Dr Andrea Tonner

Senior lecturer in Marketing

University of Strathclyde

FOCUS AREA OF PRACTICAL/ CLINICAL WORK/ RESEARCH

My research is focused within consumer culture theory where I have explored issues of identity and sociality within different contexts, including body image, but I have an enduring interest in food and motherhood. Reflecting this interest, I am currently co-convenor of the British Sociological Association Food Studies Group.

I joined the University in 2008 after many years as a marketing practitioner in the fast moving consumer goods and energy markets and I am currently a lecturer in marketing.

I work mainly within interpretive consumer research. I am particularly interested in issues of consumer personal and social identity and explored there in different everyday material culture contexts.

MY PhD work focused upon consumers’ understanding of food within their everyday lives and this most universal of consumer culture domains was employed to build identity and social relations such as family and friendship. I am also concerned with representations of food within consumer culture and have explored traditional and contemporary written forms such as cookbooks and food blogs.  I also consider issues of identity and sociality within new motherhood and particularly research how services can be transformative in this transitional life stage.

More recently I have undertaken work considering the food producer/ consumer interface and exploring the practices involved in consumer self-provisioning and among small agricultural producers. I also consider the role of food in health and wellbeing and explore community approaches to tackling health inequalities.

PUBLICATIONS/ PROJECTS/ ACTIVITIES

• Kleim, A., Eckler, P., Tonner, A. (2019). “Too good to be true”: semi-naked bodies on social media. Handbook of Research on Deception, Fake News, and Misinformation Online. IGI Global.
• Tonner, A., Eckler, P., Cameron, J., Kleim, A. Exploring a role for positive body image in social media use. Abstract presented at the biennial conference of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), November 2018, Lugano, Switzerland.
• Eckler, P., Tonner, A., Cameron, J., Kleim, A., McAlinden, S., Rifay, H., Munro, C., Oakley, C., Preston, S., Riley, S. Digital media and eating disorders: Future directions for impactful research. Poster presented at the biennial conference of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), November 2018, Lugano, Switzerland.
• Gordon, K., Wilson, J., Tonner, A., Shaw, E. (2018). How can social enterprises impact health and wellbeing? International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, Vol. 24, pp. 697-713. doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-01-2017-0022
• Tonner, A. (2018). Consumer culture poetry: insightful data and methodological approaches. Consumption, Markets and Culture. doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2018.1474110
• Gordon, K., Wilson, J., Tonner, A., Shaw, E. (2018). The role of socially driven community food projects in a networked approach to tackling food insecurity. British Sociological Association Annual Conference.