Abstract
In this paper, we provide an overview of research highlighting the relation between cultural processes, social norms, and food choices, discussing the implication of these findings for the promotion of more sustainable lifestyles. Our aim is to outline how environmental psychological research on urban affordances, through the specific concepts of restorative environments and walkability, could complement these findings to better understand human health, wellbeing and quality of life. We highlight how social norms and cultural processes are linked to food choices, and we discuss the possible health-related outcomes of cultural differences in food practices as well as their relation to acculturation and globalization processes. We also discuss the concepts of restorative environments and walkability as positive urban affordances, their relation to human wellbeing, and the possible link with cultural processes and sustainable lifestyles. Finally, we outline issues for future research and areas for policy-making and interventions on the links between cultural processes, healthy and sustainable food consumption and urban affordances, for the pursuit of public health, wellbeing and environmental sustainability.
Highlights
The multi-cultural reality created by the worldwide phenomena of globalization, immigration, mass media communication and global social networking points to the need of deeply understanding the cultural and sub-cultural realities to comprehend individual behavioral change within any given country (Shweder and Sullivan, 1993; Stokols, 2018)
We argue that walkability and physical activity could be influential, by working in synergy with restorative environments, and help the transition toward healthier and more sustainable lifestyles (e.g., Rioux et al, 2016)
According to the literature we have briefly reviewed, the development of evidence-based policies in the domain of more sustainable food choices could be based on a combination of cultural and education interventions with urban planning management and transformation
Summary
The multi-cultural reality created by the worldwide phenomena of globalization, immigration, mass media communication and global social networking points to the need of deeply understanding the cultural and sub-cultural realities to comprehend individual behavioral change within any given country (Shweder and Sullivan, 1993; Stokols, 2018). The growing importance of the migratory phenomenon on the global level (for statistical facts on this issue see United Nations, 2017) over the last decades and the related social, political, economic and educational implications (see for example Pirchio et al, 2015, 2017a,b, 2018; Passiatore et al, 2017 for a discussion of these issues in the field of multicultural education and language learning) suggests the relevance of ethnic identities in modern societies for understanding sustainable lifestyle change. Far from being only a means of survival, the relation between human beings and food in modern societies has rather to be considered for its symbolic value, connected to the development of the individual, social and collective self (Cleveland et al, 2009)
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