No Appetite for Change: Culture, Liberalism, and Other Acts of Depoliticization in the Australian Obesity Debate

Sociological Research Online ◽

10.1177/13607804211049456 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 136078042110494

Author(s):

Megan Warin

Keyword(s):

Food Systems ◽

Cultural Dynamics ◽

Individual Liberty ◽

Metabolic Rift ◽

Obesity Epidemic ◽

Political Relations ◽

Obesity Policy ◽

Australian Community ◽

Change Culture

There is wealth of evidence that points to the pernicious ways in which inequities in food, bodies, and health are disproportionally borne. Equally, there is a wealth of evidence that critiques the role of neoliberal imperatives for individuals to take responsibility for their health, and how this tenet reproduces inequity. However, health interventions and public policy remain immune to addressing social determinants of health and ignore the cultural dynamics of power in food systems, interventions, and policy. Drawing from ethnographic research in an Australian community that has high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage and obesity, and the Australian Government’s response to the ‘obesity epidemic’, this article examines the processes and tactics of depoliticization that are used to elide political and sociocultural phenomenon. I leverage the work of Brown and Povinelli to argue that liberalism’s hold on universalisms, autonomy, and individual liberty in obesity discourses subjugates a comprehension of political relations, positioning liberal principles and culture as mutually antagonistic. It is precisely this acultural positioning of liberalism that makes it possible to remove recognition of the power that produces and contours the ‘metabolic rift’ between food systems, public health, and equity priorities. In conclusion, I consider how obesity policy might be different if we paid attention to this culturalization of politics.

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The Role of Psychology in the Obesity Epidemic

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e673702011-001 ◽

2008 ◽

Author(s):

Danny Wedding

Keyword(s):

Obesity Epidemic

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The Role of Research and Innovation in the Transformation of Agri-Food Systems

Annals ”Valahia” University of Targoviste - Agriculture ◽

10.2478/agr-2018-0019 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 60-63

Author(s):

Mariana Sandu ◽

Stefan Mantea

Keyword(s):

Technological Progress ◽

Food Systems ◽

Food System ◽

Agricultural Research ◽

Research And Innovation ◽

And Performance ◽

The Impact ◽

Determinant Factor ◽

Rapid Transformation

Abstract Agri-food systems include branching ramifications, which connect in the upstream the input suppliers with farmers, and downstream farmers, processors, retailers and consumers. In the last decades, at the level of the regions, food systems have undergone rapid transformation as a result of technological progress. The paper analyzes the changes made to the structure, behavior and performance of the agri-food system and the impact on farmers and consumers. Also, the role of agricultural research as a determinant factor of transformation of agri-food system is analyzed. The research objective is to develop technologies that cover the entire food chain (from farm to fork) and meet the specific requirements of consumers (from fork to farm) through scientific solutions in line with the principles of sustainable agriculture and ensuring the safety and food safety of the population.

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Social Rules in Libertarian Thought

Journal des Économistes et des Études Humaines ◽

10.1515/jeeh-2020-0006 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Chad Van Schoelandt

Keyword(s):

Social Order ◽

Individual Liberty ◽

Social Rules ◽

Important Place ◽

Limited Government

AbstractLibertarianism upholds individual liberty as of primary political importance. The concern for liberty leads to support for highly limited government, and sometimes even anarchism. Sometimes people come under the mistaken impression that libertarians have such a myopic concern for individual liberty that they must oppose social rules and social order. While that is too extreme, libertarianism does seem to have significant tensions with social rules, and the role of social rules within libertarianism is complex and contentious. This work aims to bring out some of this complexity and to clarify the important place of social rules in libertarian thought.

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Exploring the Underlying Socio-Cultural Dynamics of Domestic Violence against Women by their Intimate Partners: A Contextualized Study of Rural Localities in Southern Punjab, Pakistan

Review of Applied Management and Social Sciences ◽

10.47067/ramss.v3i1.21 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 23-32

Author(s):

Tehmina Sattar ◽

Muhammad Imdad Ullah ◽

Asad Ur Rehman ◽

Sajid Tufail

Keyword(s):

Domestic Violence ◽

Public Health Issue ◽

Cultural Dynamics ◽

Intimate Partners ◽

Structural Problems ◽

Gender Oppression ◽

Violent Acts ◽

Interviewing Techniques ◽

Life Phenomenon

Domestic violence is considered as a serious socio-psychological and public health issue that has imperative implications on fecundity of women. This paper put forward consolidate findings about the prevalence of domestic violence in rural localities of Southern Punjab, Pakistan. The contextual realities demonstrated that women are considered to be subordinated in front of their marital partners where gender oppression is considered to be a “normal life phenomenon.” The researchers used obtrusive observations along with in-depth interviewing techniques to explore the contextualized underlying dynamics of the study phenomenon. The findings of this study demonstrate that husband was considered to own the hegemonic masculine powers, while women were subordinated in front of their intimate partners. Moreover, mother-in-law was also considered to be the most provoking person for aggravating domestic violence in household context. These violent acts directly affected the reproductive health of these victimized married females. Henceforth, education prevalence, gender awareness and role of sociologists to address the structural problems are the major recommendations that can be adopted to resolve this issue.

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THE ROLE OF ENGLAND IN THE FORMATION OF THE PROTO-STATEHOOD OF THE IRAQI KURDS AFTER THE FIRST WORLD WAR (1918–1920) IN THE MANDATE TERRITORIES FORM

Journal of the Institute of Oriental Studies RAS ◽

10.31696/2618-7302-2020-4-179-191 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 179-191

Author(s):

Kirill V. Vertyaev ◽

Keyword(s):

First World War ◽

World War ◽

Iraqi Kurdistan ◽

Political Relations ◽

The First World War ◽

Political Boundaries ◽

The Subject ◽

Distribution Of Power ◽

First World

The article develops the stadial formation thesis of the proto-statehood among the Iraqi Kurds. The concept of national identity of the Iraqi Kurds remains the subject of a complex and long-lasting discussion. The main obstacle for the emergence of the Kurdish integral nationalism is still the fact that the Kurds speak different dialects of Kurdish language, and still maintain political and inter-clan conflicts over the distribution of power (not to mention the futility of any attempts to define political boundaries of Iraqi Kurdistan). Ironically, Great Britain faced practically the same contradictions during its occupation of Mesopotamia at the end of the WWI (following the Mudros armistice in October 1918), when British attempts to create an independent Kurdish state failed for a number of reasons, which are discussed in the article. In our opinion, this period was responsible for the formation of proto-statehood in Kurdish area (Kingdom of Kurdistan, for example, obtained classic characteristics of a chiefdom, but at the same time had a vivid anti-colonial, anti-imperialist orientation). The phenomenology of the British government’s political relations with such ‘quasi-states’ presents the subject for this article’s analysis.

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The UK as victim and hero in the Sun’s coverage of the Brexit ‘humiliation’

Russian Journal of Linguistics ◽

10.22363/2687-0088-2021-25-3-645-662 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 645-662

Author(s):

Franco Zappettini

Keyword(s):

The Body ◽

The Public ◽

Political Relations ◽

Historical Role ◽

Political Dimensions ◽

The Uk ◽

Tabloid Journalism ◽

Tabloid Press ◽

The Eu

This paper discusses how emotions were mobilised by the British tabloid press as discursive strategies of persuasion during the public debate on the implementation of Brexit. Using the case study of the Suns coverage of the alleged UKs humiliation at the Salzburg meeting (2018) during the Brexit negotiations, the analysis addresses the questions of how and through which linguistic means actors and events were framed discursively in such an article. The findings suggest that The Sun elicited emotions of fear, frustration, pride, and freedom to frame Brexit along a long-established narrative of domination and national heroism. The discourse was also sustained by a discursive prosody in keeping with a satirical genre and a populist register that have often characterised the British tabloid press. In particular the linguistic analysis has shown how antagonistic representations of the UK and the EU were driven by an allegory of incompetent gangsterism and morally justified resistance. Emotionalisation in the article was thus aimed both at ridiculing the EU and at representing it as a criminal organisation. Such framing was instrumental in pushing the newspaper agenda as much as in legitimising and institutionalising harder forms of Brexit with the tabloids readership. Approaching journalist discourse at the intersection of affective, stylistic, and political dimensions of communication, this paper extends the body of literature on the instrumental use of emotive arguments and populist narratives and on the wider historical role of tabloid journalism in representing political relations. between the UK and the EU.

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