This article argues that rapid recent global economic shocks have revealed a poor man's patriarchy -a washed-out version of ancient male privileges, but yoked to responsibilities poor men can rarely meet. At the same time, norms that helped keep women at home in unpaid care roles have weakened and paid work is an ambition for more and more. Drawing on original research into experiences of food price volatility in ten developing countries in 2012, this article argues that in this destabilising of old gender roles, there may be some emancipatory potential. Present conditions of poor man's patriarchy suggest some scope for cross-gender coalitions with progressive, redistributive political agendas.
Despite the growing activism and debate around the right to food in the past decade, there has been little exploration of what the right means in everyday life and in the routine encounters between states and citizens. This paper draws together original qualitative research in nine African, Asian and Latin American countries on how people talk about the right to food. It does so on the assumption that accountability for hunger depends on people being aware of that right. The paper explores what people at risk of hunger have to say about what the right to food means in their location; its source and origins; and responsibilities for upholding it. It concludes that while ideas of the right to food do not generally use international human rights language, an understanding of innate or natural rights to food is 'common sense': shared across contexts and groups, and part of how people negotiate their right to food in everyday life. Among other findings, the paper concludes that in a period of rapid economic and social development, the right to food of older people looks particularly fragile, and merits special attention.
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