Katherine O'Doherty Jensen

Meals and snacks from the child's perspective: the contribution of qualitative methods to the development of dietary interventions.

OBJECTIVE To explore the everyday consumption of meals and snacks from the childs perspective, among those with healthier v. less healthy dietary habits. DESIGN The sample in this qualitative study comprised two groups of Danish schoolchildren aged 10 to 11 years, one with a healthier diet (n 9) and the other with a less healthy diet (n 8). Both groups were recruited from respondents to a dietary survey. Semi-structured interviews took their starting point in photographs of their meals and snacks taken by the children themselves. RESULTS Both subgroups of children had a meal pattern with three main meals and two to four snacks. We found a connection between the nutritional quality of the diet and the social contexts of consumption, especially with regard to snacks. Among children with healthier eating habits, both snacks and meals tended to be shared social events and items of poor nutritional quality functioned as markers of a special social occasion. This was not the case among children with less healthy eating habits. All children described particular rules governing food consumption within their families. Although only some of them had participated in the development of these rules, and despite the fact that rules were different and were perceived as having been developed for different reasons, children from both subgroups tended to accept them. CONCLUSIONS The results of the study suggest that dietary interventions designed to promote childrens health should focus more on the different social contexts of consumption and more on the role of parents.

Consumer acceptance of the New Nordic Diet. An exploratory study

With direct reference to New Nordic Cuisine and Nordic dietary recommendations, the OPUS Research Centre in Denmark is developing and testing a healthy, regional New Nordic Diet (NND) that promises to have outstanding gastronomic properties. The NND is disseminated to Danish consumers with a view to improving public health. To explore the acceptability of the NND to consumers, a qualitative study comprising focus groups, home-testing of NND prototype meals and personal interviews was conducted in urban and rural areas (N=38). Most participants, particularly women and residents in urban areas, are positive towards the ideas underlying the development of this new diet and enjoy the taste and appearance of NND meals. Barriers to acceptance include the untraditional formats of NND meals, the time needed to prepare them, the unfamiliarity of ingredients, perceived problems regarding product availability, reservations about the elitist character of this project and unwillingness to exclude non-Nordic dishes on an everyday basis. The study concludes that several social and cultural barriers must be overcome if the NND shall constitute a source of improved public health. The pursuit of this objective could more fruitfully take its point of departure in in-depth consideration of existing food practices among Danish consumers.

The Stability and Instability of Organic Expenditures in Denmark, Great Britain, and Italy

This article concerns demand for organic foods in 3 European countries: Denmark, Great Britain, and Italy. Based on extensive sets of household panel data we categorize households into 4 groups according to their levels of organic consumption. Importance of sociodemographics is estimated by applying multinomial logit models. In all 3 countries a high organic consumption is mainly found among the more well-situated households in urban areas. Although the relative size of the user groups is fairly stable over time, we find variation in the organic consumption of individual households.

Living with the New Nordic Diet

Purpose – Based on New Nordic Cuisine and Nordic dietary recommendations, the research centre OPUS has developed a healthy, sustainable and tasty New Nordic Diet (NND) with the goal of improving public health in Denmark. In order to determine the health potential of the NND, a six-month, controlled dietary intervention trial was conducted, in which participants procured NND foods at a specially designed intervention supermarket and prepared and consumed NND meals in their homes. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative sociological study was conducted among intervention participants in order to explore whether and how they appropriated this diet into their everyday food practices. Findings – Participants appropriated the NND by becoming co-producers of this diet, tailoring it to accord with individual preferences and the demands of everyday life. Findings indicate that while the taste of the NND is likely to appeal to wider groups of consumers, the tasks of food ...

Performative metaphor in cultural practices: the case of physical chemistryGraf- og Modelforståelse

In chapter 5, Juan Carlos Mendoza Collazos presents an overview of a new approach to signification, known as agentive semiotics, that “links achievements of logic, phenomenology and cognitive sciences” (Nino 2015). As the author states, this clearly aligns this approach with cognitive semiotics. Similarly, agentive semiotics is influenced by enactivism, though it takes a more specific stand on the notion of agency, defining an agent as a being that is animate, situated, and capable of paying attention. This means that artifacts for example only have derived agency, that is, a kind of agency that has been assigned by agents proper, which in the case of artifacts means designers. The bulk of the chapter applies the theory of agentive semiotics precisely to the semiotics of artifact design. Unlike traditional semiotic design analysis, the agentive approach implies focus not on the artifacts themselves, but on acts of production and response. Artifacts have significance (a network of potential responses) and signification (“the actual response an agent activates”), thus paralleling (one version of) the distinction between semantics and pragmatics. The chapter makes a strong case for the application of the theoretical corpus of agentive semiotics to design practice, allowing new insights into the actions and experiences of designers and users. Notions such as agenda, per-agenda, agentive scene, etc. are clearly explained and illustrated, showing how theoretical and “applied” cognitive semiotics can intermix. (Less)

Book Reviews : Monica B. Morris: An Excursion into Creative Sociology, Columbia University Press, New York 1977. 212 pp

nations in less than thirty pages of Sociobiology a real Procrustean feat! What strikes me most in Wilson’s arguments, and in the biological interpretation of human societies in general, is the extreme looseness of the conjectures. This is best shown when one tries in vain to make predictions about societies on the basis of the ’biological’ theories. However, sociobiologists are bold enough to make even a prediction about sociology: according to Wilson, sociology will in future be a branch of sociobiology, i.e. sociology will be absorbed by biology! t