Being authentic or being responsible? Food consumption, morality and the presentation of self

Abstract

Ethical consumption has become a popular topic in the sociology of consumption in recent years. However, extant research on explicit 'ethical consumption' and on implicit moralities of consumption has scarcely been linked. In the research on ethical consumption, tensions between an inner self and self-presentation to others have been reported. By examining the case of food consumption, the study asks how the idea of 'taking responsibility' as a consumer is negotiated by persons who do not identify strongly with ethical consumption. Theoretically, the article starts from two approaches that have located morality either as internal to the person or as external in communication. It is contended that this opposition is not merely a theoretical one, but empirically present in the accounts of the food consumers studied: While consumers have to present their moral motivation as authentic, they also have to communicate their actions as morally valid according to socially established 'vocabularies of motive'. On the basis of a study of 25 in-depth interviews with consumers from a mid-sized German town, it is shown that the idea that consumers should 'take responsibility' for distant others is just one of several abstract constructions of 'good' consumption, and that not living up to this idea may be justified with references to personal taste and practical circumstances. It is argued that via references to authenticity, inner morality is part of the vocabulary of motive, and that these vocabularies frame the presentation of moral motivation as internal.

Healthy food is nutritious, but organic food is healthy because it is pure: The negotiation of healthy food choices by Danish consumers of organic food

“…This finding is in line with recent research from Denmark and Germany. This research indicates that while environmental concerns are the driving preferences of a relatively small group of highly reflexive and politically motivated consumers, other groups of consumers are motivated in their choices by other, individual concerns (Hjelmar, 2011;Grauel, 2014). A study by Stamer (2018) using the Convention approach found that people with high levels of cultural capital (defined by educational level, cultural activities and number of books in household), women, and older people, were all more likely to justify food purchases by referring to the common good (e.g.…”

Collaborative decision-making in multi-buy food purchases

“…Economic awareness is an important feature of collaboration in food waste reduction (Morone et al, 2018). Also, social signaling of negative outcomes such as waste is important in using collective action to induce environmental behaviors (Arkes, 1996;Connolly and Prothero, 2008;Grauel, 2016;Halkier, 2001;Tulloch and Lupton, 2002;Warde, 2005).…”

Living and Dealing with Food in an Affluent Society—A Case for the Study of Lived (Non)Religion

“…Dallam et al 2014, p. xviii). It relates to multiple moral issues in ordinary life, including caring, identity, health, and aesthetics (Grauel 2016). Zeller (2014Zeller ( , 2015, for example, refers to certain foodways, such as veganism and locavorism as quasireligious, since they serve as individual and group identity markers and enable people to engage in discourses of meaning and community.…”

“…As regards high-status culinary consumption, authenticity and exoticism were emphasized in cultural selection as ways in which individuals could negotiate ideological tension between democracy and distinction. Grauel (2016), in turn, has studied how people present themselves as moral persons with regards to responsible consumption. He found that people often struggle with their consistency to engage in "good" consumption.…”