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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 shiftingdiets 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, 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. The first part of the thesis studies the relationship between urbanisation and diets through the analysis of large-scale quantitative longitudinal data available for Indonesia. Findings from this portion of the thesis suggest that some components of the traditional diet are resilient to the socio-economic shifts associated with increased urbanisation; and that varying urbanisation levels at more localised scales have different effects on diets. In the second part of the thesis, these findings are triangulated with qualitative insights from fieldwork in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Results from this narrower geographical perspective show that urban food environments and the foodways of local residents are resilient to processes of food systems change. Qualitative findings also highlight the key role of individual agency and of contextual socio-economic and cultural factors as moderators of nutritional behaviours. The thesis concludes by highlighting that processes of nutrition transition are highly complex, and that predictions on their outcomes in terms of (nutritional) health are prone to overgeneralisations that can overshadow localised change dynamics. Findings from my research show that, while some of the predicted shifts in diets have occurred in Indonesia, there is evidence that many others have been less dramatic than expected, or have not materialised at all. Rather, my findings suggest the persistence of an enduring negotiation between the desire to retain local traditional diets and the (physical and economic) possibility to do so, amidst rising social and economic disruption. In turn, this highlights the need to account for contextual and localised nuances in the analysis of dietary change processes across LMICs, to better inform interventions that can effectively improve population health.

Since the 1980’s, investment by the UK government into the construction of new social rented housing has dwindled significantly. As a result of Right to Buy selloffs, the demolition of aging stock, and a relative lack of replacement social new-build, the per capita supply of social rented housing has dropped to a new low. At the same time, demand for these limited properties has risen drastically, particularly in London. What social rented housing resources do remain have also been fragmented between council-administered choice-based lettings schemes and housing association waiting lists. This research has sought to examine the effects of these changes on the lives of people applying to social rented housing using semi-structured interviews with participants from housing association waiting lists. 50 housing applicants were interviewed from across London. Interviews focussed on participants’ housing history, the process and outcomes of their various applications, and the effects of their continued failure to gain entry into social rented housing. Findings indicate participants to be fundamentally ignorant both of the growing scarcity of social rented housing and of the mechanics of its distribution. Many had made maladaptive decisions based on these misunderstandings. The majority of participants were overcrowded, overworked and/or occupying poor housing. Many felt that something had been taken from them, vaguely aware that earlier generations had an easier time accessing “good housing” but unable to explain why that was. Social rented housing in the United Kingdom has changed from a more widely available form of aid to an emergency program rationed only to those who are in emergency need. This would appear to have left vulnerable those who are in non-critical need. The aim of this research has been to explore that vulnerability through narrative.

My research explores the interrelationships between agencies involved in volume housebuilding, and their influence on the discourses and the actualities of housing quality in residential developments. The empirical focus is on urban design codes; as a planning tool with responsibilities and interests spread across a broad cluster of public and private agencies, they are intriguing artefacts of complex governmental processes. Though research on design codes has been done in the past, much of it addresses issues from planning and policy perspectives, focusing on best-practice and promotion. My research incorporates a suite of constructivist social theories to re-situate the process of design coding within the political relationships between institutions, individuals, central and local governments and private companies. Using the concepts of field and capital articulated by Bourdieu (1983, 1986) and governmental rationality after Foucault (1991, 1998), I investigate the way design values are co-constructed by these different parties, and the manner in which they attain force and effect within the contemporary UK political and cultural economy. I will also utilize approaches associated with actor-network-theory (Latour 2005) to evaluate the technical artefacts of design coding, to track their active contribution to the construction of design values, and how they interact with larger assemblages within the built environment. The empirical program includes in-depth interviews and two case studies of active design coding projects in order to develop a detailed and socially charged account of a process often portrayed and understood in “objective” disciplinary terms. Design codes are typically assumed to be a value-neutral tool, a technical instrument capable of delivering a broad range of styles and transparently communicating different design agendas. This thesis interrogates that assumption and examines how design codes, like other governmental technologies, are part of specific historical and political circumstances, and as such are the site of contestation and the embodiment of a multiplicity of values, whether by design or not.