Constructing the food waste issue on social media: a discursive social marketing approach

The purpose of the paper is to examine how market actors participate in the socio-cultural construction of the food waste issue through social media. The paper draws from practice theory and adopts a research approach combining netnography and discourse analysis. The data consist of postings within a vivid social media discussion during a social marketing campaign. The findings shed light on how different market actors construct the food waste issue through discourses of explanation, exhibition and appeal. These discourses differ in their focus, tone and, most importantly, their potential for practice change in the context of food waste. The study emphasises the importance of understanding the discourses of complex sustainability issues and acknowledges the role of social marketing in maintaining and/or transforming these discourses.