Food Insecurity Among University Students: A Sociological Perspective

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Imagine living every day without enough money for basic needs like food. Then add studying for exams, three to four-hour labs, and four to five 1 hour long lectures to the top of that… This is what some university students go through every day. After paying tuition, students barely have enough money to buy food for the rest of the term. A sociological study was done to see if students actually experience food insecurity like the university stereotype proposes. She found some great results that bring up the idea that food insecurity is a cultural phenomenon that has both physical and emotional effects but could have been improved with an anthropological approach. An Acadia University sociologist professor named Lesley Frank recently conducted …show more content…

In other words, everyone is a part of a culture and has some role in that culture. This is the case for the culture of university students. Obviously, university students are in their own culture but so are the people who are using hegemonic ideas to manipulate the university students. This proposes the idea that food insecurity is a cultural phenomenon that has physical and emotional effects. This can be observed with the hegemony and ideology theories combined with Geertz’s theory about culture. Geertz’s theory about culture describes how everyone is a part of a culture and has some role to play in that specific culture. When combining this with the hegemony and ideology theories, both the students and the people using the hegemonic culture of the students are part of the same culture. This proposition also agrees in Lesley Frank’s sociological study. Her study showed us that the food insecurity can have both physical and emotional effects on university students. Her findings showed that for some students it is difficult to stay focused in class and even harder to study for upcoming exams while they were hungry. Her study also showed that some students experienced shame and in some cases isolation because they could not go out with their friends for a coffee due to the fact that they had no money to spend on food. Bringing these two parts together this proposition is formed. This could be further proved if an anthropological approach was taken for this

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