The Process of Ethnocentralizing the Concept of Ecological Agroalimentary Products for the Romanian Urban Consumer

Alina Butu, Codrin Dinu Vasiliu, Steliana Rodino, Ioan Bruma, Lucian Tanasă and Marian Butu
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Alina Butu: National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences, 060031 Bucharest, Romania
Codrin Dinu Vasiliu: “Gh. Zane” Institute for Economic and Social Research, Romanian Academy, 700481 Iași, Romania
Steliana Rodino: The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania
Marian Butu: National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences, 060031 Bucharest, Romania

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 22, 1-23

Abstract: In the case of the Romanian urban consumer, ecological agroalimentary products do not merely operate on the discursive line mapped by the rules of certification. The ecology of the agroalimentary products is reinterpreted and, thus, an interesting phenomenon occurs. The products perceived as natural, local, or peasant are seen as ecological enough to influence the purchase decision. Hence, according to the Romanian urban consumer, the ecological product stands for a symbolic projection provided by their own experience and trust level as a consumer. In the present paper, we aimed to go beyond the theory claiming that such behavior is determined by confusion in the social action of purchase and, following this line of interpretation, we also intended to identify the symbolic systems and hermeneutical criteria by which the Romanian urban consumer makes a social projection of ecological agroalimentary products through certain ethnocentralizing mechanisms. Our research paper was based on a qualitative and quantitative anthropological analysis that had, as a starting point, a questionnaire applied online (with a total of 1792 respondents, out of which 1342 were urban respondents).

Keywords: urban person; ecological alimentary products; health; consumers; symbolic systems; Romania; natural product; traditional product; countryside product; local product (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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