Faustine Régnier, a sociological approach to food

After studies in geography and ethnology, Faustine Régnier joined the Paris Institute of Political Studies, more commonly known as Sciences Po, in 1998.  Focusing on food, her preferred area of research, she combined her skills in geography, ethnology and sociology and in 2003 won the prestigious Jean Trémolières Award for her doctoral thesis in sociology, on the social constructions of exoticism, a comparison between France and Germany.

The same year, she was recruited by INRAE as a Research Scientist in the Nutrition and Social Sciences Research Unit which has since become the Paris Saclay Applied Economics Unit. She turned her attention to obesity, which led her to address the subjects of food and social perceptions of the body on the one hand, and the norms that underlie them on the other. A path that Faustine Régnier is still following today, ranging from the integration and implementation of nutritional guidelines issued in the context of public health campaigns to the norms disseminated by digital tools and recommendations for the ecological transition. Through her research, Faustine highlights the diversity of their use in practice.

The international dimension of food

Over the years, Faustine Régnier has given a strong international dimension to her work. She has worked on:

 - the integration of nutritional guidelines and weight norms, and conducted a retrospective analysis of norms in France and the USA over a long period (1934-2010), as reflected in women’s magazines.

This study provided an opportunity for a secondment in the USA in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University (2011-2012);

 - the social stratification of consumption and social health inequalities, based on obesity and the unequal impact of nutritional guidelines;

 - the relationships between food and body perceptions; for example, the cultural diversity of the interrelationships between eating habits and body perception by comparing France and the USA and then two European countries, France and Luxembourg.

In this latter context, Faustine Régnier spent time in Luxembourg as a guest researcher in the Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences at the University of Luxembourg (2014-2016).

More recently, she has set up research projects on the seasonality of consumption as a lever for more sustainable food systems.

From digital tools to the ecological transition

At the same time, Faustine Régnier initiated a new research subject regarding digital tools and their uses and effects on eating habits and body measurements. She focused on an analysis of the uses and impacts of self-tracking "health/food/physical activity” tools versus "culinary” tools, using social comparisons.

In this new field, she worked on several research projects focusing on the levers and tools for promoting better nutrition for all via digital technology (FacilEat4All, 2017-2018), the uses and impacts of digital tools for better nutrition (Diet 3.0, 2017-2020), or adapting dietary recommendations to prevent chronic diseases (NutriPerso, 2017-2020).

She has also worked on the ecological transition of food, in particular the social reception of environmental norms such as “eating in season” or “reducing meat”. These subjects were part of the Diet4Trans project (2018-2019).

The circulation of taste and norms in the social space

Today, using a mixed methodological approach (interviews, archives, statistical data), with particular attention to textual analysis, Faustine Regnier's work focuses on:

• Social inequalities in relation to dietary recommendations, analyzing the tensions between aspirations, economic constraints and health or environmental recommendations.
• Food practices in situations of social precarity, with a focus on the forms of sustainability in working-class environments.
• Contemporary mediations of gastronomy, analyzed through an interdisciplinary programme that explores the ways in which taste, cooking and eating are narrated, transmitted and discussed in the public arena.

A food sociologist recognized by her peers, Faustine Régnier has lent her skills on several occasions to expert reports conducted by the Haute Autorité de Santé (Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents, 2011), INSERM (Social inequalities with respect to the perception of nutritional guidelines, 2015 or reports published by the Conseil national des politiques de lutte contre la pauvreté et l'exclusion sociale (Faire de la transition écologique un levier de l'inclusion sociale - l'impact social de l'écologie, 2024) or the Institut Montaigne (Fracture alimentaire - Maux communs, remède collectif, 2024).

She also likes to contribute to training through research for students she is supervising.