Topic of the thesis: Food, welfare and disicpline: a study on the right to healthy food in Turin.

Abstract: The project will focus on the analysis of the social representation of eating in poverty, and on the reconstruction of food insecure people’s foodscapes in Turin, with particular attention on the capability of eating healthily. Representations, as discourses, are strictly connected with policies. In particular, social representations influence directly how poor people are perceived as bad or good eaters, or as a group of people capable of healthy choices, and, consequently, they influence how policies approach and assure food justice, that is the right to a healthy and culturally appropriated diet. The variety of the composition of each individual foodscape is barely infinite, and it partly depends on the use of space through policies, which often depict the habit of healthy eating as an individual burden: people, accompanied by polices, learn to navigate their grocery store and neighborhood in search of healthy food; in this sense foodscapes are also the product of structures of inequalities and the results of negative representations of food insecure’s consumption habits. People assign to healthy eating a number of complex meanings: it can be discussed in terms of nutrients, of items, of how food is produced, processed or prepared, and often is represented as a moral duty. This disciplining narrative might not have the same influence on every social groups practices: a primary source of such discourses are the diverse authoritative recommendations: nutritional prescriptions, medical recommendations, food policies, food welfare policies, but also the relationship with volunteers of food welfare programs, when it is focused on the promotion of healthier food habits among recipients. Starting from these considerations, the main research questions are: How healthy food is represented by food insecure people? How food insecure people’s food patterns are represented by the actors of Turin’s food welfare? How they conceptualize healthy eating and healthy eaters when they play a role in the promotion of healthier diets among welfare recipients? Which are the foodscapes of food insecure people in Turin? What type of foodscape do welfare food policies envision for food insecure people in Turin, and why? The research will be carried out through a multi-method qualitative strategy, which includes the analysis of policy narratives, interviews, participant observation and the analysis of participant's foodscapes maps.

Research interests: Food studies – Poverty studies – Spatial analysis – Welfare studies – Food poverty studies.

Graduated from: University of Turin.

Degrees obtained: BA in Social Work – MA in Sociology.

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