Lifeway alibis: The biographical bases for unruly bricolage

Abstract

The function of marketplace ideology to provide a framework that guides individuals' conduct as consumers is well recognised, though less is known about how individuals address, resist or reconcile themselves to such ideology. Drawing upon "lifeway alibis", assembled from a life course reading of de Certeauean tactics, this paper deepens our understanding of how the ideology of nutritionism is renegotiated in the context of dietary health to better accommodate individuals' life events, circumstances, and timing in lives. Based on interpretations of interview data, we argue that biographical matrices must be observed as principal facilitators for critical reflexivity beyond antagonistic and politico-collective motivations. Here, we consider critically reflexive behaviouror unruly bricolageto be organised around dynamic life experiences and circumstances rather than statically against marketplace ideology itself. This outlook prompts us to recognise biography as a catalyst for circumventing certain ideological mandates while the overall ideology remains perpetuated throughout circumvention.

Lunch of the last human: Nutritionally complete food and the fantasies of market-based progress

“…Within this detailed nutrient-by-nutrient fantasy structure, Huel which exists in its real, whole state as a mere powder is now available to be fetishized as something much more according to the value of easily appreciable signifiers like micro-, macro- and phytonutrients completely isolated from both one another and wider contexts. Authors such as Scrinis (2008) have referred to this as the ‘ideology of nutritionism’ and its interpellation of the ‘nutricentric’ subject, that is, the nutrition-conscious consumer whose requirements from food must be quantitatively identified, measured, and adhered to with scientific certainty (see also Cronin and Malone, 2019).…”

“…Authors such as Scrinis (2008: 46) have referred to this as the "ideology of nutritionism" and its interpellation of the "nutricentric" subject i.e. the nutrition-conscious consumer whose nutritional requirements must be quantitatively identified, measured, and adhered to with scientific certainty (see also Cronin and Malone, 2019).…”

“…Moreover, the market's response to problems of its own making has been to provide purchasable solutions that ‘commodify dieting as well as eating’ (Guthman, 2009: 191). This introduces a host of supplementary problems linked to the medicalization of food, moralizing discourses of calorie control and supposed dietetic normalities and reliance on industry-supported scientific orthodoxies that displace and undermine conventional wisdoms and traditional cuisines (Askegaard et al, 2014; Cronin and Malone, 2019; Scrinis, 2008). Moreover, the ideology of market-based progress promotes the consumption of products that have been commercially processed out of their whole state and bedecked with value-added health claims, such as fat-free, low-calorie, or zero-cholesterol varieties, rather than encouraging the decreased consumption of processed foods.…”

Bricolage in Scientific Research Practice: An Attempt at Grasping the Meaning of the Concept

“…-innovation, non-standardization and effectiveness of entrepreneurial activity (Baker & Nelson, 2005;Desa, 2012;Fisher, 2012;Stinchfield, Nelson & Wood, 2013, Illia & Zamparini, 2016; -the practice of making decisions on the choice of therapeutic strategies (Hester, 2005;Broom, 2009), dietary preferences (Cronin & Malone, 2018), gender and race-differentiated consumer and health-promoting behaviour (Russell & Tyler, 2005), decision making in organizational environments (Daipha, 2015); -providing healthcare in heterogeneous cultural, social, economic and political ecosystems of needs and expectations (Phillimore et al, 2018); -shaping both individual and collective religious identity (Saroglou, 2006;Christians, 2006) or the identity of football club members (Gutu, 2017); -economical aspects of international tourism (Baláž & Williams, 2005), geography of death and dying (Madge, 2017); -creating a group culture for children in the course of a sociodramatic play (Tam, 2012).…”

Powered by healthism? Marketing discourses of food and health

“…In a biopolitical age with much public focus on the linkage between the lifestyle, eating patterns and health conditions of various populations, this mitigation can easily conceal the fact that research for the greater good also carries with it its own ideological underpinning. Consequently, this particular application of marketing has been subject to less reflection of the ideological framing of its workings (though see Askegaard et al , 2014 and Cronin and Malone, 2019 for rare exceptions). Our work here represents an attempt to alleviate that by looking at the marketing research in food and health, particularly focussing on the presence of the contemporary discursive and practical role of health ideology, known as healthism (Crawford, 1980, 2006).…”