TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF A CHANGING FOOD SYSTEM IN MAURITIUS: A CASE STUDY OF RURAL AND URBAN MAURITIUS Jessy [Pick the date] Univeristy of Cape Town The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. CONTEXTUALISING MAURITIUS ........................................................................................................... 6 1.2. STRUCTURE OF THIS DISSERTATION .................................................................................................... 8 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................................. 10 2.1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 10 2.1.1. The History of Changing Diets ....................................................................................................... 10 2.2. THE NUTRITION TRANSITION ............................................................................................................. 13 2.2.2. Nutrition Transition in the Developed World ............................................................................... 14 2.2.3. Nutrition Transition in the Developing World .............................................................................. 16 2.2.4. Different Experiences of the Westernisation of the Global Diet ................................................... 18 2.2.4.1. The new dietary dimensions in China ................................................................................................. 19 2.2.4.2. Nutrition transition in India ................................................................................................................ 20 2.2.4.3. The experience of the nutrition transition in the Fiji Islands .............................................................. 21 2.3. DRIVING FORCES BEHIND THE NUTRITION TRANSITION .................................................................... 22 2.3.1. Globalisation ................................................................................................................................ 23 2.3.1.1. The link between income and diet structure ...................................................................................... 24 2.3.1.2. Globalisation of mass media ............................................................................................................... 26 2.3.1.3. Economic restructuring ....................................................................................................................... 27 2.3.1.3.1. Transnational food corporations ............................................................................... 28 2.3.1.3.2. Trade liberalisation .................................................................................................... 29 2.3.2. Urbanisation ................................................................................................................................. 32 2.3.3. The Dietary Impact of the Absorption of Women into the Labour Force ...................................... 34 2.3.4. The Supermarket Revolution ......................................................................................................... 35 2.4. HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF THE NUTRITION TRANSITION ............................................................... 36 2.4.1. The Epidemiological and Demographic Shifts ............................................................................... 36 2.4.2. The Developed World .................................................................................................................... 38 2.4.3. The Developing World ................................................................................................................... 38 2.5. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 39 3. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................................... 44 3.1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 44 3.2. USING A QUALITATIVE APPROACH TO ANALYSE THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF A CHANGING FOOD SYSTEM ........................................................................................................................................................... 45 3.3. INTRODUCING THE STUDY SITES ........................................................................................................ 46 3.3.1. Tranquebar, Port Louis .................................................................................................................. 47 3.3.2. Bambous Virieux ........................................................................................................................... 51 3.4. DATA COLLECTION METHODS ............................................................................................................ 53 3.4.1. Observation .................................................................................................................................. 54 3.4.2. Sampling for a Representative Group across the Two Study Sites ............................................... 55 3.4.2.1. The selection criteria........................................................................................................................... 55 3.4.2.2. The sample group ............................................................................................................................... 56 3.4.2.3. Snowballing and sampling technique ................................................................................................... 1 3.4.3. Mapping of Food Sources ............................................................................................................... 2 3.4.4. Data Collection through Semi-Structured In-Depth Interviews ....................................................... 2 3.4.4.1. The initial approach .............................................................................................................................. 2 3.4.4.2. In-depth semi-structured interviews .................................................................................................... 4 3.4.5. Food Narratives............................................................................................................................... 5 3.4.6. Data Capturing and Analysis........................................................................................................... 6 3.4.7. Secondary Data ............................................................................................................................... 6 3.5. REFLECTING ON THE CONSTRUCTS OF MY IDENTITY ........................................................................... 7 3.5.1. Being a Cultural Insider .................................................................................................................. 8 3.5.2. Cultural Insider and Yet Different ................................................................................................... 9 3.5.3. PoWer Struggle .............................................................................................................................. 10 3.6. ETHICAL CONCERNS ........................................................................................................................... 10 3.7. LIMITATIONS ...................................................................................................................................... 11 3.8. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 12 4. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN MAURITIUS ........................................................................................... 14 4.1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 14 4.1.1. The Ambiguous Term ‘Traditional Food System’ in the Mauritian Context .................................. 15 4.2. THE MAURITIAN SOCIETY: A PRODUCT OF GLOBALISATION .............................................................. 16 4.2.1. The Colonial History of Mauritius ................................................................................................