Browsing by Author "Losch, Bruno"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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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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    Decent employment and the future of agriculture. How dominant narratives prevent addressing structural issues
    (Frontiers Media, 2022) Losch, Bruno
    Decent employment in agriculture is part of the general narrative about working conditions. It is an unquestionable objective but its position high in the international agenda contributes to sideline major structural issues faced by many agricultures around the world. This is particularly the case in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, which represent about 90% of global agricultural workers, and where agriculture still plays a major role in employment and the economy. Different trajectories of structural transformation and rates of demographic growth result in different employment challenges which are central for possible improvement of work conditions in agriculture.
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    Final Report
    (GTAC, 2020-03-31) Cousins, Ben; Alcock, Rauri; Aliber, Michael; Geraci, Marisia; Losch, Bruno; Mayson, David; de Satgé, Rick
    This study focuses on the potential contribution of redistributive land reform to employment creation. Can land redistribution be undertaken in a manner that also creates jobs, and if so, through which types of land use and farming systems, operating at what scales? What is the potential of small-scale farming, in particular? Despite its many limitations, the study breaks new ground by investigating the potential of small-scale farming for employment generation in specific locations. It highlights the potential for job creation in many commodities produced by small-scale farmers, and recommends a particular focus on extensive livestock and vegetable production.
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    Matzikama Local Municipality, Western Cape
    (GTAC, 2020-03-31) Mayson, David; de Satgé, Rick; Manuel, Ivor; Losch, Bruno
    This study is part of the CBPEP/GTAC Project: Employment Intensive Land Reform in South Africa: Policies, Programmes and Capacities which aims to develop a set of options for rural land reform in South Africa aimed at generating a large number of employment, self-employment and livelihood-enhancing opportunities through the promotion of small-scale agriculture. This study focuses on the Matzikama municipal area in the West Coast district of the Western Cape.
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    Supporting the gastronomic use of underutilised species to promote social and ecological resilience: motivations and challenges in the Cape Town area
    (University of Western Cape, 2020) Willis, Jenny; Losch, Bruno; Pereira, Laura
    It is well established that the modern global food system is highly unsustainable, distorted by industrialisation and corporate consolidation, with negative repercussions on the environment and biodiversity as well as human health. Innovative approaches are necessary to push food systems to be more sustainable, equitable, and healthy for all people regardless of income and wealth. In the Cape Town area, the food system is failing to adequately nourish the poor, while climate change poses increasing challenges to the region’s agricultural system. Conceptualising food systems as complex adaptive social ecological systems and utilising the Multilevel Perspective (MLP) framework, this thesis looks at the burgeoning economy in neglected and underutilised species (NUS) in the Cape Town area as a potential innovation that could make the local food system more socially and ecologically resilient. Though at present NUS are only marginally included in the local food system and policy debates, they are increasingly appearing in the food service industry, driven by international gastronomic trends. They hold potential as climate resilient, nutritionally dense, and socially and culturally significant foods in the region, but also carry ecological and social risks. This thesis critically examines the fledgling NUS economy in the Cape Town area, using participant observation and semistructured interviews to unpack its primary motivations and challenges, and ultimately contributes towards a better understanding of the NUS economy as it develops locally. This research shows that the main risks associated with NUS are negative ecological repercussions, privatisation of the NUS economy, and the reproduction and further entrenchment of unequal power dynamics in the region. In order to mitigate these risks and actualise the related benefits associated with NUS, engagement with the ecological, social, and political context of NUS needs to be significantly deepened. This is particularly true for those working in food service, who appear to be driving the NUS economy, and will require education around sustainability and TEK as well as a foregrounding of power-awareness.
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    Thematic study: International experiences of support policies for smallholders: A review and an exploration of underlying rationale and narratives
    (GTAC, 2020) Losch, Bruno
    This thematic study on International experiences of policies supporting smallholder production is part of the background papers of the ‘GTAC/CBPEP/EU study on employment-intensive rural land reform in South Africa.’ It aims at presenting the existing debates and at drawing possible lessons for South Africa. Specific insights, guidance and advice were required on extension services, access to markets, adaptation to climate change and agro-ecology, and to the adoption of a place-based approach for an employment-intensive rural land reform. Support to smallholders is fully embedded in what has been the evolution of agriculture worldwide over the last 150 years. If major regional differences exist among farming systems, the general adoption of the modernization paradigm has deeply shaped the processes of agricultural development and farm differentiation. It has resulted in mainstream thinking which is challenged today by the limitations and consequences of the growth model, particularly climate change. There is a profusion of references about support policies for smallholders. The choice made for this review is to propose first a historical perspective about the development of these policies, their rationale and related narratives (section 1). This background helps to better understand the existing policy toolkit which is presented in section 2, together with several building blocks central to the current policy architecture, as well as emerging new approaches which could play a larger role in the future. Section 3 is a preliminary discussion about first lessons which could be useful for the collective brainstorming and the completion of the current study on employment-intensive rural land reform.