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The Mainstreaming of Sustainable Eating – systemic barriers and potential contributions from civil society organizations, business, and public policy

You are warmly welcome to Vishal Parekh's mid-term seminar, where his thesis work so far, and the plans for continued research up to a PhD, will be presented and discussed.

Time: Wed 2021-04-28 11.00 - 12.30

Location: Zoom

Participating: Vishal Parekh

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Discussant/opponent: Professor Anna Davies, Trinity College Dublin

Supervisors: Åsa Svenfelt, KTH, Greger Henriksson, KTH and Annika Carlsson-Kanyama, Ecoloop

Thesis Abstract

My thesis aims to explore the possibilities and barriers for civil society organizations (CSOs), businesses, and public policy to contribute to a transition to sustainable food consumption in Sweden.

Grounded in qualitative methodology and using interviews and workshops as its main methods, the thesis (so far) uses theories of practice to explore these different societal actors’ potential roles in such a transition, and the institutional or systemic barriers such efforts may face.

The thesis will consist of six papers, where I will be the main author of four and co-author of two. The latter two explore how sustainable consumption and sustainability transitions in food consumption can be understood, by developing a taxonomy of sustainable consumption practices (Paper I) and applying a theoretical framework for transitions to sustainable consumption on two Swedish cases (Paper IV). Three articles will focus on the respective actors. More specifically, Paper II analyzes how some Swedish CSOs describe their current efforts towards sustainable food consumption and elucidates some of the potentials for practice theory to inform the development of CSO activities so as to enhance their impact. Paper III analyzes how food provisioning actors frame potentials and barriers to enable the mainstreaming of sustainable eating practices in Sweden. Papers V and VI will likely explore potential ways for public policy to counteract power dynamics that maintain or propagate unsustainable food consumption. If so, Paper V will delineate and employ a power lens to explore barriers to the mainstreaming of sustainable eating practices in Sweden. Paper VI will then explore ways for public policy to overcome the barriers identified in the previous paper.

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Belongs to: Sustainable development, environmental science and engineering (SEED)
Last changed: Apr 09, 2021