Transitioning to a vegetarian or vegan diet: fractures and continuities in biography and practice

Abstract

This empirical paper explores the transition to a vegetarian or a vegan diet, at the meeting point of individual biographies and their social context. It is based on 13 interviews conducted with 14 participants in the province of Quebec, Canada. It mobilises a conceptual framework that couples a social practice approach (SPT) with the concept of ‘fractures’ as developed by O’Neill and colleagues (2019). The results show that the transition to a vegetarian or a vegan diet involves tastes, ethical concerns and skills that were formed since childhood, and that it also depends on the interaction of elements specific to a social context such as a supportive social environment or the availability of meat replacement products. The participants’ experiences also suggest that transitions can be sparked by life events such as a new friendship, a new relationship or moving out of the parents’ house, all of which have in common a transformation in the social relations and networks central to everyday life. The conclusion discusses the role played by time, social relationships and space in the participants’ accounts and how it can be read through the lens of SPT and ‘fractures’, to understand how individual experience can be tied to change on a larger scale.