| dc.description.abstract | Amongst the numerous changes in contemporary (post-apartheid) South Africa are those related to reorganisation and globalisation of the food environment. Changes in the food environment are evident across the world through the global food system which has witnessed shifts in routine experiences of food procurement and types of food eaten. In South Africa, these shifts—termed the nutrition transition—coincided with the transition to democratic government in 1994. As South Africa merged back into the global food system, global food patterns began to appear in South Africa’s food environment resulting in changes in food consumption patterns and the increasing prevalence of supermarkets in low-income communities. Within this setting, there is limited research focusing on the contemporary South African food environment and how people interact with it to access food. This study seeks to fill this research gap by explore meanings of place and sense of place in connection to individuals’ interactions with their food environments in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Adopting a qualitative research design and constructivist grounded theory, the study employed qualitative methods including photovoice and semi-structured photo elicitation interviews. These methods allowed for an in-depth exploration of the relationships between place, sense of place, and the food environment, often with a range of place-and-food relationships ranging from a sense of belonging, a sense of alienation and a sense of agency related to food sources. Findings revealed important understandings of food places within the food environment linked to the familiarity of food place, and the social interactions at the places where food is accessed. Furthermore, findings pointed toward the high level of resourcefulness by making use of social capital related to food resources to alleviate food insecure periods. | en_US |
