Browsing by Author "Joustra, Camila"

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    Social change as a lifestyle: identifying actions and practices of vegan activism among young adults
    (2025) Torres, Rodrigo; Joustra, Camila; Figueroa, Juan; Giacoman Hernández, Claudia
    While classical models of social-movement research focus on protests and collective events, recent work has shifted toward an individualized approach to collective action within political participation and activism. Drawing on 73 in-depth qualitative interviews with 40 young vegans in Santiago, Chile, we examine how participants themselves define and enact vegan activism in everyday life. Our results reveal that veganism transcends dietary choice, encompassing professional engagement, online content creation, and even cooking and commensality as deliberate activist practices. These lifestyle-based practices coexist with organized collective actions—like marches and NGO initiatives—to forge a hybrid model of political participation blending individual agency and collective coordination. By integrating these findings into existing theories of lifestyle political activism, we offer a more nuanced framework for understanding political participation. First, we reconceptualize vegan activism as simultaneously a lifestyle movement and a social movement. Second, we introduce a typology that classifies activist actions and practices along the axes of individual versus collective action and interpersonal versus public impact. Third, we uncover underexplored domains—culinary-based actions and professional engagement—that extend current theories of everyday political activism. These findings not only advance theory but also offer practical insights for vegan and environmental activists—such as food-based interventions and digital outreach strategies—to enhance the impact and reach of their practices. By foregrounding activists’ own definitions and experiences in a Global South context, this study demonstrates the value of situated analyses for reconceptualizing political participation and broadening core theoretical frameworks.
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    Social class and lunch: differences in midday meal format in Santiago, Chile
    (2024) Giacoman, Claudia; Arancibia, Pamela Ayala; Joustra, Camila
    Purpose The social sciences have extensively studied meals; nonetheless, a few have investigated the menu format, with all the data originating from European countries. Within this framework, the novelty of this research is that it analyses the relationship between social class and lunch structure among adults in a Global South city: Santiago, Chile. Design/methodology/approach The study worked with data from the Survey of Commensality in Adults (>18) of the Metropolitan Region, which used a questionnaire and a self-administered eating event diary. The analysis unit was lunches (n = 3,595). The dependent variable was the structure of the lunches (single course, starter with a main course, a main course with dessert or a full-course menu with starter, main course and dessert). The independent variable was the individual's social class (either the working, intermediate or service class). Findings The data showed that lunches are mostly semi- or fully structured (only 44.5% of the lunches reported by the participants contained a single course). The odds of eating a single course were lower in the service class than the working one and the odds of eating a full-course meal were higher in the service class than the working one. Originality/value The results provide new quantitative evidence from a representative sample of a Global South city about the relevance of social class as a differentiating factor in food, specifically regarding the existence of simpler meals among the lower classes.
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    The Way to Someone’s Mind Is through Their Stomach: Vegans and Culinary Activism
    (2025) Giacoman Hernández, Claudia Trinidad; Joustra, Camila
    This article aims to understand how vegans promote a society without animal exploitation through food. Based on material from three years of fieldwork with young vegans in Santiago, Chile, this research shows that vegans utilize commensality and social media to present food as a joyful and friendly way to convince others about the viability of following a plant-based diet, avoiding conflict and evading talking about animals’ exploitation. The interviewees mentioned that sharing their dishes with non-vegans is a form of activism. This involves presenting new flavours and preparations and disseminating know-how about vegan cuisine, including information about ingredients and recipes. The sociological literature on lifestyle movements emphasizes that their followers employ consumption to promote changes. This research goes beyond because it argues that food is a pragmatic mechanism for socializing others into performing a political idea in everyday life.
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    Vegan on a low budget: enacting identity through cuisine in an internet community
    (ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2023) Giacoman, Claudia; Alfaro, Juan; Joustra, Camila; Aguilera, Isabel M.
    The adoption of veganism implies a change in food practices. This study investigates how low-budget people lead a vegan lifestyle. Using Bourdieu's habitus and food sociology concepts, we analyze 884 posts on a Chilean Facebook group, in which members share low-budget vegan recipes. Our results show that low-income people enact veganism mainly by constructing cuisine based on their social class and avoiding animal consumption products. The definition of this cuisine continues to be a battleground in terms of practices considered legitimately vegan, regardless of poverty. This article contributes sociologically by deepening our understanding of everyday practices that help enact veganism in non-hegemonic positions, how individuals forge their social identity, and the role of cuisine in adopting a vegan lifestyle.