Practicing Mundane Consumer Resistance in the REKO Local Food System

Purpose – This study aims to answer two research questions, namely, what kinds of mundane resistance practices emerge in the local food system and which spatial, material and social elements catalyse the resistance practices. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts a post-humanist practice approach and focusses on exploring the agentic capacity of socio-material elements to generate resistance practices. The data were generated through a multi-method approach of interviews, field observations and Facebook discussions collected between 2014 and 2017. Findings – The empirical context is the rejäl konsumtion local food network in Finland. The analysis presents two types of resisting practices – resisting facelessness and resisting carelessness – which are connected to spatial, material and social elements. Research limitations/implications – The study focusses on one local food system, highlighting the socio-material structuring of resistance in this specific cultural setting. Practical implications – The practical implications highlight that recognising the socio-material elements provides tools for better engagement of consumer actors with local food systems. Originality/value – The study adds to the extant research by interweaving the consumer resistance literature and local food systems discussions with the neo-material approach. The findings present a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which consumer resistance is actualised in a non-recreational, mundane context of consumption. Consequently, the study offers new insights into the agentic socio-material actors structuring the local food system.© Hanna Leipämaa-Leskinen. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is publishedunder the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute,translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercialpurposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of thislicence may be seen athttp://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcodefi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Kuluttajat ristiriitojen maailmassa : esseitä ruoan kuluttamisen haasteista

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A semiotic analysis on cultural meanings of eating horsemeat

Purpose: Drawing on food consumption research and human-animal studies, this study explores how the meanings related to a living horse may be transferred to those of horsemeat. This is accomplished by constructing a nuanced understanding of how different semantic meaning categories of accepting/avoiding consuming horsemeat relate to each other. Design/methodology/approach: The current data are collected from various sources of media discussions, including online news, online discussion forums, blog postings and printed articles, generated in Finland after the year 2013. The data are analysed applying Greimas’ (1982) semiotic square to open up the semantic meaning categories appearing in the media discussions. Findings: The semiotic square shows that the meanings of horsemeat arise between the binary oppositions of human-like and animal-like. In this structure, the category of human-like makes eating horsemeat impossible while the category of animal-like makes horsemeat good to eat. The main categories are completed and contrasted by the categories of not human-like and not animal-like. They represent horsemeat as an acceptable food, but only after certain justifications. Research limitations/implications: The data are based on Finnish media texts, and therefore the identified categories are interpreted in this specific cultural context. Originality/value: The current semiotic analysis adds to the existing food consumption research by shedding light on the cultural barriers that make something edible or inedible. By so doing, the findings present a more nuanced and dynamic understanding of the horse as a special kind of meat animal and the justifications for eating horsemeat. Consequently, the findings offer new insights concerning changing food consumption behaviours into a more sustainable direction, pointing out the hidden meanings that influence this process.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

The rise of collaborative engagement platforms

Purpose The purpose of this study is to define and analyse the emergence of collaborative engagement platforms (CEPs) as part of a rising platformisation phenomenon. Contrary to previous literature on engagement platforms (EPs), this study distinguishes between formalised and self-organised EPs and sheds light on collaborative EPs on which heterogeneous actors operate without central control by legislated firm actors. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on institutional work theory, this paper explores the institutional rules, norms and practices involved in the emergence of a new platform. This paper implements a longitudinal case study of a local food network called REKO and explores how engagement practices and institutional work patterns catalysed its emergence during 2013–2020. Findings The findings of this study show that actors engaged within the REKO platform participated in institutional work patterns of disruption, creation and maintenance, which drove the development of the platform and ensured its viability. Research limitations/implications This paper encourages future research to further explore how different types of EPs emerge and function. Practical implications The rise of CEPs pushes the dominant managerial orientation to progress from the management “of” a platform to managing “within” a platform. For managers, this means developing novel practices for engaging and committing a versatile set of actors to nurture open-ended, multi-sided collaboration. Originality/value This study contributes by conceptualising different types of platforms with a particular focus on CEPs and explicating the engagement practices and institutional work patterns that catalyse their emergence.© Hanna Leipämaa-Leskinen, Elina Närvänen and Hannu Makkonen. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode. The authors would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their insightful and helpful comments for earlier versions of the manuscript. This work was supported by the Finnish Foundation for Economic Education [grant number 8-3794].fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Revealing the paradoxes of horsemeat – The challenges of marketing horsemeat in Finland

This study aims to analyse the different cultural meanings attached to horsemeat consumption in the context of the Finnish market. We take the “meat paradox” as a theoretical starting point and investigate the underlying cultural structures that guide consumers’ meaning-making and consumption decisions in regard to horsemeat. The data were generated after the horsemeat scandal, drawing on a wide variety of media texts about horsemeat consumption. The data were analysed through qualitative content analysis and the findings reveal five horsemeat paradoxes. Each paradox contains meanings that reflect both the justifications for and avoidance of eating horsemeat. The findings show how horsemeat consumption holds various and even contradictory meanings, elucidating how it may be difficult for consumers to take a stand towards eating horsemeat. Thereby, the study provides novel ideas for marketing that are grounded in our deep-rooted and ingrained cultural understandings.©2015 Association of Business Schools Finland.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Paikallista ruokaa, kiitos! : Näkökulmia paikkaan kiinnittyvän elintarvikebrändin rakentamiseen

Tässä raportissa pohditaan, miten rakentaa paikkaan kiinnittyvä elintarvikebrändi. Tarkastelu kohdistuu erityisesti Pohjanmaan alueella tuotettuihin elintarvikkeisiin sekä yleisemmin pohjalaiseen ruokaan liitettyihin merkityksiin. Raportissa käydään läpi kahden eri selvityksen tuloksia. Analysoimme ensin kaupoista kerätyn havainnointiaineiston tuloksia ja sen jälkeen pohjalaiseen ruokaan liitettyjä merkityksiä. Lopputuloksena syntyy ymmärrys siitä, miten Pohjanmaan alueen kaupat ja elintarvikeyritykset voivat edistää paikallisten elintarvikkeiden näkyvyyttä kuluttajille ja viestiä paikallisuuden tuomasta lisäarvosta. Selvitys on tehty osana Matriket Österbotten–Ruokamaa Pohjanmaa -hanketta, jonka on rahoittanut Pohjanmaan ELY-Keskus Euroopan maaseudun kehittämisen maatalousrahastosta.fi=vertaisarvioimaton|en=nonPeerReviewed

Saunascape in the Nexus of Socio-Material Sauna Bathing Practices

In this paper, we introduce the concept of saunascape. To that end, we explore what kind of socio-material practices are carried out within sauna bathing, and thereby discover the elements of saunascape. We focus on interrelated practices of sauna bathing and address the agentic capacity of saunascape as it structures these practices. The data were generated through interviews that took place in sauna departments at five different hotels in Finland. In total, 39 informants participated in interviews. The findings show four interconnected socio-material practices relating to sauna bathing: purification, nostalgization, medicalization and democratization. As saunascape emerges in the nexus of these practices, its spatially-constructed elements (places, people, meanings and material processes) appear connected to practices. The study participates in discussions in which the spatiality and non-human agency in consumption practices are evolved. Furthermore, it showcases an example of how an understudied cultural-historical phenomenon may be linked to modern consumption trends.©2020 Consumer culture theory consortium.fi=vertaisarvioimaton|en=nonPeerReviewed

Boundary Negotiations in a Self-Organized Grassroots-Led Food Network: The Case of REKO in Finland

Self-organization is a term that is increasingly used to describe how engaged citizens come together to create sustainable food systems at the local community level. Yet, there is a lack of understanding of what this self-organizing activity actually means. While previous literature has addressed self-organization as an outcome of building consensus and a collective intentionality shared by the members of a group, we focus on the complex social processes involved when people with a diverse set of interests and motivations interact in the food network. In this study, we analyze what kinds of boundary negotiations emerge when grassroots-led food networks scale up. Our embedded single case study focuses on a REKO (‘REjäl KOnsumtion’, meaning ‘fair consumption’ in English) network in Finland comprising distributed local food groups and three types of actors: consumers, producers, and local administrators. We examine a conflict that arose within the REKO network in May–June 2016 when a small group of actors demanded that all local groups should implement similar rules, principles, and ethical standards. Our findings illustrate how moral, geographic, market, and power boundaries emerge in a self-organized grassroots-led food network. We further explicate the challenges that may appear within a self-organized grassroots-led food network, as it grows in scale and scope.peerReviewe

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