Browsing by Author "Adelle, Camilla"

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    Co-production of knowledge in transdisciplinary communities of practice: Experiences from food governance in South Africa
    (Oxford University Press, 2021) Adelle, Camilla; Gorgens, Tristan; Kroll, Florian; Losch, Bruno
    Communities of Practice are sites of social learning for the co-production of knowledge. Building on recent literature on Transdisciplinary Communities of Practice, this article reflects on the experiences of an emergent ‘Food Governance Community of Practice’ in South Africa that brings together multiple stakeholders to co-produce knowledge to inform local food policy and governance. Our results show the following lessons for managers and participants engaged in establishing similar ‘third spaces’ for knowledge co-production: 1) make inevitable power asymmetries explicit; 2) the identity of the group should not be built on a particular normative position but emerge from discursive processes and 3) create a balance between supporting peripheral learning and maintaining the specialist cutting edge discussions needed for co-production. Furthermore, the most beneficial legacy of a Community of Practice may not be the outputs in terms of the co-produced knowledge but the development of a cohesive group of stakeholders with a new shared way of knowing
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    Digital storytelling for policy impact: Perspectives from co-producing knowledge for food system governance in South Africa
    (Bristol University Press, 2022) Adelle, Camilla; Black, Gillian; Kroll, Florian
    Post-positivist critics of the linear-rational understanding of the role of knowledge in decision making have long argued the need for the construction of socially robust knowledge to illuminate policy problems from a variety of perspectives, including lived experiences. This article charts the attempts of researchers to employ a creative method, digital storytelling, alongside more traditional scientific data in stakeholder deliberations to inform local food governance in South Africa.
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    Lockdown, resilience and emergency statecraft in the Cape Town food system
    (Cities, 2022) Kroll, Florian; Adelle, Camilla
    Well before the Covid-19 pandemic, rapidly growing cities of the global South were at the epicenter of multiple converging crises affecting food systems. Globally, government lockdown responses to the disease triggered shocks which cascaded unevenly through urban food systems, exacerbating food insecurity. Cities worldwide developed strategies to mitigate shocks, but research on statecraft enabling food systems resilience is sparse. Addressing this gap, we analyse the case of the African metropolis of Cape Town, where lockdown disrupted livelihoods, mobility and food provision, deepening food insecurity. Employing a vital systems security lens, we show how civil society and state networks mobilised to mitigate and adapt to lockdown impacts. Building on preceding institutional transformations, civil society and state collaborated to deliver emergency food aid, while advocacy networks raised food on the political agenda, formulated proposals, and navigated these through a widened policy window. Emergency statecraft assembled networks and regulatory instruments to secure food systems, enhance preparedness for future disruptions and present opportunities for transition towards more sustainable food systems. However, current food systems configuration enabled powerful actors to resist deeper transformation while devolving impacts to community networks. Despite resilient vested interests and power disparities, advocacy coalitions can anticipate and leverage crises to incrementally advance transformational, pro-poor statecraft.
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    The role of the national student financial aid scheme in addressing food insecurity at South African universities
    (University of the Western Cape, 2022) Dlabatshana, Zikhona; Adelle, Camilla
    In the post-1994 period, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has been hailed for affording students from disadvantaged backgrounds access to higher learning institutions. Research has been conducted by various researchers and government officials on the issue of NSFAS and its role in promoting attendance at tertiary institutions. However, there is little research on NSFAS and the role it plays in student food insecurity and hunger. Students at universities are challenged with issues of food insecurity despite the food allowances provided by NSFAS. This research study aims to reflect on the apparent challenges of NSFAS in terms of addressing the issue of hunger and food security at one South African university, the University of the Western Cape (UWC).