ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on food as an area of challenged consumption and thus as an example of the development of the discourse. It explains the discussions in the social sciences that deal with questions of consumers' own understandings, initiatives and actions oriented towards taking societal responsibilities include the topics of political consumers, political consumerism and political consumption. A dialectical approach is used by a number of other contributors with an eye for the complexities of consumption in their analyses. The medialised discourses represent individual consumers as responsible for reducing their food miles to improve global climate problems, social dynamics in everyday food consumption. The book discusses the Danish cases are relevant in an international discussion of the consequences of ascription of societal consumer agency.
