From ice deliveries to electricity dependent refrigerators - food storing practices and ideas of sustainability 1920s -2020

What can the refrigerator tell about our (un-) sustainable everyday life? This project investigates how everyday food storage practices in Sweden, 1920s-2020, have changed and relate to perceptions of what today is called sustainability. The study departs from the assumption that households’ food storage is connected with multiple societal and political issues concerning sustainability; e.g. food consumption, housing norms, energy consumption, the environment and crisis prevention. The study will combine directed questionnaires from Swedish folk life archives with governmental material and popular magazines, to provide knowledge about food storage habits from the perspective of individuals, authorities and commercial actors, and their relation to perceived sustainable everyday practices.