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Abstract
The construction of convenience food as a social and cultural category for food provisioning, cooking and eating seems to slide between or across understandings of what is considered “proper food” in the existing discourses in everyday life and media. This article sheds light upon some of the social and cultural normativities around convenience food by describing the ways in which convenience food forms part of the daily life of young Danes. Theoretically, the article is based on a practice theoretical perspective. Empirically, the article builds upon a qualitative research project on food habits among Danes aged 20–25. The article presents two types of empirical patterns. The first types of patterns are the degree to which and the different ways in which convenience food is normalised to use among the young Danes. The second types of patterns are the normative places of convenient food in the everyday lives of young Danes.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Frej Daniel Hertz who was a research assistant at the “Easy eating?” project. I would also like to thank Helene Brembeck, Peter Jackson and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments to earlier drafts.
Notes
This article was originally published with errors. This version has been corrected. Please see Corrigendum (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2017.1265835).
1. Thanks to Rafi Grosglik and Monica Truninger from the RN on Sociology of Consumption under the European Sociological Association for this point when they were commenting on an earlier oral presentation of the results from “Easy eating?”.
2. Methodologically, I handle this by using the Danish term nem mad (“easy food”), which is almost synonymous with “convenient” provisioning, cooking, eating and food.
3. The research project is called FOCAS (Food, convenience and sustainability) and is EU-funded with teams from four countries (Denmark, Germany, Sweden and the UK). It is headed by Peter Jackson (http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/focas/home).
4. For those interested in this, see Halkier, Katz-Gerro, and Martens (Citation2011), Shove, Pantzar, and Watson (Citation2012) and Warde (Citation2005, Citation2014).
5. The region Zealand is situated in the East of Denmark and covers farmland, villages and a large number of smaller provincial towns west and south of the national capital Copenhagen.
6. The interviews and focus groups are in Danish, and the analysis was done in Danish too. Quotes have been translated into English.
7. Hash is “biksemad” in Danish or “pyt-i-panna” in Swedish, a dish of roasted leftover meat, potatoes and onions, often served with fried eggs.
8. All names are pseudonyms.
9. The three categories of course overlap to a certain degree.
10. Tebirkes is a Danish version of croissants, but with more butter in the dough and a sugary filling.
11. One obvious other dynamic is in relation to the media use of young people, and how convenience food is a part of this.
12. The other one agreed upon was a protein bar.
13. The different food categories all come out of the mundane narratives and negotiations in the interviews and focus groups while participants were describing their food routines and their use of “convenient” food. Towards the end of such narratives, I would always also prompt the participants to explain what they felt was good food and bad food.