Instances Of Consumption Research Articles

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Food Packaging and Consumers

Food waste is a significant environmental, economic, and social issue. In many cases, packaging protects food and prolongs its shelf life, reducing the overall environmental impact by reducing food waste. This research focuses on consumer perceptions of the role of packaging and on-pack labelling in reducing household food waste. The following research questions provided the framework for the study: (1) could packaging play a role in decreasing food waste; (2) what are labelling and packaging designs’ impacts on consumer decision-making about food waste? This research draws on two qualitative studies. Study One focuses on journey mapping—following food waste throughout the consumer’s engagement with food ‘journey’ from planning to disposal. Study Two comprises a series of in-depth interviews in consumers’ homes focusing on how consumers engage with food packaging and food waste. Results indicate that there are at least two streams of consumer perceptions to consider when determining the relationship between food packaging and reducing food waste: the first is how practically useful packaging is for consumer needs; the second is consumers’ perceptions about food packaging itself. There are tensions and trade-offs between these two sets of considerations. The results of the studies show consumers are unlikely to consider food packaging or reducing food waste as a primary motivation in their food purchasing decisions. The studies also show reducing packaging, including plastic packaging, is seen as more important than reducing food waste. Our results also highlight important elements to consider when designing food packaging. These results suggest that a fundamental review is needed for many aspects of packaging and storage information and that this review should account for consumers’ information needs at different points: purchase, storage, during consumption, and between instances of consumption. Furthermore, our results suggest packaging designs that provide clear information and instructions for consumers to reduce food waste are needed.

The V in VGI: Citizens or Civic Data Sources

Volunteered geographic information (VGI), delivered via mobile and web apps, offers new potentials for civic engagement. If framed in the context of open, transparent and accountable governance then presumably VGI should advance dialogue and consultation between citizen and government. If governments perceive citizens as consumers of services then arguably such democratic intent elide when municipalities use VGI. Our empirical research shows how assumptions embedded in VGI drive the interaction between citizens and government. We created a typology that operationalises VGI as a potential act of citizenship and an instance of consumption. We then selected civic apps from Canadian cities that appeared to invoke these VGI types. We conducted interviews with developers of the apps; they were from government, private sector, and civil society. Results from qualitative semi-structured interviews indicate a blurring of consumer and citizen-centric orientations among respondents, which depended on motivations for data use, engagement and communication objectives, and sector of the respondent. Citizen engagement, an analogue for citizenship, was interpreted multiple ways. Overall, we found that government and developers may increase choice by creating consumer-friendly apps but this does not ensure VGI offers an act of civic participation. The burden is placed on the contributor to make it so. Apps and VGI could potentially further a data-driven and neoliberal government. Planners should be mindful of the dominance of a consumer-centric view even as they assume VGI invariably improves democratic participation.

Things in motion, things in practices: How mobile practice networks facilitate the travel and use of leisure objects

While complex spatialities and mobilities underlie patterns of contemporary consumption, many of their dynamics remain unexplored. Authors have taken up Warde’s suggestion that consumption is a moment within social practices, yet the implications of multi-sited performances and travel for this consumption have not been fully considered. This article therefore focuses upon the objects within practices, adopting Appadurai’s strategy of following things-in-motion in order to highlight how the travel of objects opens up opportunities for their use. Qualitative research is used to follow the things of two leisure practices, patchwork quilting and bird watching, illustrating how they involve both multi-sited performances and instances of consumption on-the-move. In order to discuss the changing sets of objects that enthusiasts make use of, the article proposes the concept of ‘mobile practice networks’, which recognizes how temporary coalitions of objects and people actualize the portability of things. Whereas Latour’s immutable mobiles maintain their links after travel, mobile practice networks are made to be broken, with their stability existing only during travel. Mobile practice networks are enacted as temporary accomplishments: as moments within the circulation of objects, when objects gain additional materials to facilitate their mobility. Following things-in-motion highlights the cycles of use and disuse, mobility and immobility within consumption, and demonstrates that the appropriation of objects is inseparable from the work of moving materials around.