Unmaking meat – Transforming social practices

PhD student
Minna Kanerva

Supervisor
Ines Weller

Description
This project examines meat eating as an obdurate, but nonetheless changing social practice, focusing on discourses reflecting the processes taking place at the collective level. The new meatways (cultured and plant-based meats, insects, flexitarianism) are argued to have agency, already disrupting the meat system as we know it, even if this is not yet reflected in the consumption of conventional meat. The disruption caused by the alternatives is important in several respects. These ‘new meats’ change the meanings related to meat, reduce strategic ignorance related to eating animals, bring meat eating practices to discursive consciousness, and open them up discursively. As a result, intrinsic values (related to sustainable behaviours) can become more salient, and therefore, have an impact on behaviour, over other values competing for attention and impact on our daily practices. This research aims to contribute to the understanding of the process of transforming social practices in general, and the meat system in particular.