School Food Politics in Mexico: The Corporatization of Obesity and Healthy Eating Policies (Critical Studies in Health and Education)

Synopsis

Intertwining policy analysis and ethnography, José Tenorio examines how, and why now, the promotion of healthy lifestyles has been positioned as an ideal ‘solution’ to obesity and how this shapes the preparation, sale and consumption of food in schools in Mexico. This book situates obesity as a structural problem enabled by market-driven policy change, problematizing the focus on individual behavior change which underpins current obesity policy. It argues that the idea of healthy lifestyles draws attention away from the economic and political roots of obesity, shifting blame onto an ‘uneducated’ population. Deploying Foucault’s concept of dispositif, Tenorio argues that healthy lifestyles functions as an ensemble of mechanisms to deploy representations of reality, spaces, institutions and subjectivities aligned with market principles, constructing individuals both as culprits for what they eat and the prime locus of policy intervention to change diets. He demonstrates how this ensemble enmeshes within the local cultural and economic conditions surrounding the provisioning of food in Mexican schools, and how it is contested in the practices around cooking. Expanding the conversation on the politics of food in schools, obesity policy and dominant perspectives on the relation between food and health, this book is a must-read for scholars of food and nutrition, public health and education, as well as those with an interest in development studies and policy enactment and outcomes.

Copyright:

2024

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9781000987959

Related ISBNs:

9781032410999, 9781003356264, 9781032411002

Publisher:

Taylor and Francis

Date of Addition:

10/26/23

Copyrighted By:

José Tenorio

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Education, Politics and Government

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.