title: Food Insecurity in Singapore: The Communicative (Dis)Value of the Lived Experiences of the Poor.
abstract: Food insecurity is a form of health disparity that results in adverse health outcomes, particularly among disenfranchised and vulnerable populations. Using the culture-centered approach, this article engages with issues of food insecurity, health, and poverty among the low-income community in Singapore. Through 30 in-depth interviews, the narratives of the food insecure are privileged in articulating their lived experiences of food insecurity and in co-constructing meanings of health informed by their sociocultural context, in a space that typically renders them invisible. Arguing that poverty is communicatively sustained through the erasure of subaltern voices from mainstream discourses and policy platforms, we ask the research question: What are the meanings of food insecurity in the everyday experiences of health among the poor in Singapore? Our findings demonstrate that the meanings of health among the food insecure are constituted in culture and materiality, structurally constrained, and ultimately complexify their negotiations of health and health decision making.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Communications and New Media , National University of Singapore.
authors.forename: Naomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: a Department of Communications and New Media , National University of Singapore.
authors.forename: Satveer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kaur-Gill
authors.affiliation: a Department of Communications and New Media , National University of Singapore.
authors.forename: Mohan J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Dutta
authors.affiliation: b Department of English Language and Literature , National University of Singapore.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Venkataraman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics*; D066296:Grounded Theory; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011203:Poverty; D012846:Singapore; D014505:Urban Population