Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Science and Politics of Obesity in India

研究生Solomon Harris将在Catherine a. Lutz博士的指导下，对印度肥胖症流行的社会背景、原因和后果进行研究。主要目标是更好地理解对流行病的关注与科学和广泛的社会变革之间的关系，特别是当所讨论的疾病是慢性的，并被定义为“生活方式”问题时。这项研究将在孟买进行。研究人员将使用参与者观察，访谈和批判性话语分析的民族志方法来描述围绕肥胖及其健康后果的问题范围。这些争论的范围从对中产阶级过度消费的担忧，到南亚遗传倾向的理论，再到体重增加。在此过程中，该研究还将寻找更广泛的社会主题，这些主题可能是这些辩论的基础，例如：那些吃得过多的人如何比营养不良的人更引人注目；关于“生活方式”的医学观念如何遮蔽那些关心卫生的人；以及对稀缺的焦虑如何让位于对过剩的焦虑。最终，该项目将创建一个国家公共卫生困境的社会地图。这项研究很重要，因为肥胖是一个正在蔓延的世界公共卫生问题。这个项目将有助于理解社会文化维度如何与医学维度相互作用。这项研究也支持了社会科学家的教育。

Graduate student Solomon Harris, under the direction of Dr. Catherine A. Lutz, will undertake research on the social contexts, causes, and consequences of a reported epidemic of obesity developing in India. The primary objective is to better understand how concerns about epidemics relate both to science and to broad social transformations, particularly when the disease in question is chronic and is framed as a matter of "lifestyle." The research will be carried out in Mumbai. The researcher will use ethnographic methods of participant observation, interviews, and critical discourse analysis to delineate the range of issues surrounding obesity and its health consequences. These debates range from concerns about middle-class overconsumption to theories of South Asian genetic predispositions to weight gain. In doing so, the research also will seek out broader social themes that may underlie these debates, such as: how those who are overfed gain visibility over those who are undernourished; how medical ideas about "lifestyle" shade those concerned with hygiene; and how anxieties about scarcity give way to those about excess. Ultimately, the project will create a social map of a national public health dilemma.The research is important because obesity is a spreading world public health problem. This project will contribute to understanding how sociocultural dimensions interact with medical ones. The research also supports the education of a social scientist.