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Paper short abstract

Chronic illness fundamentally shapes one’s experience of the world, and different relationships to illness shape both the perception and experience of it. In this paper I analyze the experiences of food allergy tōjisha and the diverse understandings of food allergy that emerge in their accounts.

Paper long abstract

Chronic illness fundamentally shapes one’s experience of the world, and different positionalities and relationships to illness shape both the perceptions and experience of it. In this paper I explore the experiences of food allergy tōjisha, specifically adults with food allergies and parents whose children have food allergies, and the diverse understandings of food allergy that emerge in their accounts. For some it is an illness, for others a disability, and for still others it entails a part of their individuality and a ‘being with’ that they have learned to live with. These understandings are not, however, fixed but may shift depending on what is happening within the body at different times, and what is happening socially or institutionally. How they relate and understand their condition is shaped by the ways they feel food allergy interfere with daily life, the accommodations that are necessary, how treatment options shape their understandings and experiences, as well as diverse conceptualizations of identity and individuality. This paper consequently analyses the different positionalities and changing relationships tōjisha have with the categorization and experience of food allergy in Japan and argues that experiences of chronic disease are relational and changeable over the life course, not only shaped by social interactions with others but through their bodily experiences and how they relate to it.