Agency of Objects in the Food Consumption Abandonment

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: we aim to understand how objects influence the practice of abandonment of unhealthy food categories. Theoretical background: previous studies explore different typologies to explain variations in anti-consumption behavior and abandonment of product categories from a consumer-oriented perspective. In this study, we follow the new materialism onto-epistemology to recognize that objects have agentic capacities in anti-consumption practices. Specifically, we highlight the abandonment of certain food categories as the interruption of an intersubjective relationship involving consumers and objects. Method: our empirical plan adopts an interpretive perspective to describe practices of abandonment of soft drinks and meats and the way consumers build new relationships with these objects. Data collection makes use of in-depth interviews. Results: the results indicate that the nutritional and production characteristics of these foods negatively impact the lives of consumers, other living beings, and nature. To mitigate this impact, consumers adopt abandonment practices attempting to break with the procedural relationship and the effects of these objects on their lives and on nature. Conclusions: theoretical contributions reveal that the procedural relationship between objects and consumers operates at different levels of complexity, according to the agentic capacity of the object, limiting or making easy the abandonment of unhealthy food categories.