Spatio‐temporalities of convenience eating for sustainability outcomes at an inner‐urban university

Abstract

AbstractThis article addresses questions about sustainability outcomes and the convenience‐oriented eating practices that tend to dominate some urban universities and that are largely associated with intensive resource and energy consumption. Instead of considering food consumption on campus as a product of individual behaviours and choices (commonly the normative frame for provisioning of eating sociospatial infrastructures), we use social practice theory to examine how timespace infrastructures shape and are shaped by eating practices on campus. The digital ethnographic methods used to capture these practices include focus groups, food maps, and discussions on a facilitated Facebook group. Our analysis suggests that university eating times and spaces normalise and promote unsustainable forms of convenience eating. For university leadership teams concerned with promoting sustainable practices, the findings highlight the limitations of individualistic solutions that aim to encourage students to make healthier and more sustainable food choices. We show that by rescheduling timetables to provide dedicated mealtimes and by providing more shared eating spaces and associated infrastructure, those leadership teams could work to reimagine and intervene in the timespaces of campus life and steer taken‐for‐granted food practices in more sustainable directions.