Ponte en la Cola
Queueing as an Ethnographic Method to Study Food Insecurity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20103155 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Vikki Oriane de Jong (0009-0002-4113-0963, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences KU Leuven Heverlee Belgium, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Area (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0004-0894 • E-ISSN: 1475-4762 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/area.70127 |
| OpenAlex | W7163449204 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 21 |
Food insecurity is not only experienced within space but is also actively shaped by spatial relations. This article argues that understanding the lived experience of food insecurity requires methods that capture this spatial co‐construction. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in Havana, Cuba, I demonstrate that by employing queueing as an ethnographic method, I made productive use of food queues as spatial–temporal and social spaces through participant observation, yielding detailed insights into the lived experiences of food insecurity. First, I show how, by applying ethnographic queueing, I was able to access a plurality of voices that collectively made sense of their experience of food insecurity, by reflecting on food scarcity and quality, exchanging food coping strategies and expressing shared frustrations. Second, I demonstrate how this collective sense‐making was mediated by the public space in which the queue was set and crossed spatial scales. Through queueing, I therefore learned how experiences of food insecurity serve as a lens for understanding and interpreting broader socio‐political struggles. Given certain conditions, such as the length of queues and varying crowd behaviours across cultural contexts, employing queueing as an ethnographic method to explore the lived experiences of food insecurity could be a promising avenue for data collection for other scholars in the field
Coping (psychology) · Ethnography · Food insecurity · Participant observation · Queue · Scarcity · Set (abstract data type) · Space (punctuation) · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Organic Food and Agriculture
Food security measurement in a global context
Food insecurity, food insecurity determinants and coping strategies in the urban space – The experience of low income households of Msunduza in Mbabane
Food in Cuba
Malaysian Queue Culture
Moral Economies of Food in Cuba
Investigating connectivity in the urban food landscapes of migrant women facing food insecurity in Washington, DC
What do we really know? Metrics for food insecurity and undernutrition
The Order of Service
Illegal or unethical? Situated ethics in the context of a dual economy
Doing Waiting
Headless queues
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |