A comparative ethnography of nutrition interventions: Structural violence and the industrialisation of agrifood systems in the Caribbean and the Pacific. (May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wilson, Marisa; McLennan, Amy
• Is Part Of: Social science & medicine. Volume 228(2019)
• Page Start: 172
• Page End: 180
• Publication Date: 2019-05
• Subjects: Comparative ethnography -- Structural violence -- Diet-related non-communicable diseases -- Caribbean -- Pacific -- Trinidad and Tobago -- Nauru; Social medicine -- Periodicals; Medical anthropology -- Periodicals; Public health -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Médecine sociale -- Périodiques; Anthropologie médicale -- Périodiques; Santé publique -- Périodiques; Psychologie -- Périodiques; Médecine -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 362.105
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.03.029
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0277-9536

Abstract

Abstract: Public health interventions that involve strategies to re-localise food fail in part because they pay insufficient attention to the global history of industrial food and agriculture. In this paper we use the method of comparative ethnography and the concept of structural violence to illustrate how historical and geographical patterns related to colonialism and industrialisation (e.g. agrarian change, power relations and trade dependencies) hinder efforts to address diet-related non-communicable diseases on two small islands. We find comparative ethnography provides a useful framework for cross-country analysis of public health programmes that can complement quantitative analysis. At the same time, the concept of structural violence enables us to make sense of qualitative material and link the failure of such programmes to wider historical and geographical processes. We use ethnographic research carried out from April to August 2013 and from June to July 2014 in Trinidad (with follow-up online interviews in 2018) and in Nauru from February to May 2010 and August 2010 to February 2011. Our island case studies share commonalities that point to similar experiences of colonialism and industrialisation and comparable health-related challenges faced in everyday life. Highlights: Demonstrates the value of comparative ethnography for global public health. Illustrates the relevance of structural violence to the study of NCDs. Explores postcolonial histories and geographies of food and agriculture on islands. Identifies ways to incorporate structural violence into public health interventions. Describes routes (geographies) and roots (histories/cultures) of poor health.