Food Practices in Transition ─ Changing Food Consumption, Retail and Production in the Age of Reflexive Modernity

This edited volume presents and reflects upon empirical evidence of ‘sustainability’-induced and -related transition in food practices. The material collected in the various chapters contributes to our understanding of the ways in which ideas and preferences, sociotechnological developments and changes in the governance of food interact and become visible in practices of consumption, retail and production.

Gert Spaargaren occupies a special chair on Policy for Sustainable Lifestyles and Patterns of Consumption at the Environmental Policy Group of Wageningen University. His main fields of expertise include sustainable consumption and lifestyles, social theory and the environment, domestic consumption of energy, water and wasteservices, sociology of environmental flows, and general sociological theory. He has initiated, participated and managed a large number of national and international research projects on sustainable consumption.
Anne Loeber is a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam. Her research centres on the dynamics in agricultural and food safety policies in Europe, sustainable development, participatory policy analysis and learning strategies. She is a member of the Technology Assessment Steering Group that advises the Minister of Agriculture.
Peter Oosterveer is senior lecturer at the Environmental Policy Group, Department of Social Sciences. His main fields of expertise are globalisation and sustainability of food production and consumption; labeling and certification of food and general social theory. He is currently involved in several international research projects on globalization, agriculture and food.

1. Sustainability Transitions in Food Consumption, Retail and Production Gert Spaargaren, Peter Oosterveer and Anne Loeber 2. Changing Government, Kitchens, Supermarkets, Firms and Farms: The Governance of Transitions Between Societal Practices and Supply Systems John Grin 3. Healthy, Safe and Sustainable: Consumers and the Public Debate on Food in Europe and the Netherlands Since 1945 Anneke H. van Otterloo 4. Beyond the Industrial Paradigm? Consumers and Trust in Food Unni Kjærnes and Hanne Torjusen 5. Political Consumerism and the Transition Towards a More Sustainable Food Regime: Looking Behind and Beyond the Organic Shelf Mikael Klintman and Magnus Boström 6. Consumers and Green Consumption Practices: Buying Food and New Regimes for Sustainable Food Consumption Peter Oosterveer and Gert Spaargaren 7. Restructuring Food Supply: Sustainability and Supermarkets or: Supermarkets and Sustainability Transitions in Food Chains Peter Oosterveer 8. The Role of Regime Actors in Sustainability Transitions: An Application of the MLP-Methodology in the Dutch Food Sector Mariëtte van Amstel, Suzanne van der Pijll, Gert Spaargaren 9. Reshaping the Foodscape: The Role of Alternative Food Networks Dirk Roep and Johannes S.C. Wiskerke 10. Reflexive Design for Sustainable Animal Husbandry: Mediating Between Niche and Regime A.P. (Bram) Bos, Sierk F. Spoelstra, Peter W.G. Groot Koerkamp, Karel H. de Greef and Onno N.M. van Eijk 11. Out of the Factory and into the Fish Pond: Can Certification Transform Vietnamese Pangasius? Simon R. Bush and Ben Belton 12. Food Systems Under Pressure: Regulatory Instabilities and the Challenge of Sustainable Development Terry Marsden 13. Food Futures in the Making Gert Spaargaren, Anne Loeber and Peter Oosterveer