The paper addresses the issue of trust and its role in the development and handling of public controversies over the safety of food. The chapter begins with a brief discussion of the main socio-cultural perspectives on food consumption, risk, trust and policy legitimacy. Subsequently it describes the design of the sociological research and its main findings. Two rounds of focus groups were carried out in five countries (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK) in order to investigate the social and cultural dimensions of trust in relation to food issues, focusing particularly on safety and communication. The participants’ views of food safety and the related trust investments turn out to be remarkably multi-faceted in all countries. The meaning of safety encompasses much more than the mere absence of risk, and is embedded in a broader notion of quality. Safety considerations thus influence consumption choices indirectly, rather than in a straightforward manner, through concerns for quality, defined by several criteria and pursued by a number of buying strategies. Opinions on the different actors involved in the food chain, including regulatory and control agencies, are diverse, complex, and sometimes contradictory. Trust in the different actors of the food chain is largely absent, whereas a need for it is largely shared. In the impossibility of grounding trust on solid foundations, some participants develop attitudes of resignation, hope, a kind of “solipsistic self-reliance” or total distrust. Food scares do not seem to be the main or only source of anxiety and distrust, being perceived as the tip of an iceberg, suggesting structural problems in the food market. These are often judged as inevitable and partially unmanageable, being entrenched in the overall functioning of society. Consumption habits tend to change temporarily, rather than permanently, as a consequence of food scares, with some notable exceptions, depending partly on personal sense of agency. Negative judgments prevail as to the handling of information during and after food crises. From the participants’ comments, a number of indications are drawn for more effective risk communication and policy.
Trust : from hope to action
Pellizzoni, Luigi;
2006
Abstract
The paper addresses the issue of trust and its role in the development and handling of public controversies over the safety of food. The chapter begins with a brief discussion of the main socio-cultural perspectives on food consumption, risk, trust and policy legitimacy. Subsequently it describes the design of the sociological research and its main findings. Two rounds of focus groups were carried out in five countries (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK) in order to investigate the social and cultural dimensions of trust in relation to food issues, focusing particularly on safety and communication. The participants’ views of food safety and the related trust investments turn out to be remarkably multi-faceted in all countries. The meaning of safety encompasses much more than the mere absence of risk, and is embedded in a broader notion of quality. Safety considerations thus influence consumption choices indirectly, rather than in a straightforward manner, through concerns for quality, defined by several criteria and pursued by a number of buying strategies. Opinions on the different actors involved in the food chain, including regulatory and control agencies, are diverse, complex, and sometimes contradictory. Trust in the different actors of the food chain is largely absent, whereas a need for it is largely shared. In the impossibility of grounding trust on solid foundations, some participants develop attitudes of resignation, hope, a kind of “solipsistic self-reliance” or total distrust. Food scares do not seem to be the main or only source of anxiety and distrust, being perceived as the tip of an iceberg, suggesting structural problems in the food market. These are often judged as inevitable and partially unmanageable, being entrenched in the overall functioning of society. Consumption habits tend to change temporarily, rather than permanently, as a consequence of food scares, with some notable exceptions, depending partly on personal sense of agency. Negative judgments prevail as to the handling of information during and after food crises. From the participants’ comments, a number of indications are drawn for more effective risk communication and policy.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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