Understanding out-of-home food waste among young Chinese adults: a photo-elicitation study

Purpose This research examines how young Chinese adults understand and negotiate responsibility for food waste when dining out at the intersection of multiple cultural values. Design/methodology/approach This paper reports on a qualitative photo-elicitation study in which 20 young adults from China were asked to take photos when dining out. Follow-up interviews were conducted to explore the story behind photos. Data were analysed using an adaptive theory approach coupled with a moral economy lens to examine how cultural norms shape action. Findings Young Chinese adults' understandings and negotiation of responsibility for out-of-home food waste are embedded within intersecting normative narratives including relational harmony, market entitlement and personal standards. The data demonstrates that, even when moral concerns against food waste exist, responsibility is negotiated across social relationships. Market-based logic further legitimises this redistribution through economic values and market exchange. Together, these intersecting norms create a situation in which responsibility is negotiated and distributed rather than individually assumed. Originality/value This study spotlights a moral-economic “responsibilisation” dilemma faced by young Chinese adults from a cultural-normative perspective and highlights the need to develop new food waste avoidance norms grounded in existing and dominant Chinese cultural norms.