Health in the motivational process of organic product consumption: A socio-psycho hermeneutical approach

Abstract

Social research on organic consumption has increased in recent decades, partly due to its growing demand in central economies. Different studies have agreed to point out that health is one of the most relevant factors that help explain organic consumption. However, a substantial part of these studies are quantitative and fail to clearly establish the role played by health as a motivational element for organic consumption. This paper proposes an analysis of how the symbolic image of organic consumption is configured in light of the significant and emotional relationships that it establishes with health in order to advance knowledge about the motivational process in this type of consumption. We propose an articulation between a sociological and psychoanalytic approach that allows us to interpret how certain non-conscious fantasies and certain emotional states mediate the relationships with which consumers orient their experiences in their daily socio-cultural reality. The empirical analyses of the work have consisted of conducting focus groups and interviews with organic consumers who meet the majority profile in the Catalan market. The results reveal a Manichaean discourse on health and food reality where the organic acquires a defensive and reactive sense linked to the protection and stimulation of personal health. However, it is a discourse that does not manage to get out of the paradox of food modernity: the greater the insistence on risk, the more the fantasy of total protection is fed.