Overview

How do our beliefs about living with chronic illness shape the way we approach treatment and care? Savoring Care challenges conventional narratives about living with type 2 diabetes. A chronic condition defined by insulin resistance and radical transitions in lifestyle, type 2 diabetes care is infused with individual blame and attempts to foster biomedical control. This book moves the focus away from blame and stigma towards the ways people with this chronic illness foster care, resilience, and well-being in their daily lives. Rather than centring diabetes management solely on diet and personal responsibility, this book explores how individuals and communities support one another through shared meals, therapies, and other forms of practical care. Drawing on rich ethnographic research, editors and anthropologists Jessica Hardin and Emily Mendenhall illuminate how people respond creatively to a diabetes diagnosis, developing nourishing practices that prioritize relationships, friendship, and mutual care from around the world. Blending compassionate storytelling with accessible analysis, Savoring Care critiques dominant models of health, which frame diabetes as a failure of willpower or lifestyle, and instead highlights the alternative logics available as well as the diverse, meaningful ways people adapt to live well, understand their bodies, and thrive.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jessica Hardin ,  Emily Mendenhall
Publisher:   University of Toronto Press
Imprint:   University of Toronto Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.001kg
ISBN:  

9781487565695

ISBN 10:   1487565690
Pages:   280
Publication Date:   04 November 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available, will be POD  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: Flourishing with Diabetes Jessica Hardin and Emily Mendenhall Section 1: Diabetes Is Always Relational 1. Funeka’s Kitchen: Diabetes Healing in Soweto Living Rooms Through Prayer and Commensality in South Africa Emily Mendenhall, Lindile Cele, Edna Bosire 2. Grace Between Wives: Living the Good Life in Senegal Emma Nelson Bunkley, Fatoumata Diagne, Ndèye Aminata Mbaye 3. Tinkering: Getting by with Diabetes Through Creativity and Relational Care in Fiji Edward Narain and Tarryn Phillips 4. Ancestral Healing: Learning to Relate to Sugar in Brazil D. Burnett Section 2: Diabetes Always Reflects Social Structures 5. Friends Can Heal Pain in the Midst of Trauma: Manuela’s and Alyshia’s Story Manuela Fuentes and Alyshia Gálvez 6. Socio-Somatic Generativity: A Life Story from Vietnam Tine M. Gammeltoft and Dung Vũ 7. Footsteps and Their Refusals: Tracing Sugar and Diabetes as Racial Projects in New York James Doucet-Battle 8. Native Youth Disruptions with Health and Food in Arizona Tommey Jodie, Jesse Pablo, Laurel Bellante, Megan A. Carney Section 3: Diabetes Is About More Than Diet 9. Iatrochemistry: Recipes That Heal Emily Yates-Doerr 10. Connecting Care, Connecting Chronic Illness: Community, Rural Health, and Insecurity in Hidalgo, Mexico Emilia Mercedes Guevara 11. Don Agustin's Crafts: Patience, Skill, and Creativity in Weaving and Healing the Fabric of Life Laura Montesi Section 4: Diabetes Is More Than Numbers 12. Outwitting Diabetes: Measuring and Sensing the Body in India Pallavi Laxmikanth 13. Thriving While Struggling to Access Care in India Lesley Jo Weaver 14. Trust: The Stress of Managing Diabetes and Collaborative Care in the United States Jessica P. Cerdeña and Genesis Santos Complicating Conclusions: Relational Research and the Obligation to Create Space for Difference Jessica Hardin, Saunima'a Ma Fulu Aiolupotea, Uila Laifa Lima, Ramona Boodoosingh, Tauaitala Poloie Lees, Tausala Aiavao, Falelua Maua

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Author Information

Jessica Hardin is a critical medical anthropologist, Honorable Barber B. Conable Jr. endowed chair and associate professor of anthropology at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Emily Mendenhall is a medical anthropologist, Guggenheim fellow, and professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

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