My PhD project examines whether the design of the fridge - its size, shape, features and place in our homes and society - might be driving food out of our hands and into the bin.

Using methods to look into the past (did food waste concerns affect the historical evolution of household fridge design?), the present (how are the material features of the fridge affecting everyday food waste in households today?) and the future (what are the current claims about the future of the fridge, and is food waste emphasised in these futures-in-the-making?) we can open the “white box” to uncover to what extent the fridge is complicit in food waste creation and rethink its design for a sustainable future.

I am interested in theories and concepts like Science and Technology Studies and Actor-Network Theory which take an object-centric approach to social practices. As a PhD student at the Centre for Sociodigital Futures, I am keen to explore the relationship between society and technology, and in the case of the fridge-food-waste dynamic, who decides what the future of the fridge will be and will that future support a sustainable food system?