Better decisions for food security? Critical reflections on the economics of food choice and decision-making in development economics

Main author: Stevano, Sara
Other authors: Johnston, Deborah
Codjoe, Emmanuel Ashiedu
Format: Journal Article           
Online access: Click here to view record


id eprints-32514
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description With malnutrition recognised as a key public health issue, attention has been placed on how individuals can make better decisions to attain food and nutrition security. Nevertheless, food practice entails a complex set of decisions that are not fully understood. This paper interrogates the focus on food choice by investigating how socio-economic relations shape practices of food provisioning. Given the surge of behavioural approaches in development economics and our focus on a middle-income country, we contextualise food choice in the transformations of the conceptualisations of decision-making in development economics. We draw on mixed-method evidence on food consumption practices among schoolchildren in Accra, Ghana. We find that the food decision-making process is complex in that it entails multiple moments and people, and embodies contradictory motivations. Decisions are negotiated outcomes reflecting social relations of power among the actors involved. Socio-economic inequality fragments the urban food environment and material living conditions. Furthermore, the concentration of capital gives the food industry the power to shape material and cultural relations to food in ways that extraordinarily limit the scope for individual choice. This is a critical case study to understand the contemporary dynamics of malnutrition in the urban Global South, with broader relevance for the analysis of food poverty elsewhere.
format Journal Article
author Stevano, Sara
author_facet Stevano, Sara
Johnston, Deborah
Codjoe, Emmanuel Ashiedu
authorStr Stevano, Sara
author_letter Stevano, Sara
author2 Johnston, Deborah
Codjoe, Emmanuel Ashiedu
author2Str Johnston, Deborah
Codjoe, Emmanuel Ashiedu
title Better decisions for food security? Critical reflections on the economics of food choice and decision-making in development economics
publisher Oxford University Press
publishDate 2020
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/32514/