Doctoral Dissertation Research: Corporate Contributions to Childhood Public Health Outcomes

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

Malnutrition and other stressors have been shown to hinder childhood growth and development. In turn, stunted growth is associated with reduced brain development, diminished learning capacity, poor school performance, and declines in long-term career outcomes. In settings characterized by compromised growth and development, corporations may philanthropically contribute resources to assist populations of impacted children.

This doctoral dissertation project examines the motivations and practices of private corporations as they insert themselves into domains of public health. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, the findings of this research enhances understandings of the effects of privatizing health interventions in disadvantaged communities.

In partnership with key stakeholders, this research also generates proposals for how to improve or reconsider these interventions as strategies for addressing broader development priorities.

This research examines how corporate philanthropic programs generate and operationalize knowledge about childhood stunting through community-based interventions, how such knowledge-making sits in dialogue with larger social tensions around identities and development, and how these interventions impact their targeted beneficiaries. The project has multiple objectives.

First, the investigators examine variation in the ways that childhood stunting is conceptualized simultaneously as a biological and social problem. Second, the project shows how aspects of identity and heritage are represented in discourse about childhood growth and development. In addition, the practices of corporate philanthropists are examined, specifically the ways they frame the social problems to align with the motivations for interventions.

Finally, the investigation examines how private investments in public health interventions affect the growth and development of children. To answer these questions the investigation relies on interviews and direct observations of corporate executives, public health officials, corporate philanthropy administrators and fieldworkers, and targeted beneficiaries of these efforts.

In addition, the investigation includes archival research to assess the contexts in which philanthropic efforts impact public health outcomes.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.