A feminist geographic analysis of perceptions of food and health in Ugandan cities
Mackay, Heather LU
(2019)
In Gender, Place and Culture
26(11).
p.1519-1543
- Abstract
This article contributes to a feminist geographic analysis of how urban food and health environments and non-communicable disease experience may be being constructed, and contested, by healthcare professionals (local elites) in two secondary Ugandan cities (Mbale and Mbarara). I use thematic and group interaction analysis of focus group data to explore material and discursive representations. Findings make explicit how healthcare professionals had a tendency to prescribe highly classed and gendered assumptions of bodies and behaviours in places and in daily practices. The work supports the discomfort some have felt concerning claims of an African nutrition transition, and is relevant to debates regarding double burden malnutrition. I... (More)
This article contributes to a feminist geographic analysis of how urban food and health environments and non-communicable disease experience may be being constructed, and contested, by healthcare professionals (local elites) in two secondary Ugandan cities (Mbale and Mbarara). I use thematic and group interaction analysis of focus group data to explore material and discursive representations. Findings make explicit how healthcare professionals had a tendency to prescribe highly classed and gendered assumptions of bodies and behaviours in places and in daily practices. The work supports the discomfort some have felt concerning claims of an African nutrition transition, and is relevant to debates regarding double burden malnutrition. I argue that a feministic analysis, and an intersectional appreciation of people in places, is advantageous to food and health-related research and policy-making. Results uncover and deconstruct a dominant patriarchal tendency towards blaming women for obesity. Yet findings also exemplify the co-constructed and malleable nature of knowledge and understandings, and this offers encouragement.
(Less)
- author
- Mackay, Heather
LU
- publishing date
- 2019-11-02
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- keywords
- Feminist geography, food, non-communicable disease, nutrition transition, obesity, Uganda
- in
- Gender, Place and Culture
- volume
- 26
- issue
- 11
- pages
- 25 pages
- publisher
- Routledge
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85064843578
- ISSN
- 0966-369X
- DOI
- 10.1080/0966369X.2018.1555148
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- Funding Information: This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas) (Grant number: 250-2014-1227) Project ?Urban agriculture?s double disease burden and the ameliorative potential of household food production?. In addition, the field research was supported by a travel grant from the J.C. Kempe Memorial Fund managed by the Ume? Student Union, and by a scholarship from the Swedish Society of Anthropology and Geography (SSAG). I would like to thank my colleagues Aina Tollefsen, Magnus Jirstr?m and Marco Eimermann for taking the time to comment on an earlier draft of this article. I am also grateful to Belinda Dodson, Department of Geography, Western University, Canada for her guidance and encouragement. Thank you to Prof. Frank Mugagga, Department of Geography, GeoInformatics and Climatic Sciences, Makerere University for being the most incredible fieldwork facilitator and ensuring that I always had the best field support. Thank you also to the Municipal Councils of Mbale and Mbarara for their interest in this research, and to Joe Odori for support in fieldwork, transcription and debate. It is with humility that I especially thank all the focus group participants for their engagement and interest. Publisher Copyright: © 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
- id
- 0fca1d05-4682-4915-8a46-fb91a8cca041
- date added to LUP
- 2022-02-03 09:57:54
- date last changed
- 2022-04-28 23:56:06
@article{0fca1d05-4682-4915-8a46-fb91a8cca041,
abstract = {{<p>This article contributes to a feminist geographic analysis of how urban food and health environments and non-communicable disease experience may be being constructed, and contested, by healthcare professionals (local elites) in two secondary Ugandan cities (Mbale and Mbarara). I use thematic and group interaction analysis of focus group data to explore material and discursive representations. Findings make explicit how healthcare professionals had a tendency to prescribe highly classed and gendered assumptions of bodies and behaviours in places and in daily practices. The work supports the discomfort some have felt concerning claims of an African nutrition transition, and is relevant to debates regarding double burden malnutrition. I argue that a feministic analysis, and an intersectional appreciation of people in places, is advantageous to food and health-related research and policy-making. Results uncover and deconstruct a dominant patriarchal tendency towards blaming women for obesity. Yet findings also exemplify the co-constructed and malleable nature of knowledge and understandings, and this offers encouragement.</p>}},
author = {{Mackay, Heather}},
issn = {{0966-369X}},
keywords = {{Feminist geography; food; non-communicable disease; nutrition transition; obesity; Uganda}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{11}},
number = {{11}},
pages = {{1519--1543}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
series = {{Gender, Place and Culture}},
title = {{A feminist geographic analysis of perceptions of food and health in Ugandan cities}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2018.1555148}},
doi = {{10.1080/0966369X.2018.1555148}},
volume = {{26}},
year = {{2019}},
}