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3 pages/≈825 words
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APA
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Social Sciences
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English (U.S.)
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Topic:

Structure and Agency in Relation to Food Security. Social Essay

Essay Instructions:

Throughout the course we have considered the balance between the ability of individuals to act independently (often referred to as agency in the sociological tradition) compared to the influence of political, social, economic and physical environments (often referred to as structure in the sociological tradition) in relation to food choice. Illustrate your understanding of agency and structure by using course readings and discussions in relation to at least three of the following topics discussed throughout the course: food literacy, Advocacy for living well / food environments, food security and/or food systems.
USE THESE RESOURCES:
Week 6: Food Literacy
- Cullen, T., Hatch, J., Martin, W., Higgins, J. W., & Sheppard, R. (2015). Food Literacy: Definition and Framework for Action. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 76(3), 1-6.
- Perry, E. A., Thomas, H., Samra, H. R., Edmonstone, S., Davidson, L., Faulkner, A., ... & Kirkpatrick, S. I. (2017). Identifying attributes of food literacy: a scoping review. Public Health Nutrition, 1-10.
Week 9: Advocacy for Health
- Minaker, L.M., Raine, K.D., Wild, T.C., Nykiforuk, C.I.J, Thompson, M.E., Frank, L.D. (2013). Objective Food Environments and Health Outcomes. American Journal of Preventive Medicine; 45(3):289-296.
- Truth and Reconciliation Canada. (2015). Honouring the truth, reconciling for the future: Summary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Retrieved from 
http://www(dot)trc(dot)ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Exec_Summary_2015_05_31_web_o. pdf (D2L link)
- The Agenda with Steve Paikin. (Dec 1, 2014). Leesee Papatsie: Feeding the North. Retrieved from
https://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=ObXofCyHRQg
Week 10: Food Security
- McIntyre, L. (2003). Food security: More than a determinant of health. Policy Options, March, 46-51.
- Health Canada (2017). Food Security homepage. Retrieved from
https://www(dot)canada(dot)ca/en/health-canada/services/nutrition-science-research/food-security.html (D2L link)
- Loopstra, R., & Tarasuk, V. (2015). Food bank usage is a poor indicator of food insecurity: Insights from Canada. Social Policy and Society, 14(03), 443-455. (e-reserve)
Week 11: Food systems
- Allen, P. (2008). Mining for justice in the food system: perceptions, practices, and possibilities. Agriculture and Human Values, 25(2): 157-161.
- Hodgins, K. J., & Fraser, E. D. (2017). " We are a business, not a social service agency." Barriers to widening access for low-income shoppers in alternative food market spaces. Agriculture and Human Values, 1-14.
- Godlee, F. (2012). Food Matters. British Medical Journal, 344, e3469 (Published 16 May 2012)
- Barber, D (Feb 2010). TED Talk: Dan Barber: How I fell in love with a fish. Retrieved from
http://www(dot)ted(dot)com/talks/dan_barber_how_i_fell_in_love_with_a_fish?language=en
** I have attached the some of the resources I had available.
So this is the question to which you'll write the essay using the readings I provided:
Throughout the course we have considered the balance between the ability of individuals to act independently (often referred to as agency in the sociological tradition) compared to the influence of political, social, economic and physical environments (often referred to as structure in the sociological tradition) in relation to food choice. Illustrate your understanding of agency and structure by using course readings and discussions in relation to at least three of the following topics discussed throughout the course: food literacy, Advocacy for living well / food environments, food security and/or food systems.

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Structure and Agency in Relation to Food Security, Food Literacy and Food Systems
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Agency and Structure in Relation to Issues of Food (Food Security, Food Literacy, and Food Systems
Introduction
The contemporary debate over the importance of structure or agency is founded on an issue of both classical and contemporary sociology: the ontological questions, “What makes up the social world?” “What is a cause and an effect in the social context?” “Which has a bigger influence on human behavior? Structure or agency?” There are different approaches that have been advanced to explain the interactions between structure and agency, with those that strive to create a compromise between the two extremes being the most beneficial. The view of most structural functionalists such as Emile Durkheim is that structure and hierarchy are key to the establishment of the very existence of society. On the other hand, theorists like Karl Marx see the social structure as a possible detriment to the majority of the people in a certain society. In both instances, we can infer structure as referring to something material or economic and cultural (in relation to norms, beliefs, and traditions) (Ashwin, 2012). According to other theorists, our knowledge of our social existence is majorly determined by the general structure of society. They explain that an individual’s perceived agency is mainly influenced by the overall structure of society. Another group of theorists stresses the ability of a person's "agents" to make and remake their worlds. Finally, the view taken by most contemporary theorists is that structure and agency complement each other. They assert that structure has a major influence on human behavior and that we have the capacity to change the social structures we inhabit. This paper discusses structure and agency in relation to food literacy, food security and, food systems.
Food literacy can be defined as the ability to understand the basic nature of food and its importance to an individual as well as how an individual can find information about food, process it, scrutinize it and act upon it. The connection between food literacy and state apparatus has received much attention from various scholars in the social sciences in the past decade. The structuralist understanding of the issues of food is that societies are forced to conform to the restrictive logic of the national structure, which has been mainly shaped by the capitalist economic structure of the country (Loopstra, 2015). On the other hand, according to agent centrists, the government has monopolized food sources and sources of information on food and designed the processes for the responses of other agencies like individual citizens and companies. With regards to food security, the agent-centrist view is that the emergent form of state-market relationship is not an indicator of the erosion of state power on, because the growth of the food industry is reliant on consent from the government (Hodgins and Fr...
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