Trust in Food A Comparative and Institutional Analysis

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

• ISBN13: 9781403998910
• ISBN10: 1403998914
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-03-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Scandals in food, growth of supermarket power, new technologies and crises in obesity have shaken popular trust in food across Europe. The BSE epidemic, concern over GM foods, dioxin scares and avian flu have placed consumer trust and how to restore it at the top of government agendas. Uncovering surprising differences between countries, Trust in Food examines these issues to challenge the idea of the consumer as a sovereign individual and to demonstrate how consumption is institutionalized within societies.

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 Senior Research Fellow at the ESRC Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition, University of Manchester, 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 and Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition, 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

List of Tables	p. viii
List of Figures	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. x
Introduction: Problematizing Trust in Food	p. 1
Food on the agenda as an issue of consumer trust	p. 1
How can we understand consumer distrust in food?	p. 4
Different ways of understanding what 'a consumer' is	p. 9
Trust as social and relational	p. 11
Outlining the structure of the book	p. 16
Trust and Food Consumption: Theoretical Approaches	p. 18
Cognitive trust: Individuals and the role of information	p. 19
Distrust in risk society: A question of uncertainty?	p. 21
Trust as social	p. 23
The institutionalization of food consumption: Habits and routines	p. 25
Trust and institutional performance	p. 27
Institutionalized relationships of trust	p. 29
Determinants of trust in institutionalized arrangements	p. 31
Forms of institutionalization and forms of trust in contemporary food markets	p. 37
Enquiring into Trust: Some Methodological Considerations	p. 41
The project	p. 42
The nature of the comparative institutional method	p. 47
The quantitative survey empirical approach	p. 54
Conclusion	p. 56
Variations in Popular Trust	p. 57
Public opinion on trust in food	p. 57
Indicators of trust in food	p. 58
Culture and Performance: Trust in Meat	p. 78
The politics of meat consumption	p. 78
The analysis of dimensions of trust in meat	p. 80
Cultural influences on trust in meat	p. 83
The effects of institutional performance	p. 86
Concluding remarks	p. 89
Mobilizations of the Consumer	p. 93
Introduction	p. 93
Locating the consumer	p. 94
Shopping strategies	p. 99
Mobilizations of the consumer	p. 102
Consumer organizations	p. 104
Consumer activism and perceptions of responsibility	p. 105
Active individuals	p. 107
The voice of individuals	p. 108
Eating, purchasing and protesting: The limits of consumer power	p. 111
Conclusion	p. 115
Buying into Food	p. 118
Variation in the institutionalization of consumption	p. 121
Variation in provisioning systems	p. 130
Putting the relationship back together	p. 138
The State and Triangular Affairs of Trust	p. 142
Introduction	p. 142
Variations in state regulatory relationships	p. 144
Regulatory reforms	p. 151
Regulation and trust: Comparing national configurations	p. 155
Conditions for Trust in Food	p. 163
Complex relationships, emergent trust and distrust	p. 163
Institutionalization and societal configurations	p. 166
Public opinion and trust	p. 169
Institutionalization of distrust	p. 171
Trust and distrust and their types	p. 177
Configurations and combinations of trust	p. 181
Explaining Trust in Food	p. 185
Food nations	p. 185
Limitations of individualist and risk perspectives	p. 188
Towards a socio-institutional explanation	p. 191
Establishing and restoring confidence	p. 198
Notes	p. 203
Bibliography	p. 210
Index	p. 221
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