A season with the vegans of Forest Green Rovers Football Club. A visual typology of visitor reactions”

Studies pertaining to ethical consumers are often informed by consumer attitudes, behaviours and consumption practices concerning food. This has led to the emergence of different empirical understandings and theories that capture the complex behaviours of the ethical consumer. Whilst significant attention has been given to the role of the consumer in the consumption of organic food (Nuttavuthisit and Thogersen, 2017), Fair Trade (Peattie and Samuel, 2016) and animal welfare (Adams, 2008), very little attention has been paid to veganism and more particularly the role of institutions in influencing this form of ethical consumption. The rapid emergence of veganism is well documented, for example, the UK has witnessed a staggering 360% growth rate in the last decade with around 542,000 people now following a vegan diet (Vegan Society, 2018). This is not to mention the 185% growth in vegan products available in supermarkets and the adoption of part-time veganism as over half of the UK's adult population have adopted ‘vegan buying behaviours’ (The Guardian 2018). Consequently, veganism is emerging as a significant development in ethical consumption and warrants more objective research. To address the paucity of research, this paper takes a multidisciplinary approach to ethical consumerism by embedding itself in the novel place of the World’s first and only Vegan Certified professional football club, Forest Green Rovers (FGR 2018). This paper applies participative ethnographical research to firstly explore the agency of FGRs place to influence vegan consumption. It then presents a visually drawn typology of six different visitor reactions to FGR’s vegan only ‘place’. These are conceptually drawn as The Admirer who is thoroughly committed, The Supporter who is keen to change, The Intrigued who wish to find out more, The Humourist who mock FGR’s status as a vegan football club, The Unconcerned who have no interest and The Defiant who resents the vegan stance made by FGR.