Online Food Provisioning Services (OFPS) as Sociotechnical Assemblages: Three Theoretical Threads and a Proposition for Further Research

Online food provisioning services (OFPS) are increasingly used by consumers to source food in everyday life. Given the dynamics and diversities of OFPS, it is important to find out theoretical approaches to conceptualise and understand how these OFPS are interacting with consumption practices in the context of digitalisation and sustainable transition. This chapter compares the similarities and differences among three theoretical threads that are often used in science, technology and society studies, namely, Actor Network Theory (ANT), Theories of Practice (ToP) and Multi-Level Perspective (MLP). It proposes that a sociotechnical assemblage view shared by these three theories, which embraces the heterogeneity of elements, relational perspectives and the state of ‘dynamic stability’, is useful in generating insightful knowledge of OFPS-based food practices. However, these three theories still differ in their empirical orientation towards two research themes: (1) actor interactions and agencies; (2) stability and transition. These differences indicate that each theory has its own strengths and weaknesses in answering different research questions and queries for digital and sustainable food consumption studies.