title: "He just has to like ham" - The centrality of meat in home and consumer studies.
abstract: This study aimed to describe Discourses on meat in the school subject Home and Consumer Studies in five different northern Swedish schools. Fifty-nine students and five teachers from five different schools were recorded and in some cases video-taped during lessons. Results indicate that meat was seen as central to nutritional health, sensory experience, culture and social relationships. This positive view was challenged by an alternative Discourse where meat was threatening to health, sensory experience and psychological comfort, but this was not strong enough to affect centrality. Even when participants sought to promote the health advantages of reducing meat consumption, the dominant centrality Discourse was strengthened. This implies that the possible tension between physical and psychosocial/emotional health can make the benefits of a reduction difficult both to convey and accept. A form of critical food literacy may help teachers deconstruct the arbitrary power of the centrality Discourse, but it may also strengthen meat-eater identities because the social norms that guide food choice become salient. A redesign of Discourses might facilitate a reduction in meat consumption, but such a paradigm shift is dependent on the development of society as a whole, and can only be briefly touched upon within the limited time frames and resources of Home and Consumer Studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food and Nutrition, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. Electronic address: ingela.bohm@umu.se.
authors.forename: Ingela
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bohm
authors.affiliation: Department of Food and Nutrition, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. Electronic address: cecilia.lindblom@umu.se.
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lindblom
authors.affiliation: Vasa Faculty of Education, Åbo Akademi University, Vasa, Finland. Electronic address: gabacka@abo.fi.
authors.forename: Gun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Åbacka
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. Electronic address: carita.bengs@umu.se.
authors.forename: Carita
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bengs
authors.affiliation: Department of Food and Nutrition, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. Electronic address: agneta.hornell@umu.se.
authors.forename: Agneta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hörnell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003479:Curriculum; D005178:Faculty; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat; D066262:Social Norms; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D013548:Sweden
keywords: Critical food literacy; Discourse analysis; Health education; Home economics