Christian Fuentes

Research profile: Consumption, Markets, and Materialities

I am a marketing scholar interested in consumption and the making of markets. My research focuses on the reconfiguration of everyday consumption practices and the role that marketing work and market devices play in this.

Theoretically, I draw on theories of practice as well as constructivist market studies to explore how marketing practices and devices shape consumption and the formation of markets in various ways. Methodologically, I employ mainly ethnographic methods - online and offline - to empirically understand consumption practices, marketing work, and the organization of markets.

More specifically, I have conducted research on the topics of Ethical Consumption, Green Marketing, Sustainable Retailing, Alternative Markets, Digitalized consumption and Retailing. 

My studies on these topics have been published in the European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, Consumption, Markets and Culture, Business Strategy and the Environment, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, International Journal of Consumer Studies, as well as in a number of other outlets.

Ongoing research projects

I am currently leading two research projects.

PLATEFORMS

Can innovations within food distribution such as e-commerce, food box schemes, and consumer-to-consumer food networks promote sustainable food consumption in the household? New technology has brought with it new solutions for food provisioning. These innovative distribution platforms are often proposed as possible tools for the promotion of sustainable food consumption practices within households. However, we know little about the potential of these platforms and if they can be used to promote the sustainable consumption of food on a larger scale. The overall objective of the PLATEFORMS project is to produce in-depth and practically oriented knowledge on how sustainable household food consumption can be enabled through socio-technical innovations in food provisioning platforms. Read more about PLATEFORMS

Alternative Food Markets

The overall aim of this project is to provide in-depth knowledge regarding how alternative food markets can be organized, sustained, and expanded. There are today a number of on-going efforts to establish alternative food markets – markets that are organized differently and with the aim of promoting sustainable and healthy food alternatives. While this development seems promising, there are a number of knowledge gaps that need to be addressed if we are to understand how alternative food markets work and their sustainability potential. We know today very little of how alternative food markets emerge, become stabilized, expand or dissolve. Taking an ethnographic approach this project sets out to understand three types of alternative food markets: markets for (vegan) alternatives, local markets, and consumer-to-consumer markets. Read more about Alternative Food Markets

Research groups and affiliations
I am part of the "Consumption and Retail” and the ”Sustainability and Service" research groups at the Department. I am also associated to the Centre of Retail Research (CRR) at Lund University and the Centre of Consumer Research (CCR)  at the University of Gothenburg.

Teaching profile

I coordinate and teach a course on “Sustainable Consumption” as part of the Sustainable Service Management masters. I supervise bachelor and master’s theses on the topics of ethical consumption, digitalization and retail, smartphones and shopping, and related themes. I am also the Director of the PhD programme.