The future wellbeing of billions of rural people is interconnected with transforming food systems... more The future wellbeing of billions of rural people is interconnected with transforming food systems for equity, nutrition, environmental sustainability, and resilience. This article tackles three blind spots in the understanding of rural poverty and vulnerability: the narrow focus on extreme poverty and hunger that hides a much wider set of inequalities and vulnerabilities, insufficient recognition of the diversity of rural households, and an inadequate appreciation of the impact of rapid structural changes in markets, the physical environment, and the political economic context. A better understanding of these areas is necessary for imagining a new policy landscape that can align progress on rural poverty alleviation with a wider transformation of food systems. The article provides a framework for assessing the dynamics of rural wellbeing and food systems change. It looks at the viability of small-scale farming and the diversification of livelihood options needed to overcome rural po...
Urban food is a key lever for transformative change towards sustainability. While research report... more Urban food is a key lever for transformative change towards sustainability. While research reporting on the urban food practices in support of sustainability is increasing, the link towards transformative potential is lacking. This is because research on urban food is often place-based and contextual. This limits the applicability of insights to large-scale sustainability transformations. This paper develops a framework to synthesise insights from urban food research across multiple disciplines and explores its links to transformations research. We have developed a framework of signposts for transformative change based on processes and outcomes that are considered key for sustainable (urban) food transformations. Secondly, we classify diverse urban food practices to elevate them beyond their local, place-based contexts. We find that urban food practices carry a lot of potential to facilitate sustainability transformations. Based on that analysis, we provide insights on how urban foo...
Climate change poses unprecedented and complex challenges to global food systems. Critical vulner... more Climate change poses unprecedented and complex challenges to global food systems. Critical vulnerabilities, continuing inequalities, and unsustainability have demonstrated that food systems need significant intervention in order to deliver safe, just, and healthy food for all, against the backdrop of a changing climate. Innovative interventions and effective financing are needed across the food system to achieve these grand ambitions. While there is recognition of a systems approach in the face of complex issues such as climate change, interventions and financing mechanisms have historically focused narrowly on production or specific sectors within food and related systems. Given the diverse array of stresses and shocks, this approach will not achieve the desired paradigm shifts necessary to secure global food systems and meet the Paris Agreement climate targets. Through a comprehensive review of projects funded through the Green Climate Fund (GCF), this paper shows that paradigm sh...
This dissertation examines how concerns about food system transformations affect how middle class... more This dissertation examines how concerns about food system transformations affect how middle class consumers in Islamabad, Pakistan, perceive and approach food consumption in their everyday lives. The dissertation is situated in the context of risky food environments and food fears resulting from intensified, industrialised, and increasingly lengthened global food systems. Working within food geography and food environments paradigms, this dissertation explores how the transformation of food systems is associated with increasing anxiety about food security and safety for middle class urban consumers in Islamabad. Qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews and participant observation is used to illustrate the effects external influences, such as energy scarcity and violent events, have on everyday food environments. The dissertation examines the ways in which conceptualisations of 'good food', and trust relationships are negotiated in these dynamic food environments. The intensely geographical nature of these food environments and food systems, and the role of place-specific contexts on perceptions and adaptations related to food anxieties are emphasised. Situated in literatures on food anxiety and food consumption emerging from geography, food studies, and anthropology, this dissertation challenges dominant discourses on alternative and ethical consumption in a globalising food system. The results of this research not only contribute to literature on South Asia, but also contribute to consumption practices of a burgeoning middle class in developing countries.</p
The impact of human activity on the planet cannot be overstated. Food systems are at the centre o... more The impact of human activity on the planet cannot be overstated. Food systems are at the centre of a tangled web of interactions affecting all life. They are a complex nexus that directly and indirectly affects, and is affected by, a diverse set of social, environmental and technological phenomena. The complexity and often intractability of these interactions have created a variety of food-related problems that people seek to address in a collaborative and interdisciplinary manner through the adoption of a holistic food systems perspective. However, operationalising a systemic approach to address food system challenges is not a guarantee of success or positive outcomes. This is largely due to the partiality inherent in taking a systems perspective, and the difficulty in communicating these different perspectives among stakeholders. A functional food systems literacy is therefore required to aid people in communicating and collaborating on food system problems within dynamic learning...
Research Journal of Environmental and Earth Sciences, 2013
Nano-technology is commonly considered as a new field, however, it's successful application in me... more Nano-technology is commonly considered as a new field, however, it's successful application in medicine, cosmetics, energy and the environment has been witnessed during last couple of decades. The use of nano-robots, drug production and drug delivery according to biological requirement within the body, are some of the main achievements of nano-medicine. In environmental science, nano-technology is being applied to smart and/or passive purification systems for air and water of which, zeolites, aerogels, chitosan and zerovalent iron are already in use. Another nano-product, Aerogel, has shown incredible promise in physical cleanup of oil spills and appears to have no deleterious effect on the marine ecosystems. Furthermore, nano-generation provides some solutions for cheap and easily attainable energy in the form of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) made from nano-particles. Highly efficient photovoltaic cells of lead selenide and piezoelectric generators are ideas that have already been incorporated in energy producing fabrics and in compact and efficient solar cells. However, nanotechnology has been under intensive investigation, as nano-particles are made up of toxic heavy metals; their physio-kinetic and thermodynamic aspects are questionable; and their bio-persistence in the environment are of scientific concern. Moreover, some studies have also revealed them as a cause for cell necrosis, genetic changes and developmental effects, since nano-particles are capable of crossing cell membranes and the blood-brain barrier. With all its innovations and use in medicine and other sciences, there are repercussions to nanotechnology and nano-particles. This review compiles many of the current and some possible future environmental applications and the consequences that may result from them.
Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2020
Food security has been a critical aspect of Pakistan's development, with multiple projects and po... more Food security has been a critical aspect of Pakistan's development, with multiple projects and policies focused on improving food production, availability, and affordability. However, there is comparatively less work on the interrelations of the food and energy systems, particularly in the country's current resource-constrained times. In the past few years, Pakistan has been severely influenced by fuel crises and chronic power cuts, which disrupt every sector and area of the country. Based on fieldwork conducted in Pakistan, this paper examines the impact of the availability of natural gas, fuel, and electricity on the food environments of residents in urban Pakistan. This paper explores these issues by presenting the lived experiences of food and energy disruption by residents in Islamabad, Pakistan, and then conceptualizing food environments to highlight the points of intersection. This approach benefits from the analytical lens of the food systems approach by identifying and understanding the (1) connections and embeddedness of system activities and their outcomes, (2) understanding issues of scale in food environments, and (3) presenting the consequences of systemic disruption on residents within food systems.
This paper investigates the disruptions in everyday routine and the stresses of food sourcing in ... more This paper investigates the disruptions in everyday routine and the stresses of food sourcing in the urban food environment among middle class residents of Islamabad, Pakistan. It explores the dynamism of urban food environments in developing countries under the influence of various stressors and highlights adaptations taken by urban consumers. It presents a middle class view of urban food security and explores the potential constraints on food acquisition for a section of the population that has normally considered itself food secure. The paper examines how seasonal scarcities of gas and water, artificial cost inflations during the month of fasting, and regional and local disasters such as floods and militant violence influence food decisions within this group. It pays particular attention to the temporal nature of these disruptions, how they impact perceptions and experiences of food sourcing and the subsequent temporal and spatial adaptations adopted. Specifically, it contributes to the literature on food environments and food security by demonstrating how such disruptions contribute to dynamism within food environments, how the middle class responds to these changes in their everyday lives, and how their perceptions on personal food security are threatened. The paper adds to the literature on the role of time, personal routines, and anticipatory logic in the context of food consumption within a developing country using household-level perspectives of urban food environments.
Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability, 2019
This article explores the role of informal food spaces and flows in Islamabad, Pakistan. This pap... more This article explores the role of informal food spaces and flows in Islamabad, Pakistan. This paper aims to address two key questions in the areas of food and urbanism in Islamabad: How do the city's residents perceive and experience the so-called "non-urban" food spaces and flows in their everyday lives? How do these spaces contribute to a nuanced understanding of global food systems? This paper considers that these spaces are critical in engendering nostalgia for past food habits and behaviours, a trigger for reflexive consumerism, and sites for reconnecting with different aspects of the country's food system. The paper also explores how such spaces can be conceptualised within urbanism and geography, in the context of Islamabad's unique spatial and socio-cultural identity. Informed by urbanism and food geography, this paper considers analytical and theoretical strategies for advancing the study of the urban in the global south, and specifically in Pakistan.
This contribution reflects on the experiences of a four month stint of ethnographic fieldwork con... more This contribution reflects on the experiences of a four month stint of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Islamabad, Pakistan. It is a case of ‘fieldwork at home’, with serious concerns of positionality, established assumptions, and using a qualitative methodology. Although I had read quite extensively on what to expect, believed I was prepared for the unexpected, it was a jarring experience to see things I had once been used to with a critical ‘researcher’s eye’. Factors like natural gas shortages, blisteringly cold winter days and an environment of anxiety and fear caused by instances of terrorist activities slowed my fieldwork and crept into all my encounters with the participants. Even though I was studying the effects of regional and national processes on local events and individual decision-making, the extent and quality of the effects was unsettling. My assumptions about my city, the people I was working with, and more importantly, their knowledge and assumptions about me, w...
The future wellbeing of billions of rural people is interconnected with transforming food systems... more The future wellbeing of billions of rural people is interconnected with transforming food systems for equity, nutrition, environmental sustainability, and resilience. This article tackles three blind spots in the understanding of rural poverty and vulnerability: the narrow focus on extreme poverty and hunger that hides a much wider set of inequalities and vulnerabilities, insufficient recognition of the diversity of rural households, and an inadequate appreciation of the impact of rapid structural changes in markets, the physical environment, and the political economic context. A better understanding of these areas is necessary for imagining a new policy landscape that can align progress on rural poverty alleviation with a wider transformation of food systems. The article provides a framework for assessing the dynamics of rural wellbeing and food systems change. It looks at the viability of small-scale farming and the diversification of livelihood options needed to overcome rural po...
Urban food is a key lever for transformative change towards sustainability. While research report... more Urban food is a key lever for transformative change towards sustainability. While research reporting on the urban food practices in support of sustainability is increasing, the link towards transformative potential is lacking. This is because research on urban food is often place-based and contextual. This limits the applicability of insights to large-scale sustainability transformations. This paper develops a framework to synthesise insights from urban food research across multiple disciplines and explores its links to transformations research. We have developed a framework of signposts for transformative change based on processes and outcomes that are considered key for sustainable (urban) food transformations. Secondly, we classify diverse urban food practices to elevate them beyond their local, place-based contexts. We find that urban food practices carry a lot of potential to facilitate sustainability transformations. Based on that analysis, we provide insights on how urban foo...
Climate change poses unprecedented and complex challenges to global food systems. Critical vulner... more Climate change poses unprecedented and complex challenges to global food systems. Critical vulnerabilities, continuing inequalities, and unsustainability have demonstrated that food systems need significant intervention in order to deliver safe, just, and healthy food for all, against the backdrop of a changing climate. Innovative interventions and effective financing are needed across the food system to achieve these grand ambitions. While there is recognition of a systems approach in the face of complex issues such as climate change, interventions and financing mechanisms have historically focused narrowly on production or specific sectors within food and related systems. Given the diverse array of stresses and shocks, this approach will not achieve the desired paradigm shifts necessary to secure global food systems and meet the Paris Agreement climate targets. Through a comprehensive review of projects funded through the Green Climate Fund (GCF), this paper shows that paradigm sh...
This dissertation examines how concerns about food system transformations affect how middle class... more This dissertation examines how concerns about food system transformations affect how middle class consumers in Islamabad, Pakistan, perceive and approach food consumption in their everyday lives. The dissertation is situated in the context of risky food environments and food fears resulting from intensified, industrialised, and increasingly lengthened global food systems. Working within food geography and food environments paradigms, this dissertation explores how the transformation of food systems is associated with increasing anxiety about food security and safety for middle class urban consumers in Islamabad. Qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews and participant observation is used to illustrate the effects external influences, such as energy scarcity and violent events, have on everyday food environments. The dissertation examines the ways in which conceptualisations of 'good food', and trust relationships are negotiated in these dynamic food environments. The intensely geographical nature of these food environments and food systems, and the role of place-specific contexts on perceptions and adaptations related to food anxieties are emphasised. Situated in literatures on food anxiety and food consumption emerging from geography, food studies, and anthropology, this dissertation challenges dominant discourses on alternative and ethical consumption in a globalising food system. The results of this research not only contribute to literature on South Asia, but also contribute to consumption practices of a burgeoning middle class in developing countries.</p
The impact of human activity on the planet cannot be overstated. Food systems are at the centre o... more The impact of human activity on the planet cannot be overstated. Food systems are at the centre of a tangled web of interactions affecting all life. They are a complex nexus that directly and indirectly affects, and is affected by, a diverse set of social, environmental and technological phenomena. The complexity and often intractability of these interactions have created a variety of food-related problems that people seek to address in a collaborative and interdisciplinary manner through the adoption of a holistic food systems perspective. However, operationalising a systemic approach to address food system challenges is not a guarantee of success or positive outcomes. This is largely due to the partiality inherent in taking a systems perspective, and the difficulty in communicating these different perspectives among stakeholders. A functional food systems literacy is therefore required to aid people in communicating and collaborating on food system problems within dynamic learning...
Research Journal of Environmental and Earth Sciences, 2013
Nano-technology is commonly considered as a new field, however, it's successful application in me... more Nano-technology is commonly considered as a new field, however, it's successful application in medicine, cosmetics, energy and the environment has been witnessed during last couple of decades. The use of nano-robots, drug production and drug delivery according to biological requirement within the body, are some of the main achievements of nano-medicine. In environmental science, nano-technology is being applied to smart and/or passive purification systems for air and water of which, zeolites, aerogels, chitosan and zerovalent iron are already in use. Another nano-product, Aerogel, has shown incredible promise in physical cleanup of oil spills and appears to have no deleterious effect on the marine ecosystems. Furthermore, nano-generation provides some solutions for cheap and easily attainable energy in the form of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) made from nano-particles. Highly efficient photovoltaic cells of lead selenide and piezoelectric generators are ideas that have already been incorporated in energy producing fabrics and in compact and efficient solar cells. However, nanotechnology has been under intensive investigation, as nano-particles are made up of toxic heavy metals; their physio-kinetic and thermodynamic aspects are questionable; and their bio-persistence in the environment are of scientific concern. Moreover, some studies have also revealed them as a cause for cell necrosis, genetic changes and developmental effects, since nano-particles are capable of crossing cell membranes and the blood-brain barrier. With all its innovations and use in medicine and other sciences, there are repercussions to nanotechnology and nano-particles. This review compiles many of the current and some possible future environmental applications and the consequences that may result from them.
Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2020
Food security has been a critical aspect of Pakistan's development, with multiple projects and po... more Food security has been a critical aspect of Pakistan's development, with multiple projects and policies focused on improving food production, availability, and affordability. However, there is comparatively less work on the interrelations of the food and energy systems, particularly in the country's current resource-constrained times. In the past few years, Pakistan has been severely influenced by fuel crises and chronic power cuts, which disrupt every sector and area of the country. Based on fieldwork conducted in Pakistan, this paper examines the impact of the availability of natural gas, fuel, and electricity on the food environments of residents in urban Pakistan. This paper explores these issues by presenting the lived experiences of food and energy disruption by residents in Islamabad, Pakistan, and then conceptualizing food environments to highlight the points of intersection. This approach benefits from the analytical lens of the food systems approach by identifying and understanding the (1) connections and embeddedness of system activities and their outcomes, (2) understanding issues of scale in food environments, and (3) presenting the consequences of systemic disruption on residents within food systems.
This paper investigates the disruptions in everyday routine and the stresses of food sourcing in ... more This paper investigates the disruptions in everyday routine and the stresses of food sourcing in the urban food environment among middle class residents of Islamabad, Pakistan. It explores the dynamism of urban food environments in developing countries under the influence of various stressors and highlights adaptations taken by urban consumers. It presents a middle class view of urban food security and explores the potential constraints on food acquisition for a section of the population that has normally considered itself food secure. The paper examines how seasonal scarcities of gas and water, artificial cost inflations during the month of fasting, and regional and local disasters such as floods and militant violence influence food decisions within this group. It pays particular attention to the temporal nature of these disruptions, how they impact perceptions and experiences of food sourcing and the subsequent temporal and spatial adaptations adopted. Specifically, it contributes to the literature on food environments and food security by demonstrating how such disruptions contribute to dynamism within food environments, how the middle class responds to these changes in their everyday lives, and how their perceptions on personal food security are threatened. The paper adds to the literature on the role of time, personal routines, and anticipatory logic in the context of food consumption within a developing country using household-level perspectives of urban food environments.
Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability, 2019
This article explores the role of informal food spaces and flows in Islamabad, Pakistan. This pap... more This article explores the role of informal food spaces and flows in Islamabad, Pakistan. This paper aims to address two key questions in the areas of food and urbanism in Islamabad: How do the city's residents perceive and experience the so-called "non-urban" food spaces and flows in their everyday lives? How do these spaces contribute to a nuanced understanding of global food systems? This paper considers that these spaces are critical in engendering nostalgia for past food habits and behaviours, a trigger for reflexive consumerism, and sites for reconnecting with different aspects of the country's food system. The paper also explores how such spaces can be conceptualised within urbanism and geography, in the context of Islamabad's unique spatial and socio-cultural identity. Informed by urbanism and food geography, this paper considers analytical and theoretical strategies for advancing the study of the urban in the global south, and specifically in Pakistan.
This contribution reflects on the experiences of a four month stint of ethnographic fieldwork con... more This contribution reflects on the experiences of a four month stint of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Islamabad, Pakistan. It is a case of ‘fieldwork at home’, with serious concerns of positionality, established assumptions, and using a qualitative methodology. Although I had read quite extensively on what to expect, believed I was prepared for the unexpected, it was a jarring experience to see things I had once been used to with a critical ‘researcher’s eye’. Factors like natural gas shortages, blisteringly cold winter days and an environment of anxiety and fear caused by instances of terrorist activities slowed my fieldwork and crept into all my encounters with the participants. Even though I was studying the effects of regional and national processes on local events and individual decision-making, the extent and quality of the effects was unsettling. My assumptions about my city, the people I was working with, and more importantly, their knowledge and assumptions about me, w...
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