URBANISATION, DIETARY CHANGE AND SOCIO-CULTURAL DRIVERS OF NUTRITIONAL BEHAVIOURS IN INDONESIA: A MIXED METHODS ANALYSIS

Abstract

The convergence of a changing burden towards increased rates of diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and of growing rates of urbanisation— considered a key upstream factor in shifting diets towards patterns conducive to NCDs—has drawn attention to low and middle-income countries (LMICs) as the epicentre of current global public health challenges. Using the case of Indonesia, a country that has undergone major shifts in terms of socio-economic and health indicators over the past decades, and a combination of statistical modelling techniques and fieldwork data, this thesis problematises the assumed linearity of food systems and dietary change in LMICs, and the role of urbanisation in these processes. It examines whether there is evidence of an alternative narrative of change, which can account for the heterogeneity existing in food systems and cultures between and within LMICs and in their urban food environments.