Food security and household labour: Social transformation in a Botswana Village

Public discussion of the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic has reproduced several recurrent and interrelated topics in discourses on sustainability and the Anthropocene. First, there is an ambiguous concern—sometimes ominous, sometimes hopeful—that the pandemic will precipitate radical social transformation or even collapse. Second, there is widespread reflection over the risks of economic globalization, which increases vulnerability and undermines local food security. Third, the pandemic is frequently imagined as nature’s revenge on humankind. This metaphor reflects a fundamental conceptual dualism separating nature and society that continues to constrain our efforts to understand the challenges of sustainability. To help transcend the epistemological and ontological dichotomy of nature versus society, the article proposes an epidemiological approach to all-purpose money. Conventional money is an artifact with far-reaching repercussions for global society as well as the biosphere. To approach it as the source of behavioral algorithms with severely detrimental consequences for both social and ecological systems might provide a middle ground for natural and social science.

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The parables of Jesus as critique on food security systems for vulnerable households in urban townships

HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies ◽

10.4102/hts.v72i3.3252 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 72 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Ernest Van Eck ◽

Meshack Mandla Mashinini

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Empirical Study ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

South African ◽

Social Transformation ◽

Kingdom Of God ◽

Security Systems ◽

Loss Of Self ◽

Personal Dignity ◽

Vulnerable Households

A recent empirical study on food shortage in South African urban townships indicates thatfood shortage embodies multi-faceted aspects with broader social implications, such as thesense of personal dignity, the ability to openly associate with others and a loss of self-identity.It is argued that the parables of Jesus, when read as symbols of social transformation, providea critique on food insecurity systems in urban townships. It is proposed that the parables ofJesus serve as the conduits for a societal and perhaps ecclesial reorientation with regard to theconditions of hunger, in the light of the vision and values of the kingdom of God.

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Food security and gender mainstreaming: Possibilities for social transformation in Brazil

International Social Work ◽

10.1177/0020872811418994 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 55 (3) ◽

pp. 337-352 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Iara Lessa ◽

Cecilia Rocha

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Social Transformation ◽

Gender Mainstreaming ◽

And Gender

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A Landscape Perspective on Climate-Driven Risks to Food Security: Exploring the Relationship between Climate and Social Transformation in the Prehispanic U.S. Southwest

American Antiquity ◽

10.1017/aaq.2020.35 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 85 (3) ◽

pp. 427-451 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Colleen Strawhacker ◽

Grant Snitker ◽

Matthew A. Peeples ◽

Ann P. Kinzig ◽

Keith W. Kintigh ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Social Transformation ◽

Risk Mitigation ◽

Mitigation Strategies ◽

Small Scale ◽

Security Risk ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Social Transformations ◽

Agricultural Communities ◽

The Relationship

Spatially and temporally unpredictable rainfall patterns presented food production challenges to small-scale agricultural communities, requiring multiple risk-mitigating strategies to increase food security. Although site-based investigations of the relationship between climate and agricultural production offer insights into how individual communities may have created long-term adaptations to manage risk, the inherent spatial variability of climate-driven risk makes a landscape-scale perspective valuable. In this article, we model risk by evaluating how the spatial structure of ancient climate conditions may have affected the reliability of three major strategies used to reduce risk: drawing upon social networks in time of need, hunting and gathering of wild resources, and storing surplus food. We then explore how climate-driven changes to this reliability may relate to archaeologically observed social transformations. We demonstrate the utility of this methodology by comparing the Salinas and Cibola regions in the prehispanic U.S. Southwest to understand the complex relationship among climate-driven threats to food security, risk-mitigation strategies, and social transformations. Our results suggest key differences in how communities buffered against risk in the Cibola and Salinas study regions, with the structure of precipitation influencing the range of strategies to which communities had access through time.

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Food Security Surveillance in the Palestinian Territories

Prehospital and Disaster Medicine ◽

10.1017/s1049023x00009389 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 17 (S2) ◽

pp. S20-S21

Author(s):

Gregg Greenough ◽

Ziad Abdeen ◽

Bdour Dandies ◽

Radwan Qasrawi

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Palestinian Territories ◽

Security Surveillance

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Averting robo-bees: why free-flying robotic bees are a bad idea

Emerging Topics in Life Sciences ◽

10.1042/etls20190063 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (6) ◽

pp. 723-729

Author(s):

Roslyn Gleadow ◽

Jim Hanan ◽

Alan Dorin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Computer Simulation ◽

Food Security ◽

European Countries ◽

Plant Interactions ◽

Plant Insect Interactions ◽

Native Habitat ◽

Insect Pollinators ◽

Insect Interactions

Food security and the sustainability of native ecosystems depends on plant-insect interactions in countless ways. Recently reported rapid and immense declines in insect numbers due to climate change, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the introduction of agricultural monocultures, and the destruction of insect native habitat, are all potential contributors to this grave situation. Some researchers are working towards a future where natural insect pollinators might be replaced with free-flying robotic bees, an ecologically problematic proposal. We argue instead that creating environments that are friendly to bees and exploring the use of other species for pollination and bio-control, particularly in non-European countries, are more ecologically sound approaches. The computer simulation of insect-plant interactions is a far more measured application of technology that may assist in managing, or averting, ‘Insect Armageddon' from both practical and ethical viewpoints.

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