An obsolete dichotomy? Rethinking the rural-urban interface in terms of food security and production in the global south

Lerner, Amy M.; Eakin, Hallie

doi:10.1111/j.1475-4959.2010.00394.x

Cited by 153 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Finally, in the modern era of such long supply chains, food and agriculture concerns have been governed separately: production, consumption, distribution, processing and waste management have been considered as separate concerns with distinct actors, interests and institutional relations, yet disturbance or crisis on one domain has significant repercussions in others. Similarly, rural interests and production issues are not always explicitly tied to the dynamics of urban areas, although urban areas are where consumers, industry, policy and wealth and finance are increasingly concentrated (Lerner & Eakin 2011). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adapting a social-ecological resilience framework for food systems

2015

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The purpose of applying social-ecological resilience thinking to food systems is twofold: First, to define those factors that help achieve a state in which food security for all and at all scales is possible. Second, to provide insights into how to maintain the system in this desirable regime. However, the resilience of food systems is distinct from the broader conceptualizations of resilience in social-ecological systems because of the fundamentally normative nature of food systems: humans need food to survive, and thus system stability is typically a primary policy objective for food system management. However, society also needs food systems that can intensify sustainably i.e., feed everybody equitably, provide livelihoods and avoid environmental degradation while responding flexibly to shocks and uncertainty. Today's failure in meeting food security objectives can be interpreted as the lack of current governance arrangements to consider the full and differential dimensions of food system functions -economic, ecological and social -at appropriate scales: in other words, the multifunctionality of food. We focus on functional and response diversity as two key attributes of resilient, multifunctional food systems; respectively, the number of different functional groups and the diversity of types of responses to disturbances within a functional group. Achieving food security will require functional redundancy and enhanced response diversity, creating multiple avenues to fulfill all food system objectives. We use the 2013-15 drought in California to unpack the potential differences between managing for a single function -economic profit -and multiple functions. Our analysis emphasizes how the evolution of the Californian food system has reduced functional and response diversity and created vulnerabilities. Managing for the resilience of food systems will require a shift in priorities from profit maximization to the management for all functions that create full food security at multiple scales.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adapting a social-ecological resilience framework for food systems

2015

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“…This situation is common in many complex urbanizing environments in which natural resources (land, water) are managed locally by landowners with institutional ties to rural organizations and national agricultural agencies. However, the same resource base may also be subject to urban laws and norms and associated agencies (see, for example, Lerner andEakin 2011, andShort 2013). Again, natural resource distance is less of a determinant feature of this scenario.…”

Section: Common Social and Physical Systems Distal Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transforming governance in telecoupled food systems

Eakin¹,

Rueda²,

Mahanti³

2017

E&S

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ABSTRACT. In this paper we analyze how new actors, interests, and resources become salient to food system governance and how the domain of food system governance transforms as a result. Specifically, we focus on how the boundaries of food systems are redefined and new institutions are developed through the explicit recognition of distal interactions and feedbacks-telecoupling-operating in the food system space. Telecoupling can stimulate new forms of governance, such as the development of codes of conduct and certification schemes, with positive impacts on food and livelihood security; when ignored, telecouplings can exacerbate undesirable social and ecological outcomes in linked systems. We present a typology of telecoupled food systems, highlighting three dimensions of distance that can be present in systems that become telecoupled: social, institutional, and physical. We use that typology to explore the evolution of telecoupling and governance change in two case studies. We associate the tendency for changes in governance that occur in each case with the nature of "distance" in the systems in question: whether the systems are distal in terms of social and/or institutional ties, or in the resource base, or some combination of all three dimensions of distance. The challenge of overcoming distance is not the only issue that affects the possibility of governance change; the cases illustrate that the cultural and economic conditions of the connected systems, the agency of actors involved, and their political and social relations and networks all come to play in enabling governance transformation in telecoupled systems.

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“…Again, we see that approaches to water efficiency involve political will, financial security (in order to pay the resulting balance of payments debt) and a long term perspective to redirect economic productivity away from agricultural production. This, of course, has dramatic social consequences [37].…”

Section: Section 1: Water Efficiency and The 'State Hydraulic' Paradigmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participation or Exploitation: How Can Concepts of Community and Privatization Coalesce around Water Efficiency Approaches?

Gearey¹

2016

BJECC

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The need to promote water efficient technologies and initiatives is increasingly a central feature of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Attendant to this is a growing focus by IWRM practitioners of the role that community plays in supporting a range of interventions that reduces overall water demand. Public information campaigns led by municipal authorities and water companies encourage water users to become involved in resource husbandry both inside and outside the home. Community participation is encouraged through community water reuse schemes, fundraising campaigns to build community scale water efficient interventions, and NGO, regulator and water company education activities to promote lifestyle changes which support water efficiency endeavours. Whilst there is a clear rationale for involving the community in water management, critical questions should be posed around the way in which this community participation is valued, particularly within privatized water resource management regimes. Does the drive to maximise water efficiency encourage participation or is it an "exploitation" of goodwill? Who derives the maximum utility from this approach; water stakeholders or water company shareholders? Exploring concepts of household revenue streams, Human Scale Development (HSD) and the Transition Network Movement (TNM), this paper advocates an approach that repositions water efficiency initiatives in such a way that ensures that community participation efforts are sufficiently rewarded within socially and environmentally sustainable markets.

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An obsolete dichotomy? Rethinking the rural-urban interface in terms of food security and production in the global south

Cited by 153 publications

References 51 publications

Adapting a social-ecological resilience framework for food systems

Adapting a social-ecological resilience framework for food systems

Transforming governance in telecoupled food systems

Participation or Exploitation: How Can Concepts of Community and Privatization Coalesce around Water Efficiency Approaches?

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