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Place and Food: a Relational Analysis of Personal Food Environments, Meanings of Place and Diet Quality

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Place and Food: a Relational Analysis of Personal Food Environments, Meanings of Place and Diet Quality Wilfrid Laurier University Scholars Commons @ Laurier Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) 2010 Place and Food: A Relational Analysis of Personal Food Environments, Meanings of Place and Diet Quality Ellen Desjardins Wilfrid Laurier University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd Part of the Human Geography Commons Recommended Citation Desjardins, Ellen, "Place and Food: A Relational Analysis of Personal Food Environments, Meanings of Place and Diet Quality" (2010). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 1114. https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/1114 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-75402-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-75402-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Place and Food: A Relational Analysis of Personal Food Environments, Meanings of Place and Diet Quality By Ellen Desjardins Bachelor of Science, University of British Columbia, 1977 Master of Health Science, University of Toronto, 1986 Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Doctor of Philosophy Wilfrid Laurier University Waterloo, Ontario, Canada 2010 ©Ellen Desjardins 2010 ABSTRACT This study investigates the relational layers of meanings that people experience at places in their food environment, and how individuals express a sense of place through their collective interactions with, and understandings of, food places. It also explores the patterns of difference among these meanings of place and sense of place in terms of their potential association with dietary quality. The context of this inquiry was two-fold: first, the need identified by several population health researchers and to re-imagine place as relational and include it in the study of behavioural responses to the changing food environment; and secondly, my interest in examining how existing theories of place and sense of place can help explicate people-place-food interactions, a hitherto untested application. Methodologically, this study follows a mixed-methods approach, and is based on semi-structured interviews with a diverse sample of inner-city residents of Waterloo, Ontario. To focus on individuals' interactions with their food environment, attention is centred on the set of places that they choose to visit routinely to buy food or eat out: a hypothetical construct termed their "personal food environment" (PFE). The mapping of the PFE at each interview became an elicitation tool to verbally draw out the subjective, social and spatial meanings embedded in each place. Analysis with grounded theory also revealed the roles that food plays in shaping facets of personal sense of place, including feelings of belonging or alienation, active involvement and impulsiveness, and, for some people, a sense of connectedness on a global and/or local scale. A subset of these meanings of place and places was reflected in dietary behaviour, as measured by the Canadian Healthy Eating Index, and suggested four place-diet links. The interconnected conceptual and empirical qualities of place and food that emerged from this study are summarized in a conceptual framework. They represent parameters of the PFE that could be tested, defined and validated for use in future research. The findings of this dissertation suggest the need for similar studies with different demographic and geographic groups, and will consequently be of interest to theorists of place and health as well as to planners, food advocates and health professionals to inform programs and policy. 1 Acknowledgements I dedicate this thesis to my family: my husband, Michel, and my two sons, Adrien and Simon. All three of you encouraged me from the beginning, supported me wholeheartedly throughout the entire journey, and gave me sage advice and reassurance when I needed it. Thank you...for all your gentle inquiries and understanding, long phone calls from across the ocean, sense of humour, countless cups of coffee, chocolate and celebratory spirit, and above all, your listening and caring. Heartfelt thanks go to Bob Sharpe, my advisor, who guided me by making exactly the right suggestions at key crossroads, challenging and trusting me at the same time, and helping me learn the language of human geography. You are a superb teacher: dedicated, enthusiastic, and yourself a learner. Thank you, Rhona Harming, for your kind wisdom, cheerful energy, generous support and for keeping me grounded in nutrition. Sincere thanks to Steffanie Scott, for being a constant friend, colleague and mentor, and for pulling me into academia as well as facilitating my post-doctoral journey. Many thanks to Sean Doherty, for your genuine support and for introducing me to the world of GPS and activity space. What a joy to have an advisory committee who are all foodies! I am grateful for the friendship of fellow doctoral students Jessica Wegener, Erin Hobin and Leia Minaker, and also to my longterm friend and colleague Fiona Yeudall for inspiring confidence and helping me see the lighter side of things. I appreciate the assistance of Nina Bailey-Dick for letting me recruit half of my participants from her local buying club. I thank all 44 residents of uptown Waterloo who participated in my study. My first ethnographic research on food security with Cathy Campbell at the University of Toronto in 1987 was ground-breaking for me; without that experience, I would likely not have done this work all these years later. I would also like to acknowledge Doreen Massey, whose seminal ideas about connectedness and global sense of place originally influenced and inspired me at dinner in Kilburn, London, in March 2008. During the research and writing of this dissertation I gratefully received two years of funding from the Canada Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. ii CONTENTS Chapter 1 Overview and conceptual framework 1.1 Introduction a. Research questions b. Key concepts c. Situating this study d. Gaps in research 1.2 Conceptualization of place a. Ontological underpinnings i. Place is a human construct with relational dimensions ii. Meanings of place are created through human agency b. Epistemological implications i. Mixed methods ii. Grounded theory c. Applications i. Constructs and meanings of place through the lens of food ii. Mixed methods for deconstructing meanings of place iii. The Personal Food Environment 1.3 Synopsis Chapter 2 Methods and study population 2.1 Rationale for methods used 2.2 Research tools a. Semi-structured interview questionnaire b. City map as an elicitation tool c. 24-hr diet recalls 2.3 Study Population a. Recruitment of subjects b. Population reached 2.4 The Interview Process 2.5 Data processing methods a. Processing the interview data b. Exploratory analysis of personal food environment data c. Nutritional data analysis 2.6 Reflection on methods and process of analysis iii Chapter 3 Meanings of place in the personal food environment 3.1 Introduction 67 3.2 Subjective dimension of the personal food environment 70 a. Familiarity/comfort/enjoyment re: place 71 b. Senses relating food to a place 74 c. Nostalgia and historical connections about food at a place 76 d. Learning, expanding horizons at a place 78 e. Feelings about social/environmental responsibility 80 f. Trust, confidence about a place re: food production/handling 81 g. Summary 83 3.3 Social dimension of the personal food environment 84 a. Familiarity, relationship, communication with farmer, retailer
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