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Article
Publication date: 6 March 2020

Pro-veganism on Instagram: Effects of user-generated content (UGC) types and content generator types in Instagram-based health marketing communication about veganism

Joe Phua, S. Venus Jin and Jihoon (Jay) Kim

Through two experiments, this study assessed source and message effects of Instagram-based pro-veganism messages.

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Abstract

Purpose

Through two experiments, this study assessed source and message effects of Instagram-based pro-veganism messages.

Design/methodology/approach

Experiment 1 (N = 294) examined effects of organization (brand vs nonprofit) and message types (egoistic vs altruistic) on consumer responses to Instagram-based pro-veganism content. Experiment 2 (N = 288) examined effects of source type (celebrity vs noncelebrity) and message valence (positive vs negative) on consumer responses to Instagram-based pro-veganism content.

Findings

Results demonstrated significant main effects of organization type, with consumers indicating more positive attitudes and higher credibility toward the brand. Significant main effects of message type were also found, with altruistic messages eliciting higher perceived information value than egoistic messages. Subjective norms had moderating effects on attitude toward the organization, while attitude toward veganism had moderating effects on perceived information value. Results also indicated significant main effects of message valence on perceived information value of pro-veganism Instagram posts and significant interaction effects of the two manipulated factors on intention to spread electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) about pro-veganism.

Originality/value

Implications for use of Instagram-based health marketing communication about veganism were discussed. Specifically, organizations looking to use social media to influence attitudes and behavioral intentions toward health issues should seek to reach their target audiences through selecting endorsers and messages that will optimally present the health issue in a relatable and engaging way.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 44 no. 3
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-06-2019-0213
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

  • Instagram
  • Veganism
  • For-profit vs nonprofit organizations
  • Egoistic vs altruistic values
  • Celebrity
  • Message valence

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Article
Publication date: 30 June 2020

The vegan shift in the Australian animal movement

Nick Pendergrast

This article explores the different ways in which the vegan turn within the animal advocacy movement in Australia has played out for two organisations, Animal Liberation…

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Abstract

Purpose

This article explores the different ways in which the vegan turn within the animal advocacy movement in Australia has played out for two organisations, Animal Liberation Victoria (ALV) and Animals Australia. Previous research has found that this promotion of veganism has occurred to varying degrees for different organisations and this article will analyse some of these variations in greater depth, drawing on the sociological theory of resource mobilisation.

Design/methodology/approach

This article provides a case study on the campaigning of ALV and Animals Australia on the issue of the dairy industry, as well as an overview of their histories, with a focus on the changing level of vegan campaigning over time. In order to explore this issue, this article will draw on the campaigning materials of the organisations studied, a wide range of academic literature and interviews with key figures from both of these organisations.

Findings

Larger organisations have a limited ability to regularly promote a vegan message due to their need to bring in a large amount of resources to sustain costs such as their office costs and paid staff. It is more grassroots organisations that have far greater scope to consistently and strongly promote a vegan message, although they reach fewer people.

Social implications

The increasing uptake of veganism will have important implications for animals as well as for human health and the environment. The environmental benefits of veganism become even more significant in light of the urgent need to tackle the substantial threat of climate change.

Originality/value

This article is a contribution to the expanding field of critical animal studies as well as to the literature on sociology and animals. It builds on the limited amount of existing sociological literature on vegan activism and contributes an analysis in Australian context.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-08-2019-0161
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

  • Activism
  • Social movements
  • Veganism
  • Resource mobilization theory
  • Nonprofit
  • Animal rights

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Article
Publication date: 29 June 2020

Religions going nuts? Faith-based veganism and transformative learning in the context of sustainability transitions (case 1: The Hare Krishna movement)

Tamas Lestar

This paper is based on several years of ethnographic and desk-based research studying the Hare Krishna movement. The work is the first in a series exploring how segments…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper is based on several years of ethnographic and desk-based research studying the Hare Krishna movement. The work is the first in a series exploring how segments of specific faith communities embrace dietary veganism and how this relates to the concept of transformational learning/change in the context of sustainability transitions. The focus is on how these communities embrace a plant-based diet representing different rationales and attitudes of learning in the process of organisational change.

Design/methodology/approach

I investigated Krishna practices extensively by visiting and volunteering in several of its farm communities in Europe. I used the mixed method of qualitative observations, participation, in-depth interviews and email interviews during a period of ten weeks spent in the communities altogether. I had not been in contact with Hare Krishna believers before the fieldwork.

Findings

Krishna veganism is analysed in the context of sustainability transitions by drawing on the concept of transformative (third-order) learning/change. Findings reveal an unexpected tendency to veganism despite the movement's worldview and radical commitment to dairy consumption. By calling into question their own collective dietary paradigm, the Hare Krishna community provides an exemplary case of third-order learning and change in an organisational context.

Originality/value

The paper invites scholars to include third-order learning into sustainability transitions frameworks while aiming to address the shortcomings of theorising levels of learning. The connection between Krishna veganism, third-order learning and sustainability transitions has not been put forward before.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 33 no. 5
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-09-2019-0274
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

  • Transformative learning
  • Veganism
  • Transformative change
  • Triple loop learning
  • Krishna
  • Third order learning

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Article
Publication date: 24 January 2020

Vegan stories: revealing archetypes and their moral foundations

Julie Napoli and Robyn Ouschan

This study aims to identify the archetypes, moral foundations and plots associated with veganism through the stories told by vegan bloggers and the effect on mainstreaming…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to identify the archetypes, moral foundations and plots associated with veganism through the stories told by vegan bloggers and the effect on mainstreaming of this ideology.

Design/methodology/approach

Narrative data was collected from 15 publicly available vegan blogs. Underlying archetypes, morals and story plots were identified and presented as a “story re-told,” highlighting the context and content of what was being said by the protagonists and associated meanings.

Findings

The analysis revealed three moral foundations on which vegan ideology is built: sanctity of life, enacting the authentic self and freedom. A universal hero archetype was also unearthed; however, the moral orientation of the storyteller (agency vs communal) dictated how these morals and archetypes were expressed.

Research limitations/implications

Through the use of common story archetypes, master plots and moral foundations, a deeper understanding of vegans and the choices they make is facilitated, thus making vegan ideology appear less threatening. Storytelling plays an important role in establishing connections through commonality.

Originality/value

This study applies cultivation theory, storytelling analysis and archetype theory to reveal how vegan bloggers counteract mass media cultivation of vegan stereotypes through the stories they tell. We offer a more robust description of vegans, moving beyond stereotypes, and the morals driving behavior. Moreover, a unique mechanism of mainstreaming is exposed that shows vegans connect with people by tapping into universal archetypes and morals that anyone can relate to and relive.

Details

Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/QMR-06-2018-0064
ISSN: 1352-2752

Keywords

  • Storytelling
  • Moral foundations
  • Archetype analysis
  • Veganism

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Article
Publication date: 23 March 2020

The individualization of political activism: A reflection on social movements and modernization, starting from the case of Italian animal advocacy

Niccolò Bertuzzi

The study aims to investigate a relevant topic, but still underestimated by sociological studies: animal advocacy, namely, the organized interest in non-human animals'…

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Abstract

Purpose

The study aims to investigate a relevant topic, but still underestimated by sociological studies: animal advocacy, namely, the organized interest in non-human animals' life, rights and well-being. The Italian case is discussed, with a twofold objective: to highlight the evolution of some repertoires of contention and to use this study to analyze the changes of contemporary collective mobilizations and their relation with the modernization process.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis is based on an online survey (704 responses nationwide), 24 semi-structured interviews with relevant members of groups and associations and a protest event analysis. Furthermore, a vast empirical archive and some academic studies concerning Italian animal advocacy in its historical dimension have been consulted.

Findings

The paper underlines the current specificities of Italian animal advocacy, compared to past decades. The great importance assumed by personal action frames and repertoires of contention emerged as characterizing elements. Activism is always more individual and less related to collective organizations: the central role of veganism and of the internet as protest tool is underlined. Both the increasing possibilities offered by better discursive opportunities structure, but also the possible incorporation of more radical frames within consumer market dynamics emerged from the interviews and the survey.

Originality/value

The phenomenon of animal advocacy (and, more generally, the activities of contemporary social movements) is contextualized within some typical characteristics of modernity, looking both at structural “opportunities” (e.g.: the diffusion of post-materialist values) and “constraints” (e.g.: veganwashing operations). Based on previous definitions coming from social movements studies and following a debate hosted by this journal, the role of collective organizations and especially the centrality assumed by individual activism is critically analyzed, evaluating the new possibilities, but also the possible negative sides. Not only cultural changes, but also political and legal contexts matter. In this sense, both a focus on Italy and more general reflections on western modernities are proposed, trying to go beyond animal advocacy and reflecting on social movements and collective mobilizations more widely.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 40 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-09-2019-0180
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

  • Individualization
  • Collective action
  • Social movements
  • Veganism
  • Resource mobilization theory
  • Animal rights movement

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Article
Publication date: 9 March 2020

Are vegetarianism and veganism just half the story? Empirical insights from Switzerland

Stefan Mann and Raluca Necula

Per capita meat consumption in Switzerland has been rather consistent for decades, although the percentage of vegetarians has risen to 14 per cent according to a recent…

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Abstract

Purpose

Per capita meat consumption in Switzerland has been rather consistent for decades, although the percentage of vegetarians has risen to 14 per cent according to a recent survey. This study tries to resolve this apparent contradiction

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on household consumption data from Switzerland and focuses on the distribution of consumption rather than on average amounts, using descriptive statistics and a mixed-effects model which explains the coefficient of variation between single consumer consumption amounts.

Findings

Vegetarianism and veganism are not only overestimated through surveys but also associated with a segment of the population that is consuming increasing amounts of meat. This dual development leads to a stable per capita meat consumption.

Originality/value

Our results indicate that greater scientific attention should be paid to this segment of heavy meat eaters.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 122 no. 4
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-07-2019-0499
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

  • Meat
  • Vegetarians
  • Veganism
  • Distribution of consumption

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Article
Publication date: 10 October 2016

(Extra)ordinary activism: veganism and the shaping of hemeratopias

Véron Ophélie

Literature on social movements increasingly identifies everyday life as significant to understand political practices and activism. However, scholars have retained a major…

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Abstract

Purpose

Literature on social movements increasingly identifies everyday life as significant to understand political practices and activism. However, scholars have retained a major bias towards movement mobilisation and collective action, often relegating the everyday at the margins of social movements. While there have been notable exceptions, with studies of prefigurative activism and everyday practices of social change, they have usually focussed on alternative community spaces such as autonomous social centres and protest camps, and paid less attention to “ordinary” practices and spaces of activism. The purpose of this paper is to address these problems by suggesting that everyday life may be central to the production of activist spaces and the action of social movements.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing upon ethnography methods, interviews with vegan activists, an on-line survey of supporters of vegan movements and an examination of on-line vegan forums, it seeks to analyse the practices of the vegan movement in France.

Findings

This paper attempts to demonstrate that prefigurative activism and seemingly banal practices may be central to strategies for social change. Drawing on an anarchist perspective on activism, it further suggests that activism and everyday life should not be studied in isolation from each other but as mutually constitutive in the creation of everyday alternative spaces – hemeratopias.

Originality/value

This paper adds to the literature on activism and social movements by offering a more complex picture of the spatial politics at work in social movements and a better understanding of individual action and mobilisation.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 36 no. 11/12
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-12-2015-0137
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

  • Social movements
  • Activism
  • Anarchism
  • Everyday
  • Veganism

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Article
Publication date: 1 April 1991

Vegetarianism, Veganism, and Meat Avoidance: Recent Trends and Findings

A.D. Beardsworth and E.T. Keil

The main findings of a detailed qualitative study of themotivations, beliefs and attitudes of practising vegetarians and vegansare reported. It is concluded that…

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Abstract

The main findings of a detailed qualitative study of the motivations, beliefs and attitudes of practising vegetarians and vegans are reported. It is concluded that vegetarianism, while remaining very much a minority option, is increasing steadily in the UK population, although the rate of increase appears to vary by such factors as age, gender and socio‐economic category. Those who opt for a non‐meat‐eating dietary pattern may well represent the vanguard of a form of ethical consumerism to which food producers, processors and retailers will need to be increasingly responsive in the near future.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 93 no. 4
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/00070709110135231
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

  • Consumer behaviour
  • Diet
  • Meat
  • Vegetarians

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Article
Publication date: 4 July 2008

Asceticism and hedonism in research discourses of veg*anism

Matthew Cole

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the dominance of an ascetic discourse of veg*anism in social research literature, and to relate it to a dominant…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the dominance of an ascetic discourse of veg*anism in social research literature, and to relate it to a dominant hierarchical ordering of Western diets (to refer collectively to veganism and vegetarianism).

Design/methodology/approach

A review of the extant social research literature on veg*anism was undertaken in order to discern whether a consistent type of descriptive language existed. This facilitated an understanding of the way in which that language is constitutive of research generated understandings of veg*anism.

Findings

An ascetic discourse of veg*anism is dominant in social research. This is reflected in the phraseology used by authors. Typical descriptive terms of a veg*an diet include “strict”, “restrictive”, or “avoidance”. This ascetic discourse reproduces the hierarchical ordering of Western diets such that veg*anism is denigrated and made to seem “difficult” and abnormal.

Research limitations/implications

Veg*anism arguably promises multiple benefits for human, environmental, and nonhuman animal well‐being. The potential to realize those benefits is hampered by the perpetuation of an understanding of veg*anism as an ascetic practice.

Originality/value

This paper provides the first comprehensive examination of the language used to describe veg*anism within social research. It can enhance reflexivity on the part of social researchers interested in veg*anism, and help inform research design. In providing an alternative hedonic discourse of veg*anism, this paper also makes a contribution towards realizing the potential benefits of veg*anism through making it a more attractive dietary practice.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 110 no. 7
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/00070700810887176
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

  • Veganism
  • Diet
  • Western hemisphere
  • Hierarchical control
  • Sociology

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Article
Publication date: 17 June 2020

From diet to behaviour: exploring environmental- and animal-conscious behaviour among Austrian vegetarians and vegans

Ursula Ploll and Tobias Stern

Vegetarian and vegan dietary practices have recently moved from being marginal activities to occupying a more mainstream position. While the reasons for this have been…

Open Access
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Abstract

Purpose

Vegetarian and vegan dietary practices have recently moved from being marginal activities to occupying a more mainstream position. While the reasons for this have been analysed by many researchers, the extent to which the underlying motives may influence other behavioural contexts remains relatively unexplored. The present research thus analyses the degree to which vegetarians and vegans also act in an environmental and animal-conscious manner.

Design/methodology/approach

A self-administered survey was conducted among omnivores, conscientious omnivores, vegetarians and vegans in Austria. The research design is embedded in an extended version of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). A mixed-mode sampling strategy resulted in 556 completed surveys.

Findings

The TPB correlation analysis shows that there are significant relations between dietary motives, subjective norms, attitudes, behavioural intentions and the behaviour in question. When considering all dietary groups, the results indicate that the differentiation in behaviour is impacted by dietary identity: the stricter the diet, the stronger the behaviour related to animal-wellbeing and environmental protection.

Originality/value

First, this research evaluated motivational drivers through a pairwise comparison, which resulted in strength factors instead of single motivational driver. Second and foremost, this research draws a connection between dietary categories and the wider behavioural implications related to these identities and their underlying motivational drivers.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 122 no. 11
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-06-2019-0418
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

  • Vegetarianism
  • Veganism
  • Behaviour
  • Motives
  • Theory of planned behaviour

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