The aim of this article is to enumerate the main types of discourses in which the phenomenon of hunger is represented. These are following: culture of hunger (an anthropological and ethnological term describing cultural formations based on the problem of famine), politics of hunger (starvation used for political reasons), poetics of hunger (hunger as a component of a piece of art). The question about the difference between the presence of hunger (hunger’s narrative) and the representation of hunger (narrative of hunger) is the main problem of this essay. Brejnak claims that on the one hand, there is no unnarrated hunger (a natural/pure hunger) in cultural communication. On the other hand, he underlines that the experience of hunger as such is non-transitive and verbally inexpressible.
This article elaborates on the topic of food in the context of an armed conflict. It asks what happens to the social actor and his/hers „everyday bread“ in the conditions of extreme hunger and overall material scarcity? Using the example of eating practices during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s the author explores the issue of everyday subsistence strategies during the radical structural changes. She developes a thesis, that the ability of improvisation and the knowledge of the natural environment in the time of crises, significantly increases a chance of survival. Moreover, She also argues that in some situations food can be used as a tool of power and a marker of social exclusion. In extreme cases, targeted groups and individuals can be intentionally starved out. These research conclusions are based on author‘s longterm ethnographic and historical research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the town of Srebrenica and Sarajevo.
This article seeks to answer the following question: Can the history of Polish society provide the basis for developing the contemporary ethics of self-restraints? The author refers to folk history research from recent years, discussing hunger, cold and the constant fear for biological survival as the fate of the majority of people living in the Polish lands until the mid-twentieth century. She wonders how crude necessity could contribute to the formation of an attitude of conscious choice in modern people who are aware of the burden of their complicated legacy. While the article does not provide clear-cut answers, it points out the paradoxical bond in the fate of people from different epochs and the fear of catastrophe as a repetitive experience. At the same time, she shows that nowadays at least we have a choice as to what ethical approach to adopt with respect to the latter.
The subject of this work is focused on the problems of famine and malnutrition in the world. The introduction of the article highlights the existing level of diversity of life on a global scale and common problems of famine mainly in African countries. The following part of the study identifies the causes of famine in the world. The oversupply of products and food waste is highlighted. The second chapter presents the problem of consumerism that occurs among populations of developed and developing countries. It also points to the marketing practices of businesses – advertising in order to induce purchasing impulse among consumers. Sustainable marketing communications is presented as a way to counteract the problems related to food. The final part of the paper is a summary.
PL
Tematyka opracowania skupia się wokół problemów głodu i niedożywienia na świecie. We wstępie artykułu zwrócono uwagę na istniejące zróżnicowanie poziomu życia w skali globalnej i występujące problemy głodu głównie w państwach afrykańskich. W dalszej części wskazano przyczyny głodu na świecie. Zwrócono uwagę na nadmierną podaż produktów oraz marnotrawienie żywności. W rozdziale drugim przedstawiono problem konsumpcjonizmu, jaki występuje wśród społeczeństw rozwiniętych i rozwijających się. Wskazano także na praktyki marketingowe przedsiębiorstw – reklamę w celu wywołania impulsu zakupowego wśród konsumentów. Przedstawiono zrównoważoną komunikację marketingową jako sposób przeciwdziałania problemom żywnościowym. W końcowej części zamieszczono podsumowanie.
Bezpieczeństwo żywnościowe coraz częściej stanowi przedmiot zainteresowania rządów, światowych organizacji, ale także firm, organizacji non profit i zwykłych obywateli. Kraje wysoko rozwinięte do tej pory uważały, że problem ten ich nie dotyczy, jednak ostatnie kryzysy – ekonomiczny i finansowy – zaczęły zmieniać to postrzeganie. Deficyt żywności dotyczy obecnie właściwie wszystkich krajów. Mamy jednak do czynienia ze swoistą dychotomią – z jednej strony miliony ludzi cierpią na niedostateczny dostęp do zdrowej żywności, z drugiej tony jedzenia przydatnego do spożycia są wyrzucane każdego dnia. W artykule tym zostaną ukazane przykłady najlepszych praktyk europejskich w odzyskiwaniu nadwyżek żywności. Są one rezultatem projektu Foodsaving, którego jednym z wykonawców była autorka tego tekstu.
EN
Food security is increasingly becoming a focus of governments, world organizations, but also companies, non profit organizations and ordinary citizens. Highly developed countries so far considered themselves as those that this problem does not affect, but recent crises – economical and financial – have begun to change this perception. Food deficit affects now almost all countries. However, we are dealing with a kind of dichotomy – on the one hand, millions of people suffer from inadequate access to healthy food, on the other hand, tons of eatable food each day is thrown away. This article will show some examples of best European practices in the recovery of surplus food. They are the result of the project Foodsaving – one of the performers was the author of this text.
The term Sozial Frage, as well as “pauperization”, became popular in public discussion in the 1830s during the transformation of the feudal, guild and agrarian society into the democratic and capitalist one. As a result the institution of the family disappeared, at least as a productive and social unit, which guaranteed protection and safety; on the other hand, the number of population increased significantly, accompanied by big migrations from villages to towns, and a huge emigration, especially to the USA. The enormous deregulation of the production relations brought about a loss of sense of safety; it affected mainly the lower classes and workers. New phenomena appeared: unemployment, industrial accidents, many people fell into poverty as a result of diseases. On the other hand, the workers’ wages were very low in comparison to the elementary needs. The capitalism of that time meant mainly a rapid economic growth, but the threats and opportunities were very unequally divided – very few were given the opportunities and chances, whereas very many the threats and risks. The workers’ wages were growing faster than the prices, but the areas of poverty and pauperization, not covered by any protection or social care, were enormous. The housing conditions were awful, the food was very poor, which was a consequence of migration to towns from villages where both things were usually better; in towns food expenses ate up almost all the wages. Another question resulting from poverty was child labour, quite common in the 19th century. In craftsman and peasant families women had no time to look after their children. Peasants and craftsmen still used to think that their children should be accustomed to the jobs inherited from their parents as soon as possible. Child labour in the country and in factories was widespread, which delayed the dissemination of common education. In spite of that, in the first half of the 19th century Darwinian ideology was still alien to the Prussians. The early liberalism was based on the pre-industrialism and patriarchal ideas, and it was craft in the centre of such thinking, not industry. It was considered that all the people after receiving education and acquiring property became citizens. There was class consciousness, but the class structure of society was thought to be temporary. Before 1848 the Prussians knew about the English pauperism and tried to avoid it in their country turning to state’s interventionism, which at that time was not a taboo subject. It was analyzed how taxes might relieve the poorest. However, those ideas were rejected, at the earliest in the Rhineland. The liberal trends became stronger and stronger. It was them Karl Marx meant when he said that capitalism destroys all the values, including religion, and the only one that is left is profit.