Coping with Food Insecurity and Information Crisis

(Doctoral Dissertation – Ongoing)

Objective

Investigate how Shanghai residents used information and digital technologies to cope with food insecurity during COVID-19 lockdowns, and identify opportunities for resilient, inclusive digital technologies to support community resilience.

Methods

  • User Interviews: Conducted 23 semi-structured interviews based on Dervin’s micro-moment time-line interview technique.
  • Photo Diaries and Elicitation: Collected artifacts (photos, videos, excel sheets) of food and information practices during lockdowns to enahnce memory recalls during interviews.
  • Data triangulation: Collected publically available policies, news, and social media content to improve accuracy.
  • Constructivist Grounded Theory: Iterative coding and constant comparison to build conceptual findings.
  • Member Checking: (as of Sep, 2025) Bring initial finding report back to participants for review.

Preliminary Insights (as of 2024)

  • Constructing information landscapes: residents formed and joined social media groups to share food availability, discover new sources, organize group buys, seek/offer help, and compare conditions.
  • Inequity in food access: factors include technical knowledge, IP address, migrant status, home prices, etc.

Anticipated Impact

  • UX Design: Inform features that improve usability and inclusion in crisis tools.
  • Information and food practices: Improve residents crisis preparedness and responses through information activities and food practices (e.g., shopping, seeking, growing).
  • Policy & Practice: Guide design of resilient digital and information infrastructures and build emergent food supply chains for community coordination.


Conference Presentations

Du, X. (2025, March). Using Information and Communication Technologies to Cope with Food Insecurity During the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdowns in Shanghai, China: A Help or A Hindrance? The 2025 Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Columbus, OH, USA.

Du, X. (2024, October). Social Media in a Food Insecurity Crisis During the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdowns: A Qualitative Constructivist Grounded Theory Approach. Presented at the SIG-Social Media workshop, The 87th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Calgary, Canada.

Du, X. (2024, October). Exploring the Information Practices and Resilience in a Food Crisis: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study of Families During the COVID-19 Lockdown. Presented at the Doctoral Colloquium, The 87th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Calgary, Canada.

Du, X.(2024, October). Exploring the Information Practices and Resilience of Ordinary Residents in a Food Crisis During the COVID-19 Lockdowns in Shanghai, China. Presented at the SIG-USE Annual Symposium, The 87th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Virtual.