Thesis opportunity: Effective strategies for civil society engagement in global food security governance

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New Thesis Opportunity with Rural Sociology Group, Wageningen University

Proposed title: Effective strategies for civil society engagement in global food security governance: An analysis of CSO interventions in the Committee on World Food Security

Key words: Food security; civil society; policy; global governance; Committee on World Food Security; Civil Society Mechanism; theories of change

Context: The world food price crisis of 2007/08 shook global food governance. Pressured to find solutions for unprecedented prices increase of led to the development of new global initiatives and the reform of old ones.  One of the most promising actions was the reform of the United Nation’s Committee on World Food Security (CFS), who transformed itself from “the most boring UN body of all” – in the words of an experienced diplomat based in Rome – to the foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for food security, with substantive participation of different actors including member states, civil society and private sector. Continue reading →

Reflections on the STEPS Centre Summer School 2015

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Last spring I attended the summer school of the STEPS centre. Together with Fredric Bauer, a fellow phd at the summer school, I wrote a blog reflecting on two hectic but inspiring weeks.
For those early stage researchers and PhD’s that are interested in attending the STEPS Summer School of 2016: The application deadline is the 27th of January 2016!

Fredric Bauer's avatarNEST - Network for Early career researchers in Sustainability Transitions

This post was co-authored by Fredric Bauer (Lund University) and Aniek Hebinck (Wageningen University).

The Summer School run by the STEPS Centrehas become one of the centre’s annual highlights by bringing together young researchers to explore the intricate world of pathways to sustainability. Co-owned by the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) and the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex, the centre combines topics of development and innovation in its research and teaching.

During two very intensive weeks in Spring, we and 40 other PhD students and young researchers coming from 31 countries spent our time studying, thinking, discussing, and debating ‘pathways to sustainability’. Central to these debates were the politics and framings of sustainable transitions in global settings, e.g. cases discussed were agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, water in India, and renewable energy in Europe. Between lectures given by distinguished academics such as Ian Scoones, Andy…

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Embracing and exploring diversity in sustainable transition pathways to food and nutrition security

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A recent post on the local case-studies in TRANSMANGO. A diverse selection of 18 case-studies in Europe (and Tanzania) represent the Fragmented Foodscape that will improve our understanding of transition pathways to a sustainable food system.

Aniek Hebinck's avatarTRANSMANGO

Through the project TRANSMANGO we hope to contribute to a better understanding of sustainable transition pathways to changing food systems. Especially in WP6 we put focus on the diverse food practices performed on the local level all over Europe and their contribution to food and nutrition security[1]. The European ‘fragmented foodscape’[2] is constituted by a range of various and often contrasting social practices that co-exist and interact with another. Hence we have selected a diverse range of food practices all over Europe in order to explore whether and if so how they enhance food security. These practices range from urban food (policy) initiatives in the UK to food assistance in Italy.

The 18 diverse case-studies that have been selected for WP6 illustrate the European[3]  heterogeneity in Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) practices and transition pathways. The selection covers predominantly ‘counter movements’andmore radical FNS transition…

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‘Meet the woman leading China’s new organic farming army’ – Al Jazeera English

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A recent article on Al Jazeer English with Shi Yan’s approach to organic farming that is helping to break the country’s “addiction to pesticides” and an interview with Rural Sociology’s Jan Douwe van der Ploeg.

Source: Meet the woman leading China’s new organic farming army – Al Jazeera English

Farmers’ Markets in Beijing – an impression by prof. Jan Douwe van der Ploeg

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By prof. dr ir Jan Douwe van der Ploeg

Poster lecture by prof. Van der PloegAt the end of October I had the opportunity to meet a large group of social activists involved in the development of Farmers’ Markets in Beijing. I gave a short presentation in a meeting with some 150 people (see the announcement). It took place in a cinema with my Power Point Presentation projected on the screen normally used for films. The good thing was that the projected images were now up to 5 times larger than me myself. I felt reduced to the right proportions. Afterwards we had a lengthy conversation on the construction of new markets, peasant agriculture and new peasants. The nearby Farmers’ Market (that frequently changes location: it travels through Beijing) impressed me very much: it was, as it were, a perfect illustration of the discussion we had inside the cinema. Many peasants, many new peasants as well. Continue reading →