Malnutrition as more-than-food: understanding failings in the broader infrastructures of nurture

This paper examines child malnutrition as a problem that goes beyond food availability, looking at the broader social and material systems needed to support children's wellbeing. The authors argue that understanding malnutrition requires examining infrastructure and care systems, not just nutrition. They draw on geography, feminist theory, and care perspectives to develop a framework for understanding why systems supporting child health fail. The work emphasises that multiple interconnected relationships and systems are necessary to sustain children's life and development.

Key points

• Malnutrition cannot be understood as solely a food problem but must include broader social and material relations
• The concept of 'infrastructures of nurture' describes the underlying systems and relationships necessary to sustain children's life
• Failures in child malnutrition are linked to gaps and failings in these broader supportive infrastructure systems
• Feminist perspectives on childhood and infant feeding provide important insights into understanding malnutrition
• Food moves through and affects children's bodies within contexts of numerous other contested social and material relations

Limitations

This is a theoretical and conceptual paper that develops a framework for understanding malnutrition rather than empirically testing an intervention or measuring outcomes in a specific population. It cannot tell us the effectiveness of particular programmes or quantify the impact of infrastructure improvements on child nutrition outcomes.