poppe managed two projects funded by the Norwegian Research Council: Financialization of Social Welfare, and Debt Problems, Ill-Health and Work Market Marginalisation. Poppe recently conducted several studies to assess households' financial well-being during the cost-of-living crisis.

Alexander Schjøll is the Head of Research for the research group on textiles and food at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). Schjøll is an Economist interested in food habits, retailing of food and consumers' perception of animal welfare. He is currently leading a project on marketing of unhealthy food towards juveniles in social media.

Kamilla Knutsen Steinnes is a PhD candidate in Behavioural Analysis at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). Steinnes is a Psychological Researcher interested in consumer behaviour in digital platforms, the commercialization of digital spheres and how market dynamics influence social relations and gendered consumption patterns. Her doctoral project explores the interplay between identities, consumption and game design in video games.

Hanne Torjusen is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). Torjusen is a Nutritionist with a particular interest in the health and sustainability issues of consumption practices and food and fibre systems. Previous research includes the impact of organic food consumption in pregnancy on the health of mother and child, based on the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, and multidisciplinary, international collaborations, such as the EU-funded projects Welfare Quality, Organic-PLUS, Strength2Food and FOOdIVERSE. She is currently engaged in Amazing Grazing, a Norwegian project on sheep rangeland grazing systems.

Per Arne Tufte is a Sociologist and an Associate Professor at Oslo Business School, Oslo Metropolitan University, and has a background as a Researcher at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). His main fields of research are household economics, financial counselling, welfare policy and animal welfare. He has also published several contributions on research methods and explanations in the social sciences.

Gunnar Vittersø works as a Senior Researcher at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). He holds a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Oslo. His research interests are in studies of sustainable consumption with a special focus on social transformation of the food system including studies of everyday food practices and alternative food networks. Vittersø has participated in several EU-funded projects with interdisciplinary approaches among others including methods on involvement of citizens and stakeholders.

Stefan Wahlen is a Professor of Food Sociology at the University of Giessen in Germany. His current research focuses on food culture and eating in the sense of doing food, as well as organizational and sociopolitical dimensions of food. Stefan is the Coordinator of the European ERA-net project ‘FOOdIVERSE’, which aims to uncover the role of diversity for a more sustainable and resilient food system. He is a member of the steering committee of the ‘Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative’ in Europe (SCORAI-Europe) and a co-editor of the journal Consumption and Society, published by Bristol University Press.

Ulrikke Wethal is a Researcher at the Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo. Wethal is a Human Geographer by training, and her research focuses mainly on how to change systems of consumption and production in more sustainable directions, including research projects on meat consumption, circular practices and the role of local governments in promoting sustainable consumption.

Within the social sciences, the study of consumers and consumption has gained momentum these last years. Consumption has been on the radar of sociologists ever since the classics in the later part of the 19th century (more on this in the Introduction). However, as a research field in its own, with its own canon, journals, curriculums and PhD programmes, it's relatively new. It started out in the early 90s within a small network of mostly Nordic and British researchers, confined to European Sociological Associations (ESA) RN5. Famously, in the first interim network meeting in Bergen in 1992, all the participants could be seated in two taxis. This contrasts to the last interim meeting, also this held in Norway (at Consumption Research Norway SIFO, in Oslo), where participants numbered more than 150 and came from all of Europe, and even some from Asia and the United States.

To the contributors to this issue, consumption is a broad phenomenon encompassing activities related to acquisition, modification, use, repair, and finally the disposal of goods and services. As such, consumption is about much more than shopping or choosing products in markets, most frequently in focus in the marketing literature. Moreover, to be a consumer is for us a part-time role where people engage in such activities. In other words, for us – the contributors for this volume – no one is a consumer in essence, but everyone enrolls and performs consumer roles daily.

Consumption and the enactment of consumer roles is currently deeply entangled in all kinds of big social questions. The English sociologist David Evans (2022) writes on connecting consumption and the social.

• Consumption is a key reference point for understanding macro-social processes of organization and change.

• Consumption is a societal phenomenon to be understood through recures to “social” in contrast to the methodological individualism found in marketing and behaviourism.

• Consumption is linked to today's big societal challenges, like climatic change, health, etc. both as contributor and site for solutions.

Through this volume, we would like to show these three points by means of a set of articles applying a comparative approach to different consumption practices. The various papers compare consumption across nations, and consumption areas, thereby demonstrating the contextual embedding and situatedness of consumption and consumers and the necessity to study them in relation to production, politics and various forms of regulations.

The editors would like to thank the reviewers for their time and friendly advice, and the Editorial Board headed by Professor Emeritus Fredrik Engelstad, both for the invitation to produce this issue, and for support and advice during the process. We would also like to thank the publisher, Emerald, for its professional flexibility, and Consumption Research Norway (SIFO) for offering time and administrative resources. SIFO – for short – is currently the largest European social science–based institute solely engaged with consumer research. It is therefore somewhat appropriate that a large number of the contributors work there.