| 1. |
- Daum, Thomas, 1990, et al.
(författare)
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Times Have Changed: Using a Pictorial Smartphone App to Collect Time–Use Data in Rural Zambia
- 2019
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Ingår i: Field Methods. - 1525-822X .- 1552-3969. ; 31:1, s. 3-22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- One challenge of collecting socioeconomic data, such as data on time-use, is recall biases. While time-use researchers have continuously developed new methods to make data collection more accurate and easy, these methods are difficult to use in developing countries, where study participants may have low literacy levels and no clock-based concepts of time. To contribute to the closing of this research gap, we developed a picture-based smartphone app called Time-Tracker that allows data recording in real time to avoid recall biases. We pilot tested the app in rural Zambia, collecting 2,790 data days. In this article, we compare the data recorded with the app to data collected with 24-hours recall questions. The results confirm the literature on recall biases, suggesting that using the app leads to valid results. We conclude that smartphone apps using visual tools provide new opportunities for researchers collecting socioeconomic data in developing countries.
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| 2. |
- A. Bateki, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Of milk and mobiles: Assessing the potential of cellphone applications to reduce cattle milk yield gaps in Africa using a case study
- 2021
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Ingår i: Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-1699. ; 191
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There are growing expectations that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications could help improve on-farm yields amongst smallholder farmers in developing countries, and consequently, food and nutrition security. However, few studies have quantified the actual contribution of ICT applications on farmers’ yields, and these studies predominantly focused on crop production. We assessed the potential of ICT applications to close milk yield gaps among small- and medium scale dairy cattle farmers in Africa. First, we developed a theoretical framework summarizing biophysical and socio-economic constraints that foster milk yield gaps and discussed which constraints can be addressed using ICT applications. Second, using a case study of a feeding advice application for dairy cattle pre-tested with farmers in rural Kenya, we analyzed how much stand-alone the application could contribute to close dairy cattle milk yield gaps. Our findings suggest that ICT applications could help address some existing biophysical and socio-economic constraints fostering milk yield gaps, including data collection for breeding programs, feeding management advice, and facilitating access to markets and capital. Our stand-alone ICT application closed yield gaps by 2 % to 6 % on representative farms. Several factors may explain the limited actual contribution of selected ICT applications to reduce existing milk yield gaps, including the quality of the input data and models used in ICT applications, and more structural constraints that cannot be addressed by digital tools. Therefore, although ICT applications could help address constraints to achieving higher milk yields on dairy farms, a significant contribution to improve yields may only be achieved when conditions surrounding their use are adequate.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Daum, Thomas, 1990, et al.
(författare)
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Using smartphone app collected data to explore the link between mechanization and intra-household allocation of time in Zambia
- 2021
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Ingår i: Agriculture and Human Values. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0889-048X .- 1572-8366. ; 38, s. 411-429
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Digital tools may help to study socioeconomic aspects of agricultural development that are difficult to measure such as the effects of new policies and technologies on the intra-household allocation of time. As farm technologies target different crops and tasks, they can affect the time-use of men, women, boys, and girls differently. Development strategies that overlook such effects can have negative consequences for vulnerable household members. In this paper, the time-use patterns associated with different levels of agricultural mechanization during land preparation in smallholder farming households in Zambia were investigated. A novel data collection method was used: a pictorial smartphone application that allows real-time recording of time-use, which eliminates recall bias. Existing studies analyzing the intra-household allocation of resources often focus on adult males and females. This study paid particular attention to boys and girls as well as adults. The study addressed seasonal variations. Compositional data analysis was used to account for the co-dependence and sum constraint of time-use data. The study suggests a strong gender differentiation for land preparation activities among mechanized households; for households using manual labor, such differentiation was not found. There is some evidence that the surplus time associated with mechanization is used for off-farm and domestic work. The study cannot confirm concerns about negative second-round effects: mechanized land preparation is not associated with a higher workload for women and children during weeding and harvesting/processing. The study provides a proof-of-concept that smartphone applications can be used to collect socioeconomic data that are difficult to measure but of high relevance.
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| 5. |
- Daum, Thomas, 1990, et al.
(författare)
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Smartphone apps as a new method to collect data on smallholder farming systems in the digital age: A case study from Zambia
- 2018
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Ingår i: Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-1699. ; 153, s. 144-150
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Across the developing world, the spread of mobile- and smartphones has led to a surge in mobile services for rural populations. While the potentials of mobile services to provide development opportunities for smallholder farmers are widely acknowledged, the potentials to use smartphone applications to collect data on smallholder farming systems are little explored. Yet, researchers studying farming systems need good quality data. So far, data on smallholder farming systems is typically collected using household surveys. Survey questions are prone to recall biases, however, which can be substantial. This paper assesses whether smartphone can be used to collect data in real time and thus increase the accuracy of socioeconomic and agronomic data collection. In this paper, we present a smartphone application that was developed for this purpose. We use the application to analyze the effects of agricultural mechanization on intra-household time-use and nutrition in rural Zambia. While the early, descriptive results shed interesting light on the effects of mechanization, the contribution of this study is primarily methodological. The study highlights the potentials of using smartphone applications to collect socioeconomic and agronomic data on smallholder-farming systems, potentially in real time. It also suggests ways to combine data recorded by respondents with built-in sensors of smartphones and external sensors and thus shows fascinating new pathways for researchers in the digital age.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Hallberg-Sramek, Isabella, et al.
(författare)
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Applying machine learning to media analysis improves our understanding of forest conflicts
- 2024
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Ingår i: Land use policy. - : Elsevier. - 0264-8377 .- 1873-5754. ; 144
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Conflicts over the management and governance of forests seem to be increasing. Previous media studies in this area have largely focused on analysing the portrayal of specific conflicts. This study aims to review how a broad range of forest conflicts are portrayed in the Swedish media, analysing their temporal, spatial, and relational dimensions. We applied topic modelling, a machine learning approach, to analyse 53,600 articles published in the Swedish daily press between 2012 and 2022. We identified 916 topics, of which 94 were of interest for this study. Our results showed ten areas of forest conflicts: hunting and fishing (35 % of total coverage), energy (24 %), recreation and tourism (11 %), nature conservation (8 %), forest damages (6 %), international issues (5 %), forestry (5 %), reindeer husbandry (4 %), media and politics (2 %), and mining (1 %). The overall coverage of forest conflicts increased significantly over the study period, potentially reflecting an actual increase in forest conflicts. Some of the conflicts were continuously reported upon over time, while the coverage of others exhibited seasonal or event-related patterns. Four conflicts received most of their coverage in specific regions, while others were covered across the whole of Sweden. A relational analysis of the conflicts revealed three clusters of forest conflicts focused respectively on industrial, cultural, and conservation conflicts. Our results emphasise the value of using topic modelling to understand the overall patterns and trends of the media coverage of current land use conflicts, while also highlighting potential areas of emerging conflicts that may be of special interest for planners and policy-makers to monitor and manage.
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| 8. |
- Haysom, Gareth, et al.
(författare)
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Food systems sustainability: An examination of different viewpoints on food system change
- 2019
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 11:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global food insecurity levels remain stubbornly high. One of the surest ways to grasp the scale and consequence of global inequality is through a food systems lens. In a predominantly urban world, urban food systems present a useful lens to engage a wide variety of urban (and global) challenges—so called ‘wicked problems.’ This paper describes a collaborative research project between four urban food system research units, two European and two African. The project purpose was to seek out solutions to what lay between, across and within the different approaches applied in the understanding of each city’s food system challenges. Contextual differences and immediate (perceived) needs resulted in very different views on the nature of the challenge and the solutions required. Value positions of individuals and their disciplinary “enclaves” presented further boundaries. The paper argues that finding consensus provides false solutions. Rather the identification of novel approaches to such wicked problems is contingent of these differences being brought to the fore, being part of the conversation, as devices through which common positions can be discovered, where spaces are created for the realisation of new perspectives, but also, where difference is celebrated as opposed to censored.
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| 9. |
- Macura, Biljana, et al.
(författare)
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What evidence exists on the effects of public policy interventions for achieving environmentally sustainable food consumption? : A systematic map protocol
- 2022
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Ingår i: Environmental Evidence. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2047-2382. ; 11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The global food system is causing considerable environmental harm. A transition towards more sustainable consumption is needed. Targeted public policy interventions are crucial for stimulating such transition. While there is extensive research about the promotion of more environmentally sustainable food consumption, this knowledge is scattered across different sources. This systematic map aims to collate and describe the available evidence on public policy interventions such as laws, directives, taxes and information campaigns, for achieving sustainable food consumption patterns.Methods: We will search bibliographic databases, specialist websites, Google Scholar and bibliographies of relevant reviews. Searches for academic literature will be performed in English, while searches for grey literature will be performed in English, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. Screening, including consistency checking exercises, will be done at two levels: title and abstract, and full text. We will use machine learning algorithms to support screening at the title and abstract level. Coding and meta-data extraction will include bibliographic information, policy details and context, and measured environmental outcome(s). The evidence base will be summarised narratively using tables and graphs and presented as an online interactive searchable database and a website that will allow for visualisation, filtering and exploring systematic map findings, knowledge gaps and clusters.
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| 10. |
- Berbyuk Lindström, Nataliya, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Trust in medical consultations
- 2008
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Ingår i: Abstracts NIC (Nordic Network for Intercultural Communication) Conference: ltures in Translation, Dec 4-6, Reykjavik Iceland.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)
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