Contested agri-food futures: Introduction to the Special Issue
This article introduces a Special Issue featuring the scholarship of STSFAN members, which cover a range of case studies and interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary engagements involving such contested agri-food futures. Their contr ibutions are unique in that they emerged from the network’s specific modus operandi: a workshopping practice that supports the constructive, interdisciplinary dialogue necessary for critical research and rigorous analyses of science and technology in agri-food settings. This introduction offers an overview of STS and critical agri-food studies scholarship, including their historical entanglem...
Source: Agriculture and Human Values - August 8, 2023 Category: Food Science Source Type: research
The agrarian question in dairy farms: An analysis of dairy farms in the European Union countries
AbstractIn this article, we review the Agrarian Question focusing on dairy farms. We have the dual aim of adding to the debate surrounding the economic profitability of small and large dairy farms and increasing what is known about the decline of dairy farms. The agrarian question at the heart of our research centres on the paradoxical endurance of family farms, despite predictions from both liberal and Marxist perspectives that they would diminish in number over time. By addressing these complex issues, we hope to shed light on the challenges and opportunities facing the dairy industry today. We focus on analysing dairy f...
Source: Agriculture and Human Values - August 8, 2023 Category: Food Science Source Type: research
Glenn Davis Stone: The agricultural dilemma: how not to feed the world
(Source: Agriculture and Human Values)
Source: Agriculture and Human Values - August 3, 2023 Category: Food Science Source Type: research
The persistence of precarity: youth livelihood struggles and aspirations in the context of truncated agrarian change, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
This study describes the everyday experiences of youth as they navigate the changing character of agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing livelihoods across gender, class, and generation. Drawing on qualitative field research conducted in the Maros District of South Sulawesi, we examine young people’s experiences of agrarian change in a landscape of entangled rural, coastal and increasingly urba nised spaces. We find that young people aspire to secure, modern, and salary-based work, while continuing to seek and sustain intergenerational farming or aquaculture-based livelihoods. Youth take advantage of increased connectivit...
Source: Agriculture and Human Values - July 31, 2023 Category: Food Science Source Type: research
Can I speak to the manager? The gender dynamics of decision-making in Kenyan maize plots
This study used vignettes to examine decision-making related to maize plot management in 698 dual-adult households in rural Kenya. The results indicated a high degree of joint management of maize plots (55%), although some mana gement decisions—notably those related to purchased inputs—were slightly more likely to be controlled by men, while other decisions—including those related to hiring of labor and maize end uses—were more likely to be made by women. The prevalence of joint decision-making underscores the impo rtance of ensuring that both men’s and women’s priorities and needs are reflected in design and m...
Source: Agriculture and Human Values - July 31, 2023 Category: Food Science Source Type: research
The persistence of precarity: youth livelihood struggles and aspirations in the context of truncated agrarian change, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
This study describes the everyday experiences of youth as they navigate the changing character of agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing livelihoods across gender, class, and generation. Drawing on qualitative field research conducted in the Maros District of South Sulawesi, we examine young people’s experiences of agrarian change in a landscape of entangled rural, coastal and increasingly urba nised spaces. We find that young people aspire to secure, modern, and salary-based work, while continuing to seek and sustain intergenerational farming or aquaculture-based livelihoods. Youth take advantage of increased connectivit...
Source: Agriculture and Human Values - July 31, 2023 Category: Food Science Source Type: research
Can I speak to the manager? The gender dynamics of decision-making in Kenyan maize plots
This study used vignettes to examine decision-making related to maize plot management in 698 dual-adult households in rural Kenya. The results indicated a high degree of joint management of maize plots (55%), although some mana gement decisions—notably those related to purchased inputs—were slightly more likely to be controlled by men, while other decisions—including those related to hiring of labor and maize end uses—were more likely to be made by women. The prevalence of joint decision-making underscores the impo rtance of ensuring that both men’s and women’s priorities and needs are reflected in design and m...
Source: Agriculture and Human Values - July 31, 2023 Category: Food Science Source Type: research
Charitable food provision as a strategic action field: introducing a meso-level perspective on food support organizing
AbstractBuilding on 42 semi-structured interviews with directors and stakeholders of food charities based in Greater Manchester (UK), alongside online data and Factiva references trends, I argue that the charitable food provision (CFP) sector can be effectively conceptualized as a strategic action field (SAF). To do so, I first focus on the shared rules, understandings and practices characterising the organizations that belong t o the field and on the broader field environment that imposes constraints and provides opportunities to the field actors. Subsequently, I examine the characteristics of five particularly relevant...
Source: Agriculture and Human Values - July 26, 2023 Category: Food Science Source Type: research
Work in progress: power in transformation to postcapitalist work relations in community –supported agriculture
AbstractCommunity-supported agriculture (CSA) initiatives are spaces where diverse work relations are performed. From a postcapitalist perspective, these initiatives attempt to create alternative-capitalist and non-capitalist work relations next to capitalist ones. While analyses of work relations in CSA abound, it remains uncertain how such diversification is made possible and how it is shaped by the micro-politics of and power relations in these initiatives. This paper addresses this gap by analysing how power shapes transformations to postcapitalist work relations in CSA. It provides substantial empirical evidence of mu...
Source: Agriculture and Human Values - July 25, 2023 Category: Food Science Source Type: research
How the social dignity of recipients is violated and protected across various forms of food aid in high-income countries: a scoping review
Abstract
Scholars have demonstrated that common ways of performing charitable food aid in high-income countries maintain a powerless and alienated status of recipients. Aiming to protect the dignity of recipients, alternative forms of food aid have taken shape. However, an in-depth understanding of dignity in the context of food aid is missing. We undertook a scoping review to outline ways in which the dignity of recipients is violated or protected across various forms of food aid in high-income countries. By bringing scientific results together through a social dignity lens, this paper offers a complex understanding of...
Source: Agriculture and Human Values - July 14, 2023 Category: Food Science Source Type: research
