What does the… Professorship for Food Sociology… actually do?

What specifically are you researching at the new faculty in Kulmbach?

"At the Junior Professorship of Food Sociology, we deal with the social and cultural aspects of food actions and nutrition. Our food actions are always related to the social and cultural conditions and frameworks in which we grow up and live. We investigate how these framework conditions arise, how they change over time and how they guide and direct our actions. Our particular focus is on societal communication about food and nutrition and how certain socio-cultural patterns emerge in and through it, which guide our food actions. By analysing societal food communication, we want to understand how and why certain food-related ways of thinking and acting become established, and deduce how other, for example healthier or more sustainable ones, can be promoted."

What do you see as the benefits of this research?

"Food sociology looks at the permanent changes in society and considers them in the analysis and interpretation of our food actions. This makes it possible to derive new explanatory approaches for food action and to critically reflect on current practice, for example, with regard to the promotion of healthy and sustainable diets, against the background of current events. Measures to promote healthy and sustainable diets can only be successful if people see them as legitimate and acceptable, and perceive them as feasible. This is where we try to identify starting points though our research and would like to contribute to deriving successful and innovative strategies for health and sustainability promotion."

Do you cooperate with companies or public institutions in the region? With which ones and in what way?

"In teaching, we have already visited GesundheitsregionPlus in Kulmbach, which gave us an insight into the practice of community health promotion. We also visited the Caspar-Vischer-Gymnasium in Kulmbach to give pupils an insight into food sociology. In the interest of future research projects and networking among students, we are in exchange with the Upper Franconia Nutrition Council, especially the Kulmbach regional group. Further cooperations will follow in both teaching and research. Kulmbach still has a lot of untapped potential for cooperation in terms of business and culture in the field of food and nutrition."