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- Almered Olsson, Gunilla, 1951, et al.
(författare)
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Food systems sustainability - For whom and by whom? : An examination of different 'food system change' viewpoints
- 2018
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Ingår i: Development Research Conference 2018: “Rethinking development”, 22–23 August 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The United Nations identifies the food crisis as one of the primary overarching challenges facing the international community. Different stakeholders in the food system have widely different perspectives and interests, and challenging structural issues, such as the power differentials among them, remain largely unexamined. These challenges make rational discourse among food system actors from different disciplines, sectors and levels difficult. These challenges can often prevent them from working together effectively to find innovative ways to respond to food security challenges. This means that finding solutions to intractable and stuck issues, such as the food crisis often stall, not at implementation, but at the point of problem identification. Food system sustainability means very different things to different food system actors. These differences in no way undermine or discount the work carried out by these players. However, making these differences explicit is an essential activity that would serve to deepen theoretical and normative project outcomes. Would the impact and reach of different food projects differ if these differences were made explicit? The purpose of this initial part of a wider food system research project is not to search for difference or divergence, with the aim of critique, but rather to argue that by making these differences explicit, the overall food system project engagement will be made more robust, more inclusive and more encompassing. This paper starts with some discussion on the different food system perspectives, across scales, regions and sectors but focuses primarily on the design of processes used to understand these divergent and at times contradictory views of what a sustainable food system may be. This paper draws on ongoing work within the Mistra Urban Futures project, using the food system projects in cities as diverse as Cape Town, Manchester, Gothenburg and Kisumu as sites for this enquiry.
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| 2. |
- Sandin, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Technology neutrality and regulation of agricultural biotechnology
- 2018
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Ingår i: Professionals in food chains: ethics, rules and responsibility. EurSafe 2018, Vienna, Austria 13 – 16 June 2018 / edited by: Svenja Springer, Herwig Grimm. - Wageningen, Netherlands : Wageningen Academic Publishers. - 9789086863211
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Agricultural biotechnology, in particular genetically modified organisms (GMOs), is subject to regulation in many areas of the world, not least in the European Union (EU). A number of authors have argued that those regulatory processes are unfair, costly, and slow and that regulation therefore should move in the direction of increased ‘technology neutrality’. The issue is becoming more pressing, especially since new biotechnologies such as CRISPR increasingly blur the regulatory distinction between GMOs and non-GMOs. This paper offers a definition of technology neutrality, uses the EU GMO regulation as a starting point for exploring technology neutrality, and presents distinctions between variants of the call for technology neutral GMO regulation in the EU.
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| 3. |
- Chodkowska-Miszczuk, Justyna, et al.
(författare)
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Biogas enterprises : A chance or a challenge for rural development?
- 2018
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Ingår i: Challenged Ruralities. - Copenhagen : University of Copenhagen – Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper addresses the question whether biogas plants (businesses based on renewable energy) often marketed as a great opportunity for rural development can at the same time pose a hidden challenge. Departing from the concept of embeddedness of enterprises in the local environment, our objective is realized with the help of two models of biogas plants. In the first model, biogas plants operate as an integral part of agricultural farms (biogas on-farm model); in the second model, they operate as independent companies established through investments by external entrepreneurs (biogas off-farm model). The two models have proven to affect the economies of particular biogas enterprises very differently. In the first model, the support of existing agricultural farms is of great importance as those usually are important for local stakeholders. In the second model, biogas plants that emerge as new external investments must build interactions with local entities from scratch. From an economic point of view, the lack of functioning mechanisms in this sense may influence further directions of development for many rural areas traditionally associated with agriculture.
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| 6. |
- Sandström, Annica, et al.
(författare)
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Disputed policy change: the role of external events, policy learning and negotiated agreements in coastal and marine conservation planning.
- 2018
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Ingår i: Paper presented at the 2018 conference of the European Consortium for Political Research.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- What are the driving forces behind and obstacles to policy change in disputed policy processes? The general purpose of this paper is to explore and explain policy change – a major and debated issue in contemporary policy research – in the context of Swedish coastal and marine conservation planning. The paper draws on the advocacy coalition framework that accentuates the critical role of coalitions for the outcome of policy processes and identifies three primarily drivers to policy change: triggering key events, policy learning and negotiations via brokerage. Three national park planning processes, with divergent results, are mapped and analysed over 30 years time through a document- and interview study. What combination of factors in relation to policy coalitions – triggering events, policy learning and negotiated agreements – can explain divergent outcomes in the studied national park planning processes? The empirical analysis identified all three factors as important for the turnout. Triggering events, in combination with either negotiated agreements or policy learning, were the main pathways to change and our findings suggest that the type of policy beliefs around which the competing coalitions are formed influenced the specific route taken The results of the study contribute with knowledge on disputed policy change and give rise to new intriguing questions; they provide an empirical illustration of political conflicts and their solutions in nature conservation, and generate insights critical to the implementation of international and national conservation policy in multi-level governance systems.
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| 7. |
- Isemo, Sanna, et al.
(författare)
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Urban food revisited : Green business development through co-creation
- 2018
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Ingår i: Thinkfood, Thinkpoint Innovation Arena, 15–16 September 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The ongoing urbanization and globalization of food products is challenging food and nutrition security for urban and rural areas. Dependence on the global food supply chain also increases vulnerability and implies risks for cities and their wider regions. An important way to address these challenges is by examining the relationship between cities and their surroundings through a focus on food. Embracing theses insights, Urban Rural Gothenburg is an EU-sponsored project that tests low-carbon approaches and links them to food production, logistics, tourism, and new business models. Through promoting cooperation between the city, the business sector, residents, civil society and academia, Urban Rural Gothenburg aims to contribute to the fulfilment of the city’s wider sustainability goals, as set in 2017. These span the holistic frame of sustainability to involve, for example, combining innovations for social improvement with reduction of the city’s environmental and climate impact, promoting a sustainable Gothenburg with global and locally equitable emissions. Research Forum Urban Rural Gothenburg (RFURG) constitutes the academic component of the ‘Urban Rural Gothenburg’. Departing from co-creative methodology (the so-called penta-helix model), RFURG provides the research community with advice, support, consultancy, networks and a communication platform with the purpose to initiate and implement research endeavours related to the project’s objectives. Another important task is to ascertain that the activities within the project are scientifically sound through constant monitoring of national and international calls that may be of interest for the project. Compilation and dissemination of results through recurring conferences, seminars, workshops and special issues in scientific journals form indispensable steps towards that goal. And while Urban Rural Gothenburg is only one amongst a flurry of intrepid projects globally trying to think outside the box, it manages to capture and epitomise the character of several recurring problems haunting our society today and, arguably, progress within it.
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| 8. |
- Feltynowski, Marcin, et al.
(författare)
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Some problems of local development: the example of former State Agricultural Farms in Poland
- 2015
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Ingår i: Research for Rural Development 2015, Annual 21st International Scientific Conference Proceedings, Latvia University of Agriculture, 13–15 May 2015, Jelgava, Latvia. - Jelgava : Latvia University of Agriculture. - 1691-4031 .- 2255-923X. ; 2, s. 237-243, s. 237-243
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The paper aims at examining the levels of social cohesion and socio-economic dysfunctionality in former State Agricultural Farms (post-PGR) areas, and to assess the possibilities for initiating bottom-up actions and for participating in the creation of mechanisms for local development. Data used in the study was obtained in multi-methods approach, i.e. mainly during a questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews and observation concerning the financial situation and the social environment (social problems and cohesion), that is, the elements predicted to be the key factors obstructing effective corrective actions within local development. We have demonstrated that post-PGR areas should be treated as especially problematic not only because of their economic dysfunctionality, but mainly because of the complex social problems they experience (lack of local ties, hostility, aggression between neighbors). Such a difficult environment requires substantial interference which should take into account the problems specific to the population. The threat resulting from the heterogeneity of such communities should be a significant factor shaping the perception of local development problems.
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| 9. |
- Mattsson, Eskil, 1981, et al.
(författare)
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Carbon stock and tree diversity of dry-zone homegardens in southern Sri Lanka
- 2014
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Ingår i: Book of Abstracts - World Congress on Agroforestry.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Tropical homegardens hold a large potential for climate change mitigation and adaptation due to their multi-functional role in providing income and ecosystem services while decreasing pressure on natural forests. However, there is still lack of quantitative data on homegardens and their landscape potential for carbon sequestration services. In this study, tree diversity and above-ground biomass carbon of woody species was estimated on dry-zone homegardens in the dry south-eastern part of Sri Lanka. A total of 45 homegardens were sampled on size, floristic composition of trees, diameter at breast height (GBH) and height of trees. In total, 4278 trees were sampled and 82 different tree species were recorded. The Shannon Wiener index used to evaluate biodiversity ranged from 0.76–3.01 with a mean value of 2.05. Using allometric models, we find a mean above-ground biomass stock of 13 Mg carbon (C) ha-1 with a large range among homegardens (1–56 Mg C ha-1, n=45) due to a variation of tree diversity, species and composition between individual homegardens. Per unit area basis, mean above ground carbon stock was higher in small homegardens (<0.2 ha, 26 Mg C ha-1, n=11) than medium (0.4–0.8 ha, 9 Mg C ha-1 n=27) and large (>1 ha, 8 Mg C ha-1, n=7) homegardens due to a higher tree density. The results show a vast heterogeneity in terms of carbon and biological diversity within the dry zone homegardens; results that will contribute to closing the knowledge gap of the less studied dry-zone homegarden systems and their functions in storing carbon and providing multi-functional benefits to its users. The results are also useful for whether homegardens should directly or indirectly be considered to be included as an activity within Sri Lanka’s newly commenced UN-REDD National Programme.
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