Supervision

Many studies on the food behaviour of different population groups are being published. It is not always clear whether and which theoretical concept or model underlies these studies. We supervise student theses that take a closer look at these studies and use different methods to shed light on how they are structured.

In food behavioural studies, often a subdivision between food and nutritionally conscious and unconscious people is made. We are interested in the basis of this distinction and what is actually understood by "food and nutritional consciousness" - both from the perspective of the researchers and from the perspective of the population.

Food and nutrition are omnipresent issues in society. Not only experts, but also everyday actors, publicly communicate about food and nutrition topics. We are interested in which actors gain interpretive power for which aspects of food and nutrition? On which communication platforms is food communicated and how? And what significance does this communication have for the food actions of individuals and specific groups?

Our food behaviour is related to our social and cultural environments. We are interested in how these environments shape our food behaviour (e.g., primary and secondary socialization, resocialization) and how changes in these environments affect our food behaviour (e.g., migration).

Social discourses on food and nutrition can tell us a lot about how aspects of food and nutrition are negotiated, perceived, and understood. Qualitative (e.g., content analysis or discourse analysis) and quantitative (e.g., corpus linguistic) analyses of food-related discourses on TV, newspapers, and magazines as well as on social media platforms offer endless research possibilities. Conducting quantitative online surveys also offers the possibility of collecting data on current issues flexibly and independently.

We also supervise theses that interface with other subject areas of Faculty 7 or other university departments.