This dissertation explores understandings of food and hunger in the United States within the sociocultural context of neoliberalism. Using fieldwork conducting in Norristown, Pennsylvania, I critically explore understandings of the diet and link these understandings to the large-scale economic restructuring that has played out since 1980. To provide a backdrop for this analysis, I first detail the history of Norristown and situate the space in present times and a deindustrialized urban center where low-income residents face limited access to affordable healthy foods. Previous to the election of Ronald Reagan, a relatively robust social safety net was in place to assist people living in these situations, but this safety net has shrunk during the era of neoliberalism. Neoliberal policy shifts in food assistance programs serve as a launching point for my analysis of understandings of food. I first consider the remnants of the food assistance bureaucracy and how food programs play out from federal to local levels. I then shift my attention to the increased emphasis on nutrition education programs as a strategy to alleviate the poor dietary status of many who live on fixed incomes. Here, I am concerned with how these programs shift the responsibility for the diet onto the individuals themselves while doing little to ensure proper access to healthy foods. Ideas of individual responsibility also play out among the many volunteers involved in private food charities, and in the food advertisements that can be seen all over the urban space of Norristown. Taken together a complex picture of the diet emerges that is very much reflective of neoliberal ideology. / Anthropology
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TEMPLE/oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/2214 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Ratcliffe, Jeffrey Scott |
| Contributors | White, Sydney Davant, Goode, Judith, 1939-, Jhala, Jayasinhji, Counihan, Carole, 1948- |
| Publisher | Temple University. Libraries |
| Source Sets | Temple University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 256 pages |
| Rights | IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/2196, Theses and Dissertations |
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