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Title:	Ulam & the young: a case study into the knowledge & acceptance of ulam for students in a Malaysian private college
Authors:	Tan Kean Buan (P77328)
Supervisor:	Eric Olmedo, Dr.
Keywords:	Plants Edible -- Malaysia Vegetables -- Malaysia Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia -- Dissertations Dissertations, Academic -- Malaysia
Issue Date:	30-Sep-2020
Description:	Rapid industrialisation and urbanization since the country’s independence has profoundly affected Malaysian society fabric. Over time, new lifestyles and eating habits have emerged in the cities leading to growing health complications known as Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD). As a result of economic globalization, Malaysian city dwellers enjoy greater access to imported vegetables produced by intensive agriculture (macro greens) but may overlook local natural resources such as native and naturalized greens. Much of this local edible flora is known in Malaysia as ulam and has been traditionally consumed by ethnic Malays and peninsular aborigines (Orang asli). The problem statement relates to thinning knowledge about ulam diversity, but also its health benefits and culinary preparations, as far young urbanites are concerned. The main objective of this research is to analyse young Malaysian urbanites’ construction of social representations about ulam, in order to better understand factors that stimulate its knowledge and acceptance. Social Representation Theory (SRT) constitutes the main conceptual framework for this thesis. Primary data were collected using qualitative research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of young Malaysian urbanites registered as Diploma students in the School of Hospitality of a private college in Kuala Lumpur’s periphery. Findings show that ulam’s contextualization remains correlated with ethnicity, while demonstrating an expansion of its semantic field, the latter incorporating macro greens as novel social representations of ulam. Thinning knowledge of ulam is confirmed, even within the ethnic Malay group. Intergenerational transfer is prevented by a multiplicity of factors including spatiality, home cooking patterns and verbalization of ulam-related knowledge. Critical discussion deconstructs the process of ulam’s contextualization, decontextualization and recontextualization as the most pertinent process of social representation formation for the social environment of this research. Responsible food education emerges as a potent factor of recontextualization where ulam may be reified as the social representation of an eating- well movement in opposition to the Western-centric healthy-eating.,Masters in Ethnic Studies
Pages:	227
Call Number:	QK98.5.M4T443 2020 tesis
Publisher:	UKM, Bangi
Appears in Collections:	Institute of Ethnic Studies / Institut Kajian Etnik (KITA)

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