Jonas Bååth

Jonas Bååth is a sociologist who studies the organisation of markets for agri-food industries and develops social theory of and through the social life of food and economy. He is an Associate Professor (Docent) in both Sociology and Business Studies, works at the Department of People and Society at SLU Alnarp, and is moreover affiliated to CIRCLE – Centre for Innovation Research at Lund University. He is also the chair of the Nordic research network Sociology of Commerce and Consumption. His works have been published in outlets such as Journal of Rural Studies, Sociologia Ruralis, and Socio-Economic Review.

Bååth chairs and manages the IMS Research Seminar. Please get in contact if you want to present your research there. 

Bååth's research focuses on social and cultural aspects of markets, consumption, and economies, in particular regarding food, sustainability and alternative modes of economic organisation. Current projects engage with issues such as pricing, food waste mitigation, democratic market organising, and the practical realisation of market regulation. 

Bååth teaches and advises theses on social scientific issues relating to sustainable food, agriculture and economies, foremost in the MSc progammes Agroecology, Food & Landscape, and Sustainable Food Systems. He is also a recurring lecturer on topics such as theory of science, research design, and qualitative methods.

Starting spring 2026, Bååth leads the PhD course Qualitative Inquiry in Scientific Research.

Bååth is an Associate Professor (Docent) in both Sociology (accepted at Uppsala University) and Business Studies (accepted at SLU). Before joining SLU in 2022, he was a postodctoral researcher at Lund University and obtained his PhD in Sociology from Uppsala University. He has also held visiting fellowships at Yale University and Lund University.

Bååth, J. and C. Fuentes. 2025. Alternativizing markets: the framing of moral commerce. Socio-Economic Review, 23(1): 183–203.

Bååth, J. 2024. Relational work in an alternative food network: the fundamental role of shared meaning for organising markets differently. Sociologia Ruralis, 64(4): 592-612.

Bååth, J. and J. Nilsson. 2024. The art of being governed: the implementation of Covid-19 policies in Swedish on-license alcohol service. Food, Culture & Society, 27(1): 202-220.

Jack, T., J. Bååth, JT. Heinonen, and K. Gram-Hanssen. 2024. How individuals make sense of their climate impacts in the Capitalocene: mixed methods insights from calculating carbon footprints. Sustainability Science, 19: 777-791.

Bååth, J. 2023. Towards a unified theory of market prices: turning to pricing in practice. Socio-Economic Review, 21(1): 5-23.

Bååth, J. and N. Neuman. 2023. Social lens or inherent social phenomenon? The study of food in Swedish sociology. Current Sociology, 71(6): 945-963.

Bååth, J. 2022. How alternative foods become affordable: the co-construction of economic value on a direct-to-customer market. Journal of Rural Studies, 94: 63-72.