Vegan on a low budget: enacting identity through cuisine in an internet community

Veganism, cuisine, and class: exploring taste as a facilitator in adopting a vegan lifestyle in Santiago, Chile

“…Contrary the compelling evidence in the United States regarding the association between upper-class and vegan habitus dispositions, and the existing difficulties for lower-class vegans, Giacoman et al ( 2023a ) carried out a study on a Chilean online community, revealing different results. The study describes the existence of a poor vegan habitus in Chile, highlighting how people manage to intersect their habitus of origin with the vegan one.…”

“…Reckwitz ( 2002 ) defines practices as routinized types of behavior comprising various interconnected elements: bodily and mental activities, the use of objects, underlying knowledge in the form of understanding, know-how, emotional states, and motivational knowledge. Therefore, we propose that vegan eating practices are an interaction of the primary class habitus with current vegan dispositions (Giacoman et al, 2023a ).…”

“…Although there are similar trajectories in adopting veganism, the social class of origin introduces nuances in the conversion process to this lifestyle (Giacoman et al, 2021 ). In another publication focusing on an online community of a low-budget vegan, the authors and colleagues show that the formation of the vegan habitus there is a process of individual construction that brings this new habitus into dialogue with its class dispositions of origin (Giacoman et al, 2023a ).…”

“…This mixture is visible in its characteristic ingredients that include potatoes, pumpkin, corn, beans, onion, and garlic, among others, present in several of its emblematic dishes such as cazuela (stew) or humita (tamal; Montecinos Aguirre, 2005 ). Meat is present in various dishes, but some preparations use only vegetables, such as porotos granados (bean and corn soup) and the humitas mentioned above (Giacoman et al, 2023a ). Finally, it is worth mentioning that in Chile, meat consumption is frequent in all social groups, although it is in the lowest income quintile where we find a higher consumption of legumes (Crovetto, 2002 ).…”

“…Countering this view, some authors have shown that veganism also develops outside of elites and that non-privileged vegans have specific ways of practicing veganism (Greenebaum, 2018 ; Giacoman et al, 2023a ). Aligned with this critical position, this work shows that there are favorable dispositions in all social groups toward a transition to veganism, however, these dispositions will vary according to the habitus of the individuals' social class of origin.…”