Answer:
ABSTRACT
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 involve
