Moving beyond Coping to Resilient Pragmatism in Food Insecure Households

This study used the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) to analyze the lived experiences of 13 women in Brisbane, Australia, striving for food security. Data analysis identified two key themes and four sub-themes about the ‘trade off’s made by women managing food insecurity. The two key themes were resilient pragmatism and coping pragmatism, which both included sub-strategies to minimize damage to social identity and self-identity. Participants applied a pragmatic, cascading decision-making process based on their need for social acceptance and inclusion, as opposed to nutritional adequacy. Coping strategies were found to be adaptive, based on resilient pragmatism aimed and protecting identity.