Elaine Power

The Unfreedom of Being Other Canadian Lone Mothers’ Experiences of Poverty and ‘Life on the Cheque’

This article theorizes the experiences of lone mothers living on welfare in contemporary consumer society using a governmentality framework, with particular attention to liberalism’s practices of unfreedom. Analysis suggests two main ways in which lone mothers were constructed and disciplined as Other: as ‘welfare bums’ who were not in the labour market; and as ‘flawed consumers’ without the financial resources to participate in consumer society. This type of study, with its attention to the ‘messy actualities’ of how subjects take up neo-liberal discourse, offers possibilities for the re-politicization of the Foucauldian-inspired governmentality literature by accounting for the costs of neo-liberal forms of rule, and providing insight into how it might be contested.

Individual and household food insecurity in Canada: position of Dietitians of Canada.

This is the background paper for the official position of Dietitians of Canada on individual and household food insecurity in Canada.

De-Centering the Text: Exploring the Potential for Visual Methods in the Sociology of Food

In our culture, the image has become more powerful than the word, and perhaps more than ever, both social agents and social researchers “know more than we can say” in words. Yet sociological knowledge production and representation remain firmly rooted in text. In this paper, I argue that visual methods, such as film, photography and video, can expand knowledge production in the study of food and society, and represent that knowledge more richly and forcefully. In their capacities to evoke the sensual, non-rational, and material aspects of life, visual methods are well suited to the study of a subject such as food, which encompasses social processes from the embodied and tacit experiences of preparing and consuming food, to complex global configurations of power. I begin with the limitations of logo-centric sociology. Concentrating on photography, I move to a brief history of this method in sociology and discuss epistemological issues related to the contemporary postfoundationalist practice of visual sociology. Finally, I turn to a discussion of three main types of visual research activities: producing visual images; collaborating with research participants to produce visual images; and examining pre-existing images.

Municipal-level responses to household food insecurity in Canada: A call for critical, evaluative research

Household food insecurity (HFI) is a persistent public health problem affecting 3.8 million Canadians. While the causes of HFI are rooted in income insecurity, solutions to HFI have been primarily food-based, with the bulk of activity occurring at the municipal level across Canada. We conceptualize these municipal-level actions as falling within three models: “charitablerd, “household improvements and supportsrd and “community food systemsrd. Many initiatives, especially non-charitable ones, generate widespread support, as they aim to increase participants’ food security using an empowering and dignified approach. While these initiatives may offer some benefits to their participants, preliminary research suggests that any food-based solution to an income-based problem will have limited reach to food-insecure households and limited impact on participants’ experience of HFI. We suspect that widespread support for the local-level food-based approach to HFI has impeded critical judgement of the true potential of these activities to reduce HFI. As these initiatives grow in number across Canada, we are in urgent need of comprehensive and comparative research to evaluate their impact on HFI and to ensure that municipal-level action on HFI is evidence-based.RésuméL’insécurité alimentaire des ménages (IAM) est un problème de santé publique tenace qui touche 3,8 millions de Canadiens. Ses causes sont ancrées dans l’insécurité financière, mais ses solutions sont principalement fondées sur l’alimentation, le gros des efforts étant entrepris à l’échelle municipale au Canada. Nous avons classé ces actions municipales en trois modèles possibles: «bienfaisance», «améliorations et mesures de soutien aux ménages» et «systèmes alimentaires communautaires». De nombreuses initiatives, surtout celles sans vocation de bienfaisance, reçoivent un appui massif, car elles visent à accroître la sécurité alimentaire des participants selon une démarche d’autonomisation et de respect de la dignité. Ces initiatives peuvent procurer certains avantages à leurs participants, mais selon des études préliminaires, toute solution fondée sur l’alimentation à un problème lié au revenu aura une portée limitée auprès des ménages aux prises avec l’insécurité alimentaire et un impact limité sur l’expérience d’IAM des participants. Nous soupçonnons que l’appui massif aux démarches alimentaires locales pour contrer l’IAM entrave le jugement critique du véritable potentiel de ces activités pour réduire l’IAM. Avec l’augmentation du nombre de ces initiatives au Canada, il existe un urgent besoin de mener des études complètes et comparatives pour en évaluer l’impact sur l’IAM et pour s’assurer que l’action municipale de lutte contre l’IAM est fondée sur des données probantes.

Should Canadian health promoters support a food stamp-style program to address food insecurity?

Food insecurity is an urgent public health problem in Canada, affecting 4 million Canadians in 2012, including 1.15 million children, and associated with significant health concerns. With little political will to address this significant policy issue, it has been suggested that perhaps it is time for Canada to try a food stamp-style program. Such a program could reduce rates of food insecurity and improve the nutritional health of low-income Canadians. In this article, we explore the history of the US food stamp program; the key impetus of which was to support farmers and agricultural interests, not to look after the needs of people living in poverty. Though the US program has moved away from its roots, its history has had a lasting legacy, cementing an understanding of the problem as one of lack of food, not lack of income. While the contemporary food stamp program, now called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), reduces rates of poverty and food insecurity, food insecurity rates in the USA are significantly higher than those in Canada, suggesting a food stamp-style program per se will not eliminate the problem of food insecurity. Moreover, a food stamp-style program is inherently paternalistic and would create harm by reducing the autonomy of participants and generating stigma, which in itself has adverse health effects. Consequently, it is ethically problematic for health promoters to advocate for such a program, even if it could improve diet quality.

Cultural and Symbolic Capital With and Without Economic Constraint

Abstract This paper uses a Bourdieusian theoretical framework to explore how thirty-nine Canadian families shop for food. Based on two qualitative interviews with at least two members of each family, in seven sites across Canada, we explore how high- and low-income families describe their food shopping practices and priorities. For low-income households, economic constraints were paramount, and shoppers displayed extensive cultural capital in the knowledge and skills required to purchase food at the lowest possible cost. They also displayed considerable agreement with the dominant discourses of healthy eating and ethical eating, though they typically lacked the economic capital to pursue these. High-income households were less constrained by finances in their food shopping, thus freeing them to focus on quality and authenticity. These priorities coexisted with or superseded emphases on healthy and ethical eating, suggesting the latter two may have diminished in their symbolic power to mark class distinctions.

The visible and invisible occupations of food provisioning in low income families

ABSTRACT Food-related occupations connect people with family, community, tradition, ritual, and culture. They are a means of producing and conveying social identities, as they are rife with symbolic meaning. Food provisioning occupations require complex knowledges and skills, particularly for those living on low income. This qualitative analysis explores the occupations of food provisioning for 31 low-income families in Canada. Participants displayed substantial planning, strategy and skill to circumvent the barriers imposed by transportation, financial limitations, and competing priorities. Providing food was a highly meaningful component of parenting for most adults, yet their actual experiences of grocery shopping on low income were often quite unpleasant. In contemporary neoliberal societies in which responsible, disciplined consuming is a hallmark of good citizenship, food provisioning is subject to intense judgement and stigma. Attending to the way low income shoppers describe their own food provisioning occupations reveals resistance to dominant discourses that position them as lazy, uneducated and irresponsible. Instead they draw on alternative discourses to position themselves as frugal, knowledgeable, skilled consumers, and good parents by oppositional standards.

Canada’s missed opportunity to implement publicly funded school meal programs in the 1940s

ABSTRACT Unlike many other countries, Canada does not have a publicly funded school lunch program. Instead, parents are responsible for feeding their children during school hours, and charitable organizations attempt to fill gaps for children living in poverty. Canadian activists have mounted a campaign for a federally funded school meal program to address numerous issues affecting children’s health, including an ‘obesity crisis.’ Our examination of the historical record suggests contemporary school meal advocates are in a position similar to the early 1940s, when there was great public concern about a ‘crisis of malnutrition’ that was undermining the strength of the nation. There was widespread support for a federally funded school meal program as part of a social democratic vision for a ‘social minimum’ to support Canadians’ well-being. However, the federal government adopted only one of many recommendations for a social minimum, the Family Allowance, which provided monthly cash payments to families. The 1940s campaign for federally funded school meals fizzled because the federal government saw the Family Allowance as an adequate solution to the problem of child malnutrition and, in keeping with its liberal welfare state ideology, preferred to keep responsibility for children’s well-being with the family, not the state. In addition, the scientific consensus about the constitution of malnutrition shifted, an important pilot test studying school meals’ nutritional benefits provided inconclusive results, and a key advocate died. The historical record supports Crenshaw’s contention that demands for change that are outside the dominant ideology are rarely adopted.

Implicating municipalities in addressing household food insecurity in Canada: A pan-Canadian analysis of news print media coverage

OBJECTIVES: Household food insecurity (HFI) affects approximately 13% of Canadian households and is especially prevalent among low-income households. Actions to address HFI have been occurring primarily at the local level, despite calls for greater income supports from senior governments to reduce poverty. News media may be reinforcing this trend, by emphasizing food-based solutions to HFI and the municipal level as the site where action needs to take place. The objective of this study was to examine the level and framing of print news media coverage of HFI action in Canada.METHODS: Using a quantitative newspaper content analysis approach, we analyzed 547 articles gathered from 2 national and 16 local/regional English-language newspapers published between January 2007 and December 2012.RESULTS: News coverage increased over time, and over half was produced from Ontario (33%) and British Columbia (22%) combined. Of the 374 articles that profiled a specific action, community gardens/urban agriculture was most commonly profiled (17%), followed by food banks/meal programs (13%); 70% of articles implicated governments to take action on HFI, and of these, 43% implicated municipal governments. Article tone was notably more negative when senior governments were profiled and more neutral and positive when municipal governments were profiled.CONCLUSION: News media reporting of this issue in Canada may be placing pressure on municipalities to engage in food-based actions to address HFI. A more systematic approach to HFI action in Canada will require more balanced media reporting that acknowledges the limitations of food-based solutions to the income-based problem of HFI.RésuméOBJECTIFS: L’insécurité alimentaire des ménages (IAM) touche environ 13 % des ménages canadiens et prévaut particulièrement parmi les ménages à faible revenu. Les mesures de lutte contre l’IAM se prennent principalement à l’échelon local, malgré les appels à un meilleur soutien du revenu auprès des paliers de gouvernement supérieurs afin de réduire la pauvreté. Il est possible que les médias d’information renforcent cette tendance en mettant l’accent sur les solutions alimentaires à l’IAM et en faisant valoir que les mesures devraient se prendre à l’échelon municipal. Notre étude visait à examiner le palier de gouvernement et le cadrage de la couverture des mesures de lutte contre l’IAM présentés dans la presse écrite au Canada.MÉTHODE: À l’aide d’une démarche d’analyse quantitative du contenu des journaux, nous avons analysé 547 articles recueillis dans deux journaux nationaux et 16 journaux locaux ou régionaux de langue anglaise parus entre janvier 2007 et décembre 2012.RÉSULTATS: La couverture médiatique a augmenté avec le temps, et plus de la moitié des articles ont été rédigés soit en Ontario (33 %), soit en Colombie-Britannique (22 %). Sur les 374 articles portant sur une mesure particulière, les articles sur les jardins communautaires/l’agriculture urbaine ont été les plus courants (17 %), suivis de ceux sur les banques alimentaires/les programmes de dépannage alimentaire (13 %); 70 % des articles demandaient aux gouvernements d’agir pour contrer l’IAM, et de ce nombre, 43 % interpellaient les administrations municipales. Le ton des articles était remarquablement plus négatif quand il était question des paliers de gouvernement supérieurs et plus neutre ou positif quand il était question des administrations municipales.CONCLUSION: Il est possible que les reportages des médias d’information sur cette question au Canada fassent pression sur les municipalités pour qu’elles prennent des mesures alimentaires afin de lutter contre l’IAM. Une démarche plus systématique pour aborder les mesures de lutte contre l’IAM au Canada nécessitera des reportages médiatiques plus équilibrés, qui reconnaissent les contraintes des solutions alimentaires au problème de l’IAM fondée sur le revenu.

A Review of “The Donut: A Canadian History”

the Cartagena Protocol. As Hochstetler eloquently puts it: GM products may be indistinguishable to the consumer eye, but the same cannot be said of the view of the consumer (165). The increasing ‘bottom up demand’ for biotechnology coming from farmers in India and South America, as highlighted in Chapters four and eight, demand verification and further study. In the light of these demands, the pro-GMO industry language behind the debate has nimbly shifted from a discourse of ‘poverty saviours’ to one of ‘field-level democracy’ and ‘farmers choice.’ A deficiency within published GM literature echoes throughout the book: the documented human health effects of GMOs. The presupposition that GMOs can raise agricultural production and therefore global nutritional standards has already been largely refuted. Further independent studies are needed on the ramifications of the long-term public health effects of GMO consumption. Indeed, a perspective on the political economy of public health and nutrition as regards GMO food would have been an exceptional addition to an otherwise outstanding book.