Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree (180 credits) within social sciences or public health and caring sciences or at least 180 credits within Teacher Education programmes, including Home and Consumer Studies (60 credits) or equivalent.

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, the student should be able to:

• Identify inter-linkages and summarize how the meaning, beliefs and practices around food, affects food choices and health of individuals and families.
• Analyze the food decision-making process from an individual and family perspective, particularly in relation to migration.
• Identify different levels and types of actors in the food environment who affect the food choices and consumption patterns in society.
• Identify and motivate appropriate strategies to address healthy dietary behaviours in multicultural populations.
• Critically analyse and synthesize the relation between food and disease, particularly the impact of culture, migration and food environment.

Content

This course will address the inter-linkages between food and society with special focus on culture, migration and health. The relation between food and disease is relevant and crucial in our current times, particularly as food is a hotly debated topic in the public agenda. Migration and its effects on food choices and eating habits will be a major part of the course. The course will contain an overview of how the meaning, beliefs and practices around food affects food choices and health of individuals and families. The students will gain an understanding of the dynamics of food decision-making at different levels and discuss culturally and contextually appropriate interventions that focus on food and health. The impact of culture, migration and food environment will be analysed and discussed from a public health and social sciences perspective.

Instruction

The course consists of lectures, seminars and individual assignments.

Assessment

Oral and written assignments. To pass the course, the student should have completed all mandatory assignments and be approved as actively participated in the discussion forums, seminars and oral presentations. For the grade Pass with distinction: In addition to the above requirement for the grade Pass, the student must demonstrate good ability to problematise from different perspectives, analyse, evaluate and summarize the inter-linkages between food, culture, migration and health and be able to defend their positions.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University’s disability coordinator.