Food deserts: Governing obesity in the neoliberal city. (April 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shannon, Jerry
• Is Part Of: Progress in human geography. Volume 38:Number 2(2014:Apr.)
• Page Start: 248
• Page End: 266
• Publication Date: 2014-04
• Subjects: critical GIS -- food deserts -- food studies -- governmentality -- health geography -- neoliberalism -- urban studies; Human geography -- Periodicals; 304.2
• DOI: 10.1177/0309132513484378
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0309-1325

Abstract

Studies of 'food deserts', neighborhoods in which healthy food is expensive and/or difficult to find, have received much recent political attention. These studies reflect the popularity of a social ecology in public health, rising concerns over an obesity 'epidemic', and the increasing ease of spatial analysis using geographic information systems (GIS). This paper critically examines these areas, arguing that work on food deserts is a spatialized form of neoliberal paternalism that bounds health problems within low-income communities. Alternative analyses of the urban food landscape, based on work in political ecology and critical GIS, may suggest more equitable paths forward.