Brídín Carroll  

PhD Candidate  (2009-Present) LLB, NUI Galway  (2002-2003) BA (Hons), NUI Galway  (1999-2002)
Room:	103, Geography Department
Email:	b.carroll2nuigalway.ie

Biography

Brídín’s decision to undertake post-graduate study, following several years of working both in Ireland and abroad, was sparked by a desire to engage geographically-focused academic inquiry with food system sustainability. Most broadly, she is interested in the neo-liberal paradigm which undergirds the processes of the food system, as well as other related areas such as moral geographies, consumption studies and discourse of scale.

Under the working title: Are perceptions of consumers in Ireland of sustainability in food systems conflated with those of scale?, this research project aims to explore the perceptions of consumers in Ireland with regard to the sustainability of food systems, not only environmental but also economic and social, from the local level to the global. Specifically, drawing on existing and emerging discourses within food geographies and sustainability research, this study aims to:

1. explore consumers’ understandings of  ’local food’ and ’sustainable food’;

2. investigate the values of consumers, particularly whether ’local’ and ’sustainable’ characteristics are considered important when deciding which foods to buy;

3. and provide a nuanced understanding of consumer perceptions of these same foods and how these perceptions may motivate or bar consumers from purchasing these products and the implications of this.

As such, the role of this project is to theoretically explore and empirically investigate the relationship between scale and sustainability in consumer food choices. Using a theoretically informed measurement framework (Marsden and Smith, 2005; Holloway and Kneafsey, 2000; Chambers et al, 2007), the project aims to study the extent to which consumers in Ireland attribute qualities of sustainability to local food.

Research Cluster:

Organised Conference Sessions

• 2012: “Advancing debates on sustainable and local food”: Two paper presentation sessions held at the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, New York, February 2012. Co-organised with Dr. Colin Sage (Senior Lecturer, University College Cork, Ireland)

Selected Presentations

• 2012: “Consumption for Sustainability: Examining the nature of perceptions of consumers in Ireland of local food and whether a value-action gap exists”. Paper presented at the Place to Plate: New Connections in Food Research conference, University of Cardiff, Cardiff, UK, April 2nd.
• 2012: “To define or not to define: standardising the meaning of ’local food’ and the implications of this.” Paper presented at the AAG annual meeting, New York, USA, February 28th. 
• 2011: “Consumer Perceptions of ’Sustainable’ and ’Local’ Food – a basis for examining Ireland.” Paper presented at the Leverhulme Project on Lifestyles and Life-courses and the Planning and Environment Research Group (RGS-IGB) workshop, University of Northampton, April 20th. 
• 2011: “Tracing ’buy Irish food’ campaigns: sustainability, austerity or protectionism?” Paper presented at the Association of American Geographers annual meeting, Seattle, USA, April 15th. 
• 2010:  “A critical exploration of the rhetoric of local food: Consumers in Ireland and their valorisation of the local scale.” Paper presented at the Conference of Irish Geographers, NUI Maynooth, May 1st. 
• 2010: “Irish consumers and their valorisation of the local scale.” Paper presented at the 6th Annual Social Science Research Centre International Conference, NUI Galway, Ireland, March 27th.  

Publications

2012

• Carroll, B.E. (2012) Rhetoric of ’Buy Irish Food’ campaigns: speaking to consumer values to valorise the ’local’ and exclude ’others’?, Irish Geography, 45, 1, 87-109.
• Lavelle, M.J., Carroll, B. & Fahy, F. (2012) Consensus Lifestyle Survey- Report on public attitudes and behaviours towards sustainable consumption and sustainable lifestyles in Ireland: (4) Food Consumption. National University of Ireland, Galway.
• Lavelle, M.J., Carroll, B. & Fahy, F. (2012) Consensus Lifestyle Survey- Report on public attitudes and behaviours towards sustainable consumption and sustainable lifestyles in Ireland: (5) Food waste. National University of Ireland, Galway.
• Carroll, B. (2012), Review of Alternative Food Networks: knowledge, practice, politics, by Goodman, D., DuPuis, M. & Goodman, M.K. (eds.) Environmental Values, 21, 4, 545-548.
  

2011

• Carroll, B., Review of Consuming Space: Placing Consumption in Perspective, by Goodman, M.K., Goodman, D. & Redclift, M. (eds.). Irish Geography, 44, 2-3, 336-338.
  

In Process

• Carroll B. & Fahy, F., The contested meaning of ’local food’ – Do consumers prefer traditional definitions to more sustainable reflexive localisms?

Awards

• 2012: NUI Galway travel bursary to allow for travel to conferences and the presentation of research findings.
• 2011: Awarded travel bursary by the Geographical Society of Ireland 
• 2011: Awarded travel bursary by the Centre for Environment, Development and Sustainability ([CEDS] - funded by the NUIG-RSF Strategic Initiative Scheme) for travel to an international meeting and networking events with a view to participating in European funding applications. 
• 2011: Awarded internship by CEDS to allow for preparation and submission of a peer reviewed co-authored publication under the thematic area of ’Environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour'). 
• 2010: Selected to participate in the University of California – NUI Galway Exchange Programme and awarded scholarship to fund this.  
• 2010: NUI Galway travel bursary to allow for travel to conferences and the presentation of research findings. 
• 2010: Travel bursary to attend the Planning and Environment Research Group annual conference in the University of Birmingham, May 2010.
  

Teaching Involvement

• Lecturer for third year module (Geographies of Sustainable Food Consumption here) 
• Tutor for TI350 (Seminar Series in Research Methods) 
• Tutor for TI343 (Geographies of Sustainable Consumption) 
• Tutor for TI236 (Environmental Planning) 
• Tutor for TI224 (Residential Fieldtrip) 
• Tutor for TI150 (Principles of Human Geography) 
• Tutor for TI152 (Geography in Practice)

Societies

• Member of the Association of American Geographers 
• Member of the Geographical Society of Ireland 
• Member of NUI Galway’s Geography Society 
• 2009-2010: Auditor of NUI Galway’s Geography Society

Selected Readings:

• Allen, P. & Hinrichs, C. (2008) Selective patronage and social justice: Local food consumer campaigns in historical context. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 21, 329-352. 
• Bord Bia (2010) Consumer Attitudes to Local Food. Dublin, Irish Food Board. 
• Born, B. & Purcell, M. (2006) Avoiding the Local Trap: Scale and Food Systems in Planning Research. Journal of Planning Education and Research 26, 195-207. 
• Chambers, S., Lobb, A., Butler, L., Harvey, K. & Traill, W.B. (2007) Local, national and imported foods: A qualitative study. Appetite, 49, 208-213. 
• Coley, D., Howard, M. & Winter, M. (2009) Local food, food miles and carbon emissions: A comparison of farm shop and mass distribution approaches, Food Policy, 34, 150-155. 
• DuPuis, E.M. & Goodman, D. (2005) Should we go ’home’ to eat?: towards a reflexive politics of localism, Journal of Rural Studies, 21, 359-371. 
• Feagan, R. (2007) The place of food: mapping out the ’local’ in local food systems, Progress in Human Geography, 31, 1, 23-42. 
• Holloway, L., Kneafsey, M., Cox, R., Venn, L., Dowler, E. &Tuomainen, H. (2007) Beyond the ’Alternative’ – ’Conventional’ Divide? Thinking Differently About Food Production-Consumption Relationships, in Maye, D., Holloway, L. & Kneafsey, M. (eds.) Alternative Food Geographies – Representation and Practice, Oxford, Elsevier. 
• Marston, S. (2000) The social construction of scale. Progress in Human Geography, 24, 2, 219-242. 
• Maye, D., Holloway, L. & Kneafsey, M. (2007) Introducing Alternative Food Geographies, in Maye, D., Holloway, L. & Kneafsey, M. (eds.) Alternative Food Geographies – Representation and Practice, Oxford, Elsevier. 
• Morgan, K., Marsden, T. & Murdoch, J. (2008) Worlds of Food: Place, Power and Provenance in the Food Chain, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 
• Roininen, K., Arvola, A. & Lähteenmäki, L. (2006) Exploring consumers’ perceptions of local food with two different qualitative techniques: Laddering and word association, Food Quality and Preference, 17, 20-30. 
• Sage, C. (2003) Social embeddedness and relations of regard: alternative 'good food' networks in south-west Ireland. Journal of Rural Studies, 19, 47-60. 
• Seyfang, G. (2005) Shopping for Sustainability: Can sustainable consumption promote ecological citizenship? Environmental Politics, 14, 2, 290-306. 
• Ulvila, K.M., Paloviita, A. & Puuponen, A. (2009) Consumers’ Perceptions of Sustainably Produced Food- A focus group study, Future of the Consumer Society, Tampere, Finland 28-29 May 2009, 145-158. 
• Weatherall, C., Tregear, A. & Allinson, J. (2003) In search of the concerned consumer: UK public perceptions of food, farming and buying local, Journal of Rural Studies, 19, 233-244. 
• Winter, M. (2003) Embeddedness, the new food economy and defensive localism. Journal of Rural Studies, 19, 23-32.