PhD project Ongoing dissertation complements my licentiate thesis "Animal rights veganism. Social movement. Identity. Lifestyle" (2004).
How is vegan gastronomy made? Considering this overall question, the current project develops the study conducted in the field of ethnology between the years 1996–2004, which focused on an arena that crystallized in Umea during the 1990s. It is a place and period when interest in animal ethics increased significantly, which led many young people to join the animal rights movement and began to identify themselves as vegans.
The project Vegan gastronomy is mainly based on interviews and deepens the meal culture perspective to investigate contexts in which social and cultural aspects of vegan food and vegan meals are made particularly clear. Two arenas are being studied. The first arena is represented by professional chefs and other food personalities with experience in planning, preparing, and serving plant-based meals in a commercial context. The second arena consists of food influencers who, through accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok, profile themselves in relation to vegan cuisine.
Through an in-depth study of these three arenas all together, but separated in time and space, it is possible to see important shifts in meanings within the vegan food landscape, but also aspects that are like.
