Trust in Food A Comparative and Institutional Analysis

by Kjaernes, Unni; Harvey, Mark; Warde, Alan

• ISBN13: 9781137352392
• ISBN10: 1137352396
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-03-05
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Over recent years, Europe has witnessed a series of diverse crises in food, including BSE, GM food, obesity, dioxin scares and avian flu. Consumer trust has become a critical issue, affecting not only markets, but state regulators, scientists and the media. This major comparative research project, combining both public opinion surveys and detailed analysis of regulatory and food provisioning systems, demonstrates surprising contrasts in trust and distrust in different countries to reveal that trust is high in countries most affected by crisis, such as the UK, and low in countries with a reputation for good food, such as Italy.

Examining six European countries in depth - Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Norway and Portugal - as well as examining policy at EU level, Trust in Food presents an in-depth analysis of the complex social and relational bases for trust, challenging dominant ideas of the consumer as a sovereign individual and highlighting the 'triangular affairs' between consumers, states and market provisioners.

Author Biography

Unni Kjaernes is Senior Researcher at the National Institute for Consumer Research, Oslo, Norway. She is co-ordinator of the Trust in Food project. She has published widely on food consumption, consumer concerns and food policy and is co-editor of Regulating Markets: Regulating People: On Food and Nutrition Policy.

Mark Harvey is Professor and Director of the Centre for Research in Economic Sociology and Innovation, University of Essex, UK.
His research focuses on economic sociology and innovation, in particular biotechnology, retailing, consumption and food. His recent publications include Exploring the Tomato: Transformations in Nature, Economy and Society and he is co-editor of Qualities of Food.

Alan Warde is Professor of Sociology, University of Manchester, UK. He has published extensively in the fields of food and consumption. He is author of Consumption, Food and Taste: Culinary Antinomies and Commodity Culture, co-author of Eating Out: Social Differentiation, Consumption and Pleasure and co-editor of both Ordinary Consumption and Qualities of Food.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Problematizing Trust in Food
2. Trust and Food Consumption: Theoretical Approaches
3. Enquiring into Trust: Some Methodological Considerations
4. Variations in Popular Trust
5. Culture and Performance: Trust in Meat
6. Mobilizations of the Consumer
7. Buying into Food
8. The State and Triangular Affairs of Trust
9. Conditions for Trust in Food
10. Explaining Trust in Food