Thesis subject

Discursive framings of meat reduction among young adults (focus group)

Advancing more plant-based diets is one of the major challenges in the transition to more sustainable food systems. However, the design of effective interventions depends on the availability of detailed knowledge on how specific target groups frame issues around meat consumption and the discursive strategies they employ to bolster their position. Young adults as future household decision-makers represent a critical target group in a dynamically changing field.

Goal?

The aim of this thesis proposal is to identify the “hotspots” in young adults’ individual and collective thinking and arguing about meat reduction measures. These insights can help to inform future intervention research on this topic and in this age group.

How?

The student working on this thesis will review the available literature on discourses around meat consumption and extract main arguments, framings, and discourse figures. Based on these insights, the student will conduct focus groups with young adults to identify the salience and dynamics of discourses around meat consumption in this specific age group in a Dutch context.

What’s in it for you?

You will be able to synthesize existing works and add new insights based on primary empirical research on a topic of great relevance for sustainable consumption and food transition efforts. This thesis project will also help you to develop your skillsets in discourse analysis and interviewing.

Who?

You are familiar with using scientific databases and reading scientific papers. You are a well-organized person with a general interest in discourses, ideally on the topic of this thesis. You are interested in learning new data collection and analysis procedures and have ideally some previous experiences in discourse analysis or other qualitative data collection and analyses approaches.

What else?

Depending on the quality of the final work, the thesis could be further developed into a scientific paper submission to an academic journal.