This thesis takes a discursive-rhetorical approach to becoming vegetarian and vegan. Previous studies have pointed to complexity and variety in definitions, types and criteria of vegetarianism, making `objective' studies difficult. Meat is also one of the most highly prized but ambivalently valued foodstuffs. The cultural and social meanings of diet in terms of `identities' are well established but the rhetorical approach taken here explores identity as accomplished through social practices of accounting. Rather than seeing variation and disagreement as problematic, analytic focus is on the complex and varied construction of social categories/identities in accounts and the practices of justification and criticism. Cultural ambivalences are recast as dilemmas of identity and account-giving. Diary and serial interview `case-material' was collected from 23 new and aspiring vegetarians and vegans. Participants' accounts are shown to handle a number of dilemmatic aspects of vegetarian/vegan identity; notably, a dilemma of moral superiority and a dilemma of abstinence. These dilemmas are discussed in terms of stereotype-avoidance, commitment, and the co-construction of self and Other. Such identity-management is argued to fundamentally involve relationships. Seen as contexts, texts and resources for account-giving, relationships highlight both local and biographical elements in self-construction, the inter-dependence of selfnarratives/ identities and the need for managing them, especially when identities are changed. A number of other rhetorical resources and practices used in the management of identity are also drawn out, including the discourses of lapsing, desire and temptation and accounts of suppression and repression. The management of dilemmas of accounting through presenting the self as ambivalent, conflicted and divided is underlined. Following recent work by Billig (e. g., 1999a), ambivalence and repression are further considered as discursive activities as well as claims. This leads to a discussion of identity, contradiction and repression in terms of prohibition, desire and transgression. It is suggested that becoming vegetarian or vegan may be characterised as a matter of narrating autobiographical change and the continued negotiation of various dilemmas of identity. Social psychological theories of identity and identity change are criticised and the importance of argumentation, ambivalence and commitment are emphasised. The value of a more `populated' case-study perspective within discursive psychology is also stressed and the study of discursive avoidance and repression is illustrated and recommended.

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Denna rapport beskriver Johanna Hallqvists examensarbete om produktdesign och vegetarianism. Projektet har gått ut på att kombinera dessa ämnen och genom produktdesign som metod uppmuntra och underlätta för människor att äta och tillaga vegetarisk mat. Detta för att köttindustrin har en negativ påverkan på miljön och för att djur behandlas illa. Projektet har innefattat en litteraturstudie och en enkätundersökning för att analysera varför kött inte bör ätas samt för att undersöka hur situationen ser ut i Sverige idag. Vidare har en designprocess genomförts genom bland annat skissning, brainstorming och modellbygge. Resultatet blev ett groddkärl som ska underlätta groddning av bönor, linser och frön. Detta groddkärl kan vara en del i att uppmuntra användningen av dessa livsmedel och på så sätt minska klyftan mellan köttätare och vegetarianer. / This report describes Johanna Hallqvist’s thesis on product design and vegetarianism. The project has consisted of combining these topics and through using product design as a method to encourage and facilitate people to eat and cook vegetarian food. The reason for this is because the meat industry has a negative impact on the environment and the animals are abused. The project has included a literature review and a survey to analyze why meat should not be eaten and to explore what the situation in Sweden is like is today. Furthermore, a design process has been implemented through sketching, brainstorming and modeling and led to a product that will facilitate sprouting of beans, lentils and seeds. This sprouting vessel can be a part in encouraging the consumption of these foods and thereby reduce the gap between meat eaters and vegetarians.

No / Nineteenth-century Britain was one of the birthplaces of modern vegetarianism in the West. In 'Of Victorians and Vegetarians' James Gregory explores the relationship between this newly organized movement and wider culture and society. It evolved with a myriad of meanings and voices: partly for propagandist reasons, but also because of the varied motivations and characteristcs of vegetarians. Teetotallers, animal lovers, mystics, spiritualists and theosophists, as well as those who saw the diet as an effective and democratic medical treatment, all provided the constituents for a movement whose critics associated it with radicalism and faddism. Frequently counter-cultural, in its association with socialism and communitarianism throughout the period, vegetarianism also expressed in heightened form the already well-established values of self-help, philanthropy, thrift, Puritanism, domesticity and a belief in progress.

The thesis is an evaluation of a utilitarian argument for the permissibility of purchasing meat. The argument, which I call the replaceability argument, rests on four premises: 1. Meat purchases cause animals to be brought into existence. 2. The animals brought into existence by meat purchases live lives of positive final value. 3. If the first two premises are true, then meat purchases cause at least as good consequences as any alternative act. 4. If meat purchases cause at least as good consequences as any alternative act, then meat purchases are permissible. The first three premises are examined while the fourth one, representing consequentialism, is assumed to be true. The evaluation results in the conclusion that the argument is unsound because all of the premises evaluated turn out to be either doubtful or false.

This thesis moves beyond the traditional approaches of how we ought to treat animals, and instead concentrates on the best strategy for preventing animal suffering in the farming industry. Chapter 1 considers the question of how we can know that animals feel pain, and concludes not only that it is rational to believe that they can, but also that this is a significant fact. Chapter 2 then analyses one possible strategy for helping to prevent animal suffering, namely demi-vegetarianism. For a number of reasons, however, this strategy is found to be flawed, therefore Chapter 3 analyses a second possible strategy, namely vegetarianism, and concludes that this is, in fact, the best strategy for helping to prevent animal suffering in the farming industry.

The idea of the human as a rational man is deeply engrained into the thinking and the construction of the human culture within industrialized societies. It enables the domination and commodification of nonhuman species and the natural world (the Other). This has led to the creation of a highly technologized, industrialized and environmentally destructive food system. Such system centers around the production and consumption of meat whereas meat symbolizes the dominant culture. It stands for hegemonic masculinity, rationalism and the subordination of the Other. In the 1970s, the ethical vegetarian movement arose, tackling the environmental destruction from a non-anthropocentric angle. Although the movement has not achieved the value shift it asks for, it identified the commodification of the Other as majorly problematic.Today, human induced climate change puts increasing pressure on humanity. Without inherent social change and restructuring, global warming may cause the extinction of the human and many other species.That is why, a new generation of activists has arisen. They use the environmental vegetarian argument to abolish commodification. It is an anthropocentric argumentation that aims to replace the exploitative, violent rationalist and industrialized society with the creation of a compassionate society that lives temperate lives. Environmental vegetarianism becomes powerful because it threatens the dominant culture daily. It challenges hegemonic masculinity because it embraces feminine virtues which build the basis for an ethics of care that centers around compassion. The argument’s power is reinforced by the natural scientific argument the confirms the reduction of meat consumption as important for the counteraction of climate change.

Syftet med denna studie är att studera och analysera hur konsumenter hanterar shopping av vegetariska livsmedel i praktiken. För att svara på detta används en kvalitativ metod i form av12 individuella intervjuer. Studien har använt sig av ett urval på nio kvinnor och tre män i åldrarna 19-25, alla konsumenter av vegetariska livsmedel. Resultatet visar på att konsumentens kompetens, motivation och material påverkar och styr hur aktiviteten utförs. Vilken kompetens en person besitter påverkar attityden mot vegetariska substitut vilket i sin tur påverkar val av produkter. Det materiella landskapet spelar också en viktig roll när det kommer till vilka möjligheter en konsument har. Utbudet ökar ständigt vilket bidrar tillmöjlighet av flexiblare matmetoder samtidigt som samhället öppnas upp för en merväxtbaserad kost. Sociala medier har även kommit att bli ett viktigt hjälpmedel i det vegetariska samhället och bidrar med både information av produkter, recept men även kunskap om hur maten ska tillagas på rätt sätt. Avslutningsvis visar studien på att motiv spelaren allt större roll vid shopping än vad man tidigare pratat om. / The aim of this study is to study and analyze how consumers handle vegetarian shopping in practice. To answer this, a qualitative method in the form of 12 individual interviews is used. The study used a sample of nine women and three men age 19-25, all consumers of vegetarian foods. The results show that the consumer's competence, motivation and materials affect and control how the activity is carried out. What competence a person has affects the attitude towards vegetarian foods, which in turn affects the choice of products. The material landscape also plays an important role when it comes to what opportunities a consumer has. The growing range of plant-based food products contributes to the possibility of more flexible food methods, while society opens up for a more plant-based diet. Social media has also become an important tool in the vegetarian society and contributes with both information of products, recipes but also knowledge of how food should be prepared in the right way. The study also shows that motivation plays an increasingly important role in shopping than previously discussed.