The importance of stories in understanding people’s relationship to food: narrative inquiry methodology has much to offer the public health nutrition researcher and practitioner

Abstract

Objective: Despite the usefulness of quantitative research, qualitative research methodologies are equally needed to allow researchers to better understand the important social and environmental factors affecting food choice and eating habits. The present paper contributes insights from narrative inquiry, a well-established qualitative methodology, to a food-related doctoral research study. The connections between food shoppers and the producer, family, friends and others in the food system, between eaters and the earth, and how these connections affect people's meaning-making of food and pathways to food citizenship, were explored in the research. Design: The research used narrative inquiry methodology and focus groups for data collection. Setting: Five different food-ways in the Canberra region of Australia were selected for the present research; that is, community gardens, community-supported agriculture, farmers' markets, fresh food markets and supermarkets. Subjects: Fifty-two people voluntarily attended eight focus groups with four to nine participants in each. Results: From a practical perspective, the present paper offers a guide to the way in which narrative inquiry has been applied to one research project. The paper describes the application of narrative inquiry methodology, revealing the important place of narratives in generating new knowledge. The paper further outlines how phased narrative analysis can lead to a defensible and rigorous interpretive framework grounded in the data generated from people's stories and meaning-making. Conclusions: We argue that individual, social and system change will not be possible without further rigorous qualitative studies to inform and complement the empirical basis of public health nutrition practice.

Food on the Margins: A Creative Film Collaboration to Amplify the Voices of Those Living with Food Insecurity

“…Participatory approaches recognise that we are all able to utilise a range of methodologies to investigate, analyse and come to terms with new knowledge (People’s Knowledge, 2016: 2). This supports constructivist assertions that subjective and inter-subjective social knowledge is co-constructed collectively by participants and researchers (O’Kane and Pamphilon, 2015), with potential to inform policy recommendations (Kreiling and Paunov, 2021). The voices of people with lived experience of food insecurity should become a priority for integrated food policy research and action (Pettinger et al, 2017).…”

“…Food stories, in particular, have an essential role in revealing the important place of narratives in generating new knowledge. The deeper understanding that emerges from close attention being paid to hearing and interpreting people’s food stories can offer alternative ways to understand the lived experience of food insecurity (O’Kane and Pamphilon, 2015) and build a more collective voice that can democratise the food system (Cachelin et al, 2019).…”

Farmers’ Adaptive Strategies in Balancing Commercial Farming and Consumption of Nutritious Foods: Case Study of Myanmar

“…It has been applied to understand food choice factors [47], to explore food related meanings [48], eating disorders [49,50], relationships with food [51], and healthy eating [52]. Narrative inquiry has also been used to understand whole food systems, including production aspects [53]. The timeline technique was used as it is designed to respect contextual and historical influences, generating data based on stakeholders' individual and collective perceptions, thus reflecting developments over time [54].…”

Farmers’ Adaptive Strategies in Balancing Commercial Farming and Consumption of Nutritious Foods: Case Study of Myanmar

“…It has been applied to understand food choice factors [47], to explore food related meanings [48], eating disorders [49,50], relationships with food [51], and healthy eating [52]. Narrative inquiry has also been used to understand whole food systems, including production aspects [53]. The timeline technique was used as it is designed to respect contextual and historical influences, generating data based on stakeholders' individual and collective perceptions, thus reflecting developments over time [54].…”