The entrenchment of food habits in everyday life: a qualitative investigation of the links between food and other practices

Abstract

This paper investigates how food practices are shaped by their linkages to configurations of other everyday practices in the lives of consumers. It contributes to discussions of relations between everyday practices, by suggesting the term entrenchment as a way of zooming in on how the performance of single or compound practices, such as food practices, are shaped by their linkages to configurations of other practices in the lives of practitioners. This is done based on an analysis of data from 27 interviews with young Danish meat reducers (aged 18–30). The analysis shows how the food performances of the participants are spatiotemporally and socially entrenched to varying degrees. I discuss how the categories of spatiotemporal and social entrenchment may contribute to practice-theoretical discussions about how to understand the interrelations of everyday practices and argue that thinking in terms of entrenchment may help us understand the ways in which the performance of any practice is shaped by the organization of the performances of the other everyday practices they are linked to. Finally, I discuss the potential implications of food practice entrenchment for behavior change initiatives and argue that understanding the entrenchment of food performances can both help explain the ineffectiveness of individual behavior-change initiatives and help point toward alternative approaches.