PhD Candidate
Katharine Cresswell Riol
Supervisors
- Dr Katharine Legun (Centre for Sustainability)
- Dr Sean Connelly (Geography)
- Professor Hugh Campbell (Centre for Sustainability)
Project dates
2016-2019
Brief Abstract
Hunger, a major issue within New Zealand, is addressed primarily through food banks. This charitable approach, which is in line with neoliberal ideology, is in breach of the human right to adequate food and has assisted with the depoliticisation of hunger. The purpose of this research is twofold: to investigate food banks as depoliticised spaces, taking into consideration the environments of the food bank and focusing specifically on the political, neoliberal components present, and to examine food bank users as potential political agents of their own emancipation and ascertain the psychological barriers that hinder class consciousness raising and the use of human rights. Placing social justice at the forefront, emphasis will be placed on the experiences of food bank users as a marginalised group that is having their human rights – including the right to adequate food – violated. Using Marxist and human rights theory, the primary focus is that of emancipation and community transformation, not though the researcher, but through those who are marginalised.
Publications
The Right to Food Guidelines, Democracy and Citizen Participation: Country Case Studies (2017) Routledge, Oxon
Photo Credit: Jerry Kiesewetter on Unsplash