Browsing by Author "Kroll, Florian"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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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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    Deflating the fallacy of food deserts: Local food geographies in Orange Farm and inner city Johannesburg
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016-08) Kroll, Florian
    The availability and accessibility of food is constrained by the environments where people live, work and purchase goods, and the pathways which they use to traverse these. This recognition has given rise to innovative conceptual frameworks including “food environments” and “food deserts”. These concepts add a spatial dimension to food security research that could inform food systems governance. Although the concepts have expanded the understanding of food security in the global North, their application to the South African context, and to value chains analysis, is still in its infancy. This paper introduces these frameworks and considers their utility in South African cities. The paper presents recent data emerging from case studies of local food geographies conducted by the African Food Security Urban Network (AFSUN). This research proceeded from recognising the importance of informal retail in South African urban food systems. The case studies mapped formal sector food retail outlets in urban Johannesburg, correlating these with socio-economic data. Informal food processing and trade were also mapped in smaller research areas to explore food prevalence and diversity in the local geography and map the spatial patterns of informal food outlets. These studies reveal that the distribution of supermarkets entrenches spatial inequalities and constrains access to food distributed through formal value chains. The studies also reveal spatial and temporal patterns of informal food retail, which provides diverse food retail outlets clustered around public transport access points, along high traffic pedestrian routes, and distributed throughout residential spaces. Although healthy foods are available, unhealthy foods and risky food environments are pervasive. These findings confirm that the concept of food deserts fails to reflect the diversity of food available and accessible through informal livelihoods and suggests that scalar network models of food geographies offer better conceptual frameworks.
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    Dietary patterns, food insecurity, and their relationships with food sources and social determinants in two small island developing states
    (MDPI, 2022) Bhagtani, Divya; Augustus, Eden; Kroll, Florian
    Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have high burdens of nutrition-related chronic diseases. This has been associated with lack of access to adequate and affordable nutritious foods and increasing reliance on imported foods. Our aim in this study was to investigate dietary patterns and food insecurity and assess their associations with socio-demographic characteristics and food sources. We recruited individuals aged 15 years and above from rural and urban areas in Fiji (n = 186) and St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) (n = 147). Data collection included a 24 h diet recall, food source questionnaire and the Food Insecurity Experience Scale. We conducted latent class analysis to identify dietary patterns, and multivariable regression to investigate independent associations with dietary patterns.
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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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    Foodways of the poor in South Africa: How poor people get food, what they eat, and how this shapes our food system
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2017) Kroll, Florian
    Foodways are the set of strategies shaping what food people choose as well as how and where they access and consume it. Informed by culture and social context, the foodways of the poor simultaneously respond to and influence food systems change. South African food systems are in a process of change. These changes are caused by many factors, including urbanisation, consolidation and concentration in food value chains, and changing dietary patterns. These transitions have important consequences for the nature of poverty and food insecurity. However, poor people are not simply passive victims of food systems transition. They make concrete and deliberate decisions about what foods they eat, where they get the food they want and need, and how to deal with the difficulties this involves. These strategies are often complex and are informed by local knowledge, cultural preference, economic considerations and many other factors. In addition to responding to price and convenience, foodways express peoples' aspirations, their sense of identity and belonging. These foodways play a role in influencing the strategies of ‘Big Food’ - powerful food corporations which are transforming food environments.
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    Foodways of the poor in South Africa: How value-chain consolidation, poverty & cultures of consumption feed each other
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016) Kroll, Florian
    South African food systems are in a dynamic process of transition due to changes in food value chain regimes which have major impacts on the poor. However, these transitions are also shaped by demandside drivers emerging from the 'foodways of the poor' - the ways poor people access food, what kinds of food they purchase, how they are consumed, and the culturally-conditioned meanings ascribed to food and eating. To explore these demand-side influences, this paper first considers contrasting current understandings of what poverty is, and who and where the poor are in South Africa. The paper then considers recent research findings that cast light on what poor people eat and where they get food, and how this contrasts with the foodways of better-off people. The emerging patterns – a predilection for cheap grain staples, sugar, soft drinks and chicken frequently sourced through informal channels - suggest that, next to structural determinants such as price and convenience, the symbolic and aspirational domain of food aesthetics and the social functions of visible consumption as symbols of wealth are key forces shaping the foodways of the poor. The provisioning strategies and preferences of the poor – about half of the South African population - emerge as powerful forces rippling back up value chains, and contributing to key trends in the food system such as consolidating and concentrating core value chains such as maize, wheat, poultry and dairy, with social, environmental and health impacts. In contrast to a top-down cascade imposing poverty and hunger, this perspective suggests complex feedback loops between the upstream nodes of food value chains, and the culturally conditioned agency of the poor. This exploration highlights a paucity of research on the links between the foodways of poor people and other aspects of the food system, including poverty narratives, food geographies, informality, and feedback loops in specific value chains. Innovative and trans-disciplinary research approaches and inclusive frameworks are needed to address knowledge gaps and inform transitions towards more transparent and equitable food systems.
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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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    Mapping obesogenic food environments in South Africa and Ghana: Correlations and contradictions
    (MPDI, 2019) Kroll, Florian; Swart, Elizabeth Catherina; Annan, Reginald Adjetey
    In sub-Saharan Africa, urbanisation and food systems change contribute to rapid dietary transitions promoting obesity. It is unclear to what extent these changes are mediated by neighbourhood food environments or other factors. This paper correlates neighbourhood food provision with household consumption and poverty in Khayelitsha, South Africa and Ahodwo, Ghana. Georeferenced survey data of food consumption and provision were classified by obesity risk and protection. Outlets were mapped, and density and distribution correlated with risk classes. In Khayelitsha, 71% of households exceeded dietary obesity risk thresholds while 16% consumed protective diets. Obesogenic profiles were less (26%) and protective more prevalent (23%) in Ahodwo despite greater income poverty in Khayelitsha. Here, income-deprived households consumed significantly (p < 0.005) less obesogenic and protective diets. Small informal food outlets dominated numerically but supermarkets were key household food sources in Khayelitsha. Although density of food provision in Ahodwo was higher (76/km2), Khayelitsha outlets (61/km2) provided greater access to obesogenic (57% Khayelitsha; 39% Ahodwo) and protective (43% Khayelitsha; 16% Ahodwo) foods. Consumption and provision profiles correlate more strongly in Ahodwo than Khayelitsha (rKhayelitsha = 0.624; rAhodwo = 0.862). Higher obesogenic food consumption in Khayelitsha suggests that risky food environments and poverty together promote obesogenic diets.