Fixes that Fail: A system archetype for examining racialized structures within the food system

Abstract

Access to fresh and healthy food within a neighborhood has been identified as a social mechanism contributing to community health. Grounded in the understanding that challenges related to equity within a food system are both structural and systemic, our research demonstrates how systems thinking can further understandings of food system complexity. Within systems thinking, we provide an illustration of how system archetypes offer an analytic tool for examining complex community issues. We map semi‐structured interview data from community stakeholders (N = 22) to the “Fixes that Fail” system archetype to illuminate systemic challenges, such as incarceration and poverty, that structure food system inequity in urban communities. Within our research, the “Fixes that Fail” archetype provided a narrative interpretive tool for unveiling complexity within the food system and interdependencies with racialized systems such as criminal justice and labor markets. This system archetype provided an accessible approach for generating narratives about systemic complexity, the production of inequity through racialized forces, and opportunities for transformation.

Youth for Youth: Raising the voices of children of incarcerated parents and implications for policy and practice

“…The youth reported their health to largely center around racial disparities in poverty, community infrastructure, crime, and incarceration. This aligned with an additional qualitative study conducted by Benninger, Donley et al (2021) and Benninger, Schmidt‐Sane et al (2021), where community members reported the prevalence of incarceration amongst African Americans in the City of Cleveland to have a detrimental impact not only on the life of the incarcerated individual but on the wellbeing of extended family members.…”

“…The need for investing in wellpaying jobs, and making them accessible to felons was also identified by the youth as a solution. Both of these findings align with the findings of a system dynamics study within Cleveland, Ohio, which identified a focus on interventions aimed at building wealth and well-paying jobs among marginalized populations as a solution to help alleviate poverty while addressing structural inequities related to high incarceration rates (Benninger, Donley, et al, 2021;.…”

“…Youth should be supported to understand the social-historical context of racial inequities, to shift the blame away from themselves, their families, and their communities, and contextualize it within racialized histories and structures. This study and a large body of youth research evidence support that young people are capable of understanding and thinking critically about social policies and the ways that they affect their communities (Benninger, Donley, et al, 2021;Branquinho et al, 2020;Ozer et al, 2020). During the interviews, the students acknowledged challenges within their neighborhoods and their schools that are connected to the impact of systematic racism, including poverty, gun violence, poor policing, and incarceration.…”

“…Neighborhoods in Cleveland that are predominantly Black/African American have life expectancies up to 23 years lower than those in surrounding predominantly white suburbs (Warren & Ahern, 2019). Before starting this project specifically with youth who have an incarcerated parent, the researchers utilized a YPAR methodology to give youth voice to further understand how the neighborhood environment shapes youth health and to develop youth strategies for improving health outcomes (Benninger, Donley, et al, 2021; Benninger, Schmidt‐Sane, et al, 2021). The youth reported their health to largely center around racial disparities in poverty, community infrastructure, crime, and incarceration.…”

Complex systems and participatory approaches to address maternal health disparities: Findings from a system dynamics group model building project in North Texas

“…Although underutilized, it is believed that engaging in collaborative development of SD models by drawing on diverse perspectives of stakeholders can generate collective understanding of health problems that can lead to preventive solutions (Cilenti et al, 2019). For example, SD GMB approaches have been employed in diverse health domains such as inequities in neighborhood food access (Benninger et al, 2021) and community viral load of HIV (Weeks et al, 2017). In the context of maternal health, the SD GMB process can be especially powerful and has been used to generate SD models that capture key feedback mechanisms that shape maternal health disparities (Hovmand, 2014; Skouteris et al, 2015; Sooka & Rwashana‐Semwanga, 2011).…”