Takeaway food consumption and its geographies of responsibility in urban Guangzhou

ABSTRACT

with the development of e-commerce, the increase of smartphone users and the flourish of food delivery services, ordering takeaway food online has become popular among Chinese young adults during the past five years. However, this way of food consumption has brought about many social and environmental problems, such as the increase of household waste and the decline of family commensality. As a result, takeaway food consumption is often described as one of the least healthy and unethical ways of food consumption. This article explores what Chinese young people care about and how they understand and practice their socio-environmental responsibilities when consuming takeaway food in everyday life, drawing on the connotations of geographies of responsibility. The key findings of this article can advance the understanding of consumers’ geographies of care and responsibilities by rethinking how socio-environmental responsibilities are embedded in everyday practices. Throughout this empirical research, we suggest that scholars and policy-makers need to focus more on the complexities of care/caring and responsibility and the connections and negotiations between everyday responsibilities and the care for social and environmental issues at wider geographical scales.

KEYWORDS:

• Food consumption
• geographies of responsibility
• care
• young people
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. https://www.iimedia.cn/c400/62718.html.

2. http://www.iimedia.cn/60449.html.

3. The One Child Policy was a political birth planning programme in mainland China which was designed to control the size of thpopulation. It was implemented nationwide by the Chinese government between 1980 and 2015 in order to limit most Chinese married couples to one child each.

4. http://theory.people.com.cn/GB/40557/50412/index.html.

5. https://confuciusmag.com/no-leftovers-the-clear-your-plate-campaign-in-china.

Additional information

Funding

This research is funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number: 42001152] and Sun Yat-sen University [grant number: 20lgpy32].

Notes on contributors

Jiaxi Chen

Jiaxi Chen is a PhD student in the Department of Management, University of Bristol. His PhD project is on food waste and sustainable consumption in urban China.

Chen Liu

Chen Liu is an Associate Professor of Cultural Geography in the School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University. Her research interests include food consumption in everyday life, home and family and popular cultures in urban China. She has worked on several international and inter-disciplinary research projects about consumer culture and its consequences.