Nutritionalization in Indonesia

Problematization of Healthy Body and Good Food: Nutritionalization in Indonesia

Presented by
Dr. Aya Kimura
Professor of Women Studies
University of Hawaii at Manoa

This talk focuses on nutritionalization, or a changing discourse of the Third World food problem since the 1990s that emphasizes different aspects of food and nutrition.The transition can be described as from hunger to "hidden hunger," from macro nutrients to micronutrients, and from quantity to quality of food.

Using Foucault's concept of "problematization," the talk explores the apparatus of meaning making for scientific communities and beyond, using a case study in Indonesia.

Professor Aya Kimura's research and teaching interests focus on the intersection of technoscience and gender particularly in the fields of food and environmental issues in Asia. Her dissertation examined how nutritional science can structure the meanings of, and prescriptions for, the world food problem. she spent one year conducting field research in Indonesia for this project. Other topics she have researched include the politics of genetically modified organisms particularly in developing nations, and local food movements in Japan. She has also been working more recently on issues of participation and democracy in food governance.

Professor Kimura received her Ph.D. in Sociology from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006 and her MA in Environmental Studies from Yale University in 2001. Her most recent publications include "The Chisan-Chisho movement: Japanese local food movement and its challenges," co-authored with Mima Nishiyama, Agriculture and Human Values 25 (1) 49-64, 2008; and "Who defines the 'needs' of babies?: Scientization of baby food in Indonesia," Social Politics, (forthcoming)

Event Sponsor
Center for Southeast Asian Studies, UH Manoa

More Information
Paul Rausch, 956-2688, cseas@hawaii.edu

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