Hoiva ruokahävikin vähentämisen arkisissa käytännöissä

Abstract

This article explores the ways through which care manifests in everyday food waste reduction practices. The article is positioned within a more-than-human approach, which emphasises blurred ontological and epistemological boundaries among and across (assemblages of) humans, nonhumans, things and issues (re)forming sociomaterial worlds. Drawing empirical insights from (n)ethnographic materials that have been generated in an ongoing research project focusing on consumers as active reducers of food waste, the article discusses three overlapping ways (labour/work, affect/affection and ethics/politics) through which we care for and live with food waste in both research and everyday life. Labour/work entails hands-on relations with food (waste), wherein food is understood as an active participant in the reduction practices. In affective practices, food waste reduction is closely attached to our bodies (and other bodies) as well as the senses of sight, touch and smell. Through ethico-political doings, food waste reduction becomes a collective issue, encompassing, for instance, gendered division of labour. The article argues for understanding food waste as a matter of care and maps out the consequences of such understanding for environmental-political agency.