Changing eating practices in france and great britain: Evidence from time-use data and implications for direct energy demand

Abstract

In the global challenge to reduce energy consumption, appeals to change behaviour tend to ignore the fabric of everyday life as it has been, as it changes and how this relates to energy consumption. In this chapter, we analyse the evolution of practices that are widely shared, highly regular and key markers in the organisation of everyday life: cooking and eating. We highlight changes in the patterns of meals and food preparation in France and Great Britain from 1974 to 2010, according to nationally representative quantitative Time-Use Survey data. The analysis reveals how elements of domestic energy demand are related to specific practices and how their synchronisation and dynamics of change can be understood in the light of wider social and technical changes.