Work

Ontological pleasure: Exploring eating as enjoyment among people with experience of homelessness

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Amidst globally escalating housing and cost of living crises, more and more people face the double challenge of securing shelter and food in their day-to-day lives. Yet, what meanings people with experience of homelessness attribute to eating is not well understood. We analyse eating as embedded in social relations between individual actors, social institutions, and organisations. We draw on a study conducted in Australia between March and October 2022 combining narrative interviews and participant-produced photography with 48 participants to focus on the role of pleasure derived from eating. Including participants who had exited homelessness and were now securely housed alongside participants who continued to experience homelessness offered analytical leverage to tease out nuances across different settings of housing and homelessness. Constraints on eating, how the task of eating is accomplished, and how people partake in civil rituals via food (re)produce the allocation of a position within a moral and social order. Attending to eating as a source of enjoyment in addition to nutrition and a means to quell hunger, we develop the notion of 'ontological pleasure' as a conceptual tool to make sense of these complexities.

Source: Social Science & Medicine

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117622

Authors: Stefanie Plage, Cameron Parsell, Rose-Marie Stambe, Robert Perrier, Ella Kuskoff

Institutions: The University of Queensland, ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course

Language: English

Topic: Homelessness and Social Issues

Subfield: General Health Professions

Field: Health Professions

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: No poverty

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,390