iZindaba Zokudla: A conversation about food systems change in South Africa

Malan, Naudé

doi:10.5304/jafscd.2020.101.016

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…In fact, SLs move away from a technology-and natural sciences-centred focus by making social change their main raison d'être. SLs, for example, have been applied to address sustainability (Klincewicz et al, 2022, 179), poverty alleviation and social cohesion in municipalities (Groulx et al, 2021;Malan, 2020;Domanski, et al, 2020).…”

Section: Social Labs' Conceptualisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Were Social Labs immune to COVID-19? Impacts and benefits

Urmanavičienė

Košťálová

Baturina

et al. 2022

Management &Amp; Marketing

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The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted higher education worldwide. Higher education institutions needed to adapt very rapidly to the crisis and a new environment, and also needed to revise their role in society. Higher education institutions can contribute to social innovation through research, education and helping to address citizens’ issues and communities’ needs, which is why the creation of social labs by higher education institutions has increased in the last decades. Social labs are spaces where higher education institutions experiment and test new ideas. However, social labs at higher education institutions are still a relatively new phenomenon and have not yet been examined sufficiently. Moreover, it is not fully known how COVID-19 affected social labs’ activities and impacted their establishment. To reflect on the current reality, this article focuses on two research questions: (1) How were social lab activities and partnerships affected during the pandemic? and (2) What impact has COVID-19 had on social labs? To answer these questions, a quantitative survey was conducted, and the data was analysed by quantitative and qualitative methods. The results showed that the biggest challenge lies in organisational processes and human resources management. Yet, it should be noted that COVID-19 also provided opportunities. They are mainly linked with an impulse to develop innovations and increase digitisation in social labs. The study showed that social labs with flexible organisational processes and human resource management were more successful in their adaptation to crisis conditions caused by COVID-19. In summary, this article provides insight into social labs in higher education institutions by bridging an existing knowledge gap in scientific literature, and expands on it by investigating pandemics as having a crisis impact on social lab development.

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Section: Social Labs' Conceptualisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Were Social Labs immune to COVID-19? Impacts and benefits

Urmanavičienė

Košťálová

Baturina

et al. 2022

Management &Amp; Marketing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A public innovation lab allows alternative frames or narratives to emerge. The idea that actors should "draw on resources" (Malan, 2020c) in a lab and combine them (Malan, 2020b) in their own projects' frames action differently than a welfare frame. This identifies the autonomous actions of entrepreneurs-or local actors-as key to change.…”

Section: Governance and Sustainability: Animation Polycentric Governance And Facilitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The methods used in the Lab enables local actors to coalesce and draw on the opportunities and resources amongst themselves (Malan, 2020c). The Lab is an "omnibus" event that lowers the opportunity cost of pitching and developing a new enterprise, facilitates access to farmers for researchers and business incubators, and allows farmers to network and build relationships with a broad range of stakeholders, including activists, and vice-versa.…”

Section: Introduction: Izindaba Zokudla As Extra-institutional Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…amongst farmers in Soweto. iZindaba Zokudla hosted the Slow Food Soweto Eat-Ins (see Malan, 2020c), food festivals that vividly and publicly illustrate the viability of a sustainable food system. The Lab was active from the 16th of May, 2015, until the 14th of March, 2020 when Covid-19 regulations temporarily prohibited face-to-face gatherings.…”

Section: Introduction: Izindaba Zokudla As Extra-institutional Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

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Steering the Nexus: iZindaba Zokudla and Governing for Sustainability

Malan

2021

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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“iZindaba Zokudla” means we talk about the food that we eat. iZindaba Zokudla is a public innovation lab that uses stakeholder-engagement methods to create “opportunities for urban agriculture in a sustainable food system.” iZindaba Zokudla is presented as an extra-institutional means to govern the water, land, energy, and waste nexus. This reflective essay critically describes iZindaba Zokudla and applies this to the design of institutional steering mechanisms to govern the food, water, land, and energy nexus towards sustainability. Governance is an intersubjective and interactive process between the subjects of governance and governance itself. Sustainability, as an interactive process, implies the creation of autocatalytic and symbiotic communities in society that integrates diverse actors and stakeholders, inclusive of scientific and lay actors, and ecosystems. iZindaba Zokudla is a means to govern and create such communities, and this article describes and reflects on how iZindaba Zokudla has created and managed such symbiotic communities or autocatalytic networks in the food system. The article generalises how the activities conducted in iZindaba Zokudla can be used to govern the water, land, energy, and waste nexus for sustainability. The article shows how iZindaba Zokudla has realised a progressive governance through the facilitation of its Farmers' Lab and website; how it has created opportunities for participation; and how it enables critical reflection in society.

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Urban Agriculture and the Sustainability Nexus in South Africa: Past, Current, and Future Trends

Kanosvamhira

2023

Urban Forum

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Urban agriculture remains a topical issue that needs to be better understood in striving for sustainable cities, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Through a literature review, this article examines urban agriculture studies in South Africa to identify trends, opportunities, and gaps in the literature. The article examines the discourses that have emerged based on a narrative literature review of 62 peer-reviewed articles from 1993 to 2022. The findings indicate that several gaps in the knowledge limit our understanding of the practice of urban agriculture toward sustainable cities, for instance, an under-representation of secondary cities and the general productivist focus of most studies in the country. The author argues that future research needs to focus on underrepresented cities using rich methodologies to gain further insights into urban agriculture and its place in the city. Moreover, other under-represented themes including environmental benefits such as green infrastructure and nature-based solutions need more exploration. A more holistic understanding of urban agriculture is required in order to buttress interventions that accommodate the practice within the urban environment.

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iZindaba Zokudla: A conversation about food systems change in South Africa

Cited by 4 publications

References 83 publications

Were Social Labs immune to COVID-19? Impacts and benefits

Were Social Labs immune to COVID-19? Impacts and benefits

Steering the Nexus: iZindaba Zokudla and Governing for Sustainability

Urban Agriculture and the Sustainability Nexus in South Africa: Past, Current, and Future Trends

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