This paper complements the preceding one by Clarke et al (2004a) which looked at the long-term impact of retail restructuring on consumer choice at the local level. While the previous paper was based on quantitative evidence from survey research, this paper draws on the qualitative phases of the same three-year study, aiming to understand how the changing forms of retail provision are experienced at the neighbourhood level within selected households. The empirical material is drawn from focus groups, accompanied shopping trips, diaries, interviews and kitchen visits with eight households in two contrasting neighbourhoods in the Portsmouth area. The data demonstrate that consumer choice involves judgements of taste, quality and value as well as more 'objective' questions of convenience, price and accessibility. These judgements are related to households' differential levels of cultural capital and involve ethical and moral considerations as well as more mundane considerations of practical utility. Our evidence suggests that many of the terms that are conventionally advanced as explanations of consumer choice (such as 'convenience', 'value' and 'habit') have very different meanings according to different household circumstances. To understand these meanings requires us to relate consumers' at-store behaviour to the domestic context in which their consumption choices are embedded. Our research demonstrates that consumer choice between stores can be understood in terms of accessibility and convenience, while choice within stores involves notions of value, price and quality. We conclude that choice between and within stores is strongly mediated by consumers' household context reflecting the extent to which shopping practices are embedded within consumers' domestic routines and complex everyday lives.

Over the last two decades, fundamental changes have taken place in the global supply and local structure of provision of British food retailing. Consumer lifestyles have also changed markedly. Despite some important studies of local interactions between new retail developments and consumers, this paper argues that there is a critical need to gauge the cumulative effects of these changes on consumer behaviour over longer periods. In this, the first of two papers, we present the main findings of a study of the effects of long-term retail change on consumers at the local level. The paper provides an overview of the changing geography of retail provision and patterns of consumption at the local level. It contextualises the Portsmouth study area as a locality that typifies national changes in retail provision and consumer lifestyles; outlines the main findings of two large-scale surveys of food shopping behaviour carried out in 1980 and 2002; and reveals the impacts of retail restructuring on consumer behaviour. Despite significant retail restructuring, the research reveals a surprising degree of behavioural inertia; it also underlines the strengths and limitations of survey research in understanding this phenomenon. The paper ends by problematising our understanding of how consumers experience choice at the local level, emphasising the need for qualitative research-the topic of our complementary second paper.

Focuses on deprived neighbourhoods where instances of "food deserts" have been found and explores, through focus groups, consumer experiences of food store choices. Focusing on suburban neighbourhoods in Portsmouth, identifies significant differences in experiences of choice both between and within neighbourhoods. In some localities, the research also finds dissatisfaction with the (supposedly-coveted) "small local store". Shows that choice is very different from provision, and conceptualises how consumers' circumstances, situation and individual characteristics can significantly reduce a broad theoretical provision of food stores to a limited set of perceived real choices.

The “food deserts” debate can be enriched by setting the particular circumstances of food deserts – areas of very limited consumer choice – within a wider context of changing retail provision in other areas. This paper’s combined focus on retail competition and consumer choice shifts the emphasis from changing patterns of retail provision towards a more qualitative understanding of how “choice” is actually experienced by consumers at the local level “on the ground”. This argument has critical implications for current policy debates where the emphasis on monopolies and mergers at the national level needs to be brought together with the planning and regulation of retail provision at the local, neighbourhood level.

<p>Este artículo presenta los resultados de un proyecto de investigación - acción realizado en 2012 con estudiantes del primer año en la carrera de ‘Estudios de la Educación’ en una Universidad de Inglaterra. La finalidad del proyecto fue explorar las mejores formas de apoyar las habilidades de redacción académica de los estudiantes. La revisión de la literatura identifica los desafíos que los estudiantes enfrentan al tratar de aprender el discurso de la disciplina; y a la luz de este análisis una reflexión de las fortalezas y debilidades de mi propia práctica provee el contexto para llevar a cabo una proyecto de investigación - acción. Los métodos de recolección de datos que se usaron para evaluar la intervención de enseñanza fueron: cuestionarios, entrevista semiestructurada con estudiantes, análisis de contenido (retroalimentación) de los trabajos finales de los estudiantes. Los resultados de la investigación demuestran que las dificultades de redacción de los estudiantes están relacionadas con su esfuerzo por entender los conceptos especializados, teorías y métodos de la disciplina.</p>