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Building on the theoretical framework provided by sociological research on eating practices, family meals, self‐cooked meals and time use, this study examines national differences and similarities in the use of convenience food in Northern Europe. The study draws on two quantitative sets of data, the primary data set (N = 8248) collected in 2012 in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and the complementary data set (N = 800) collected in St. Petersburg area in 2013. In general, consumers’ attitudes towards convenience food were negative. Time saving was an important motivator for convenience consumption in all countries. The effects of other attitudes were diffuse and factors such as low cost, health effects, and taste of convenience food, affected convenience consumption differently in different countries. In the four Nordic countries women used less convenience food than men. In Finland and in Norway older respondents used convenience food less often than the young. Generally, the use of convenience food was most frequent among those living alone. The effects of education and occupation were small, implying that the phase of life is more important than social stratification in explaining convenience food consumption. In the St. Petersburg data, there were no differences related to social background.

This paper explores the patterns of cultural consumption in Finland using data collected in 2007 from a randomly selected sample of 3,000 persons. This is an explanatory study employing Multiple Correspondence Analysis as a method to map the cultural consumption patterns in Finland. The paper refers to a number of previous studies addressing the same issue in Denmark and particularly the UK in an attempt to place the results within a comparison framework. The main argument of this paper is not simply that within socio-economic groups there is a preference for similar culture, but that cultural preferences follow a structure over different domains that can be detected without reference to socio-economic factors. As a result of the analysis, two dimensions of the MCA solution are found, which represent differentiations between high engagement in culture versus disengagement and contemporary versus traditional forms of culture. These dimensions are very similar to the dimensions found in the UK, even if the ...

Sports have often been neglected in the research on taste and cultural consumption. This article investigates lifestyle choices in the area of sports, with particular focus on the differences that can be drawn from occupational class and other background variables. Based on nationally representative survey data from Finland, participation in sports and sports spectatorship are examined. The main findings suggest that there are divisions between the occupational classes in the involvement in sports, but also in the involvement in individual sporting activities. However, the differences are less clear in sports spectatorship. The findings are somewhat at odds with recent research from different countries suggesting that education and income are important in explaining the differences, although occupational class also counts.