Projects

Transdisciplinary Data Assemblages for a Socio-historical Understanding of the Formation of Caribbean Food Systems

Historically contextualising structural determinants of health can help elucidate entrenched power dynamics and key actors shaping contemporary public health.

Aim

The project aimed to understand how historical data of Caribbean food systems can be identified, curated and used to inform current policy and practice strategies for better nutrition and health.

Activities

We asked how a historical perspective of the drivers of high-level sugar sweetened beverage consumption in Jamaica can contribute to an enhanced understanding of the context of public health policies aimed at reducing their intake.

We were a transdisciplinary team of co-authors with specialisms in Caribbean history, public health, anthropology, political sciences, economics and ecology, who formed as part of a global health partnership building project.

Outcomes

We particularly aimed to contribute to the field of commercial determinants of health. We suggested including historical perspectives to this approach to understand how these global but also local dynamics have been established and engrained. To do so, we argued that entrenched dynamics of nutritional colonialism and sugar ecologies facilitate the domination of sugar sweetened beverage industries and high public demand for their products.

While this was a case study of Jamaica, we believe that a historical approach to the analysis of commercial determinants of health should be considered across contexts. Follow up projects, including the Global CFaH project, include the exploration of historical contexts.

Outputs

Barnett-Naghshineh, O., Warmington, S., Altink, H. et al. Situating commercial determinants of health in their historical context: a qualitative study of sugar-sweetened beverages in Jamaica. Global Health 19, 69 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-023-00962-5 

Guell C, Barnett-Naghshineh O, Warmington S, Altink H, Morrissey M, Smith MJ, Thurstan R, Unwin N, Govia I. OP15 How can history be harnessed for understanding commercial determinants of health in Jamaica? A qualitative study of sugar-sweetened beverages. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health Aug 2022, 76 (Suppl 1) A8; DOI: 10.1136/jech-2022-SSMabstracts.15
[oral presentation at Society for Social Medicine Annual Meeting, Exeter]