Negotiating and Navigating Invisible Food Deserts: An Exploratory Study on Foodways of Adults on the Autism Spectrum

I explored foodways of adults on the autism spectrum in order to understand how they negotiate and navigate their food environments. Foodways are beliefs and practices involved in food production, preparation, distribution and consumption (Counihan 2008). In an effort to hear marginalized voices in autism discourse, I conducted an online survey and interviews in modes chosen by participants to accommodate the communication needs of a wide range of autistic adults. The primary participants were highly educated adults with a formal autism diagnosis (n = 23) and self-diagnosed adults (n = 6). Out of the 29 autistic participants who completed the survey, eight participated in online interviews or in-person interviews. I also conducted a supplementary online survey and interviews with three parents of autistic adults. Participants’ beliefs about needing certain diets to treat or ameliorate autism were related to their conceptions of autism, and they described their food environments as invisible food deserts, where access to food that may benefit health was limited because their autism-related characteristics were not accommodated. The characteristics of the invisible food deserts included limited availability of edible foods due to restricted diets, ‘unsafe’ people who enforce unwanted social interactions or diets, prevalent over-stimulating food places and hours of operation experienced as restricted. Negative experiences of the invisible food deserts were often exacerbated by limited financial resources, difficulty in asking for changes or help, limited mobility due to lack of driving skills and challenges in cooking and growing food. To survive in invisible food deserts, they used various coping strategies, which I categorized as avoiding the source of inputs, blocking inputs, and maintaining distracted focus. Some of the strategies entailed concerns and costs. I discuss implications for a food environment that is friendly to autistic adults and suggestions for future research

An exploration of epileptic and nonepileptic seizures : an interpretative phenomenological analytic study

Background Differentiating epileptic seizures from non epileptic seizures (NES) has always been difficult. Seizures can look very similar, substantial physical injury and incontinence can occur in both conditions and people can have both conditions simultaneously. Treatment for each condition is very different however, epilepsy needing anti epileptic medication whereas NES is a psychologically rooted condition. Aims To develop previous work To document a number of detailed seizures descriptions and to analyse these using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) To identify linguistic markers to differentiate NES from epilepsy Methodology This project used IPA as a more expansive method of 'history taking' being completely patient led. The approach and its theoretical antecedents have been described in depth in the thesis. Four newly referred patients with uncertain diagnoses were interviewed once, three twice. There was additional, contextual data. Results The interpretation illustrated that subjective seizure experiences using IPA can contribute to previous work: It heralded the potential beginnings of the development of an alternative 'seizure discourse' for lay and professionals. It had the potential to contribute to patient information material and a screening tool. It offered new ideas for clinical practice and research. Discussion As an approach, IPA has the potential to combine its findings with those in the field of neurophenomenology in terms of expanding knowledge of corresponding subjective experiences. Conclusions Given that subjective experiences of people can help locate seizure foci, IPA has the potential for establishing itself as a qualitative scientific research approach in the area of seizure experiences

Bulloch Times (Statesboro News-Statesboro Eagle)

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/bulloch-news-issues/3192/thumbnail.jp

Biohacking, Bodies and Do-It-Yourself

From self-help books and nootropics, to self-tracking and home health tests, to the tinkering with technology and biological particles - biohacking brings biology, medicine, and the material foundation of life into the sphere of »do-it-yourself«. This trend has the potential to fundamentally change people's relationship with their bodies and biology but it also creates new cultural narratives of responsibility, authority, and differentiation. Covering a broad range of examples, this book explores practices and representations of biohacking in popular culture, discussing their ambiguous position between empowerment and requirement, promise and prescription

Non-Zero Sum Sport: Pickleball and the Theory of Coopetition

An ethnography of the sport of pickleball was conducted over a span of 7 months in the United States. Findings are partly the result of the author’s journey from playing in the park to playing in the Pros—presented in autoethnographic terms—and partly the result of 11 semi-structured interviews with 13 avid pickleball players. The main contention of this study is that sport is non-zero sum, despite a tendency for sport to be considered in zero sum terms. The non-zero sum aspect of sport is argued to be the result of two main causes: one, sport is coopetive, in that it is simultaneously competitive and cooperative; and two, players’ appraisals of their successes and failures are not strictly tied to wins and losses, but instead indicate a flexibility of potential rewards from competitions. The coopetive element of sport is particularly illuminated through the lens of agential realism. Findings also indicate that pickleball may be more coopetive and less zero sum than most sports