Shaping Markets for Climate-Friendly Food Consumption: A Multi-Level Analysis of Market-Mediated Changes in Food Practices

This thesis explores how market-mediated discursive negotiations shape and interact in the tran-sition of consumption practices toward climate-friendly food systems. Rooted in consumer cul-ture theory (CCT) and market system dynamics (MSD), this research investigates macro-, meso- and micro-level actors’ co-construction of meanings and practices of climate-friendly eating. Empirically situated in a Danish context, the thesis bridges insights across consumers, media, and academic institutions, and illuminates the dynamic social processes through which the ide-als of planetary and individual health are co-constructed within the marketplace. Methodologically, the thesis adopts a pluralistic design combining quantitative content analysis, qualitative practice-based research, and integrative literature review. The triangulation method captures how discourses circulate between market levels and how they are negotiated in everyday food practices. Study I analyses 320 Danish newspaper articles to determine how the introduction of climate considerations in official dietary guidelines affects media representation of said guidelines. Findings show that climate inclusion reframes the media narrative from fo-cusing on individual health and responsibility towards the responsibility of food system stake-holders. Study II investigates how consumer households navigate practice frictions caused by the shift in societal discourse on climate-friendly food. Eight types of practice frictions emerge from the interaction between a new cultural understanding with materials, skills, rules, and tele-oaffective structures. Households respond through proto-practical and discursive strategies, illu-minating that friction endurance drives practice changes towards climate friendliness. Study III synthesizes 151 peer-reviewed articles to clarify the conceptual role of taste in climate-friendly food research. Through bibliometric and content analysis, the study proposes a taste taxonomy distinguishing gustatory, cultural, and gusta-cultural dimensions, providing conceptual clarity and avenues for future research. The three studies demonstrate that the market for climate-friendly food is co-constructed through the interplay of discursive power, multi-level actor legitimacy, and practice changes. The thesis shows that macro-level policies, such as dietary guidelines, formalize norms that meso-level intermediaries, media and academia, translate to the food context by co-opting do-mains from existing climate discourses, such as technological progress as the solution. At mi-cro-level, consumers reproduce, contest, or reinterpret these discourses through everyday prac-tices, reinforcing the notion that sustainable transformation emerges from market-mediated ne-gotiations rather than individual or institutional initiative alone. Theoretically, the thesis contributes to CCT and MSD by conceptualizing friction endur-ance as a productive mechanism in gradual practice transitions and by demonstrating how re-sponsibility is circulated through discursive negotiations across market levels. It extends the un-derstanding of transitions as cultural and communicative processes embedded in dynamic mar-ket relations, where stability and change coexist. Methodologically, it advances MSD research through a triangulated approach that links discourse and practice empirically across market lev-els. The thesis positions climate-friendly food transitions as contested, negotiated, and embodied phenomena, illuminating how discursive meanings, policy interventions, and social practices in-tertwine in shaping markets for climate-friendly consumption.