Chaire UNESCO Alimentations du monde

Urban governance for food security : the alternative food system in Belo Horizonte

Mathilde COUDRAY — 2021-11-23T12:59:28Z

With a population of 2.5 million people, the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, is a world pioneer in tackling food consumption, distribution and production as components of an integrated urban policy for food security. The paper gives a description of the main programmes and features of this policy arguing that over 15 years the city and its Municipal Secretariat for Food Policy and Supply have built a particular alternative food system. Marked by the comprehensive scope of its programmes ; its urban/rural focus ; the flexibility of the initiatives and, above all, by its commitment to social justice and equitable access to food, Belo Horizonte has developed a distinct mode of governance for food security. The unique ‘alterity' of this food system is set further apart from those being attempted in Europe and in North America because it is government-driven. The paper discusses its strengths and current challenges.

- L'alimentation en politiques / Article scientifique, Gouvernance/politique, Anglais, Ressources hors Chaire, Avant 2014, Rocha Cecilia, Lessa Iara

A safe and just space for humanity : can we live within the doughnut ?

Mathilde COUDRAY — 2021-11-23T12:30:51Z

Humanity's challenge in the 21st century is to eradicate poverty and achieve prosperity for all within the means of the planet's limited natural resources. In the run-up to Rio+20, this discussion paper presents a visual framework – shaped like a doughnut – which brings planetary boundaries together with social boundaries, creating a safe and just space between the two, in which humanity can thrive. Moving into this space demands far greater equity – within and between countries – in the use of natural resources, and far greater efficiency in transforming those resources to meet human needs.

- Les rôles de la formation et de la recherche / Rapport/synthèse, Anglais, Ressources hors Chaire, Avant 2014, Raworth Kate

Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes : a multi-level perspective and a case-study

Mathilde COUDRAY — 2021-11-23T12:06:45Z

This paper addresses the question of how technological transitions (TT) come about ? Are there particular patterns and mechanisms in transition processes ? TT are defined as major, long-term technological changes in the way societal functions are fulfilled. TT do not only involve changes in technology, but also changes in user practices, regulation, industrial networks, infrastructure, and symbolic meaning or culture. This paper practices ‘appreciative theory' [R.R. Nelson, S.G. Winter, An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, Bellknap Press, Cambridge, MA, 1982] and brings together insights from evolutionary economics and technology studies. This results in a multi-level perspective on TT where two views of the evolution are combined : (i) evolution as a process of variation, selection and retention, (ii) evolution as a process of unfolding and reconfiguration. The perspective is empirically illustrated with a qualitative longitudinal case-study, the transition from sailing ships to steamships, 1780–1900. Three particular mechanisms in TT are described : niche-cumulation, technological add-on and hybridisation, riding along with market growth.

- Les initiatives citoyennes et leur changement d'échelle / Article scientifique, Anglais, Ressources hors Chaire, Avant 2014, W.Geels Frank

Les intermittents du bio. Pour une sociologie pragmatique des choix alimentaires émergents

Mathilde COUDRAY — 2021-11-03T18:33:23Z

Des incertitudes d'ordre sanitaire, diététique et gustatif et des motivations éthiques conduisent certains consommateurs vers les produits biologiques. Mais la majorité d'entre eux restent partiels et irréguliers dans leur choix bio. Le cas de ces mangeurs bio "intermittents" offre un accès à la complexité et à la variabilité des pratiques alimentaires. L'auteur étudie leurs trajectoires et leurs choix et propose une analyse pragmatique et microsociologique des comportements alimentaires dans leurs processus de basculement et de stabilisation, défendant ainsi la thèse d'une réflexivité routinière. L'étude du rôle des systèmes de vente alternatifs dans les choix de ces mangeurs montre comment se construit la confiance et souligne les dimensions politiques de la consommation alimentaire.

- Le consomm'acteur, moteur du changement ? / Ouvrage, Consommation, Holistique, Français, Ressources hors Chaire, Avant 2014, Lamine Claire

Improving the effectiveness of nutritional information policies : assessment of unconscious pleasure mechanisms involved in food-choice decisions

Mathilde COUDRAY — 2021-11-03T18:31:40Z

The rise in obesity in many countries has led to the emergence of nutritional information policies that aim to change people's diets. Changing an individual's diet is an ambitious goal, since numerous factors influence a person's food-choice decisions, many of which are made unconsciously. These frequently subconscious processes should not be underestimated in food-choice behavior, as they play a major role in food diet composition. In this review, research in cognitive experimental psychology and neuroscience provides the basis for a critical analysis of the role of pleasure in eating behaviors. An assessment of the main characteristics of nutritional policies is provided, followed by recent findings showing that food choices are guided primarily by automatic emotional processes. Neuroimaging and behavioral studies, which provide new insights into the relationships between emotions and food both in lean persons and in persons with eating disorders, are reported as well. Lastly, the argument is presented that future nutritional policies can be more effective if they associate healthy food with eating pleasure.

- Le consomm'acteur, moteur du changement ? / Article scientifique, Consommation, Hédonique, Anglais, Ressources hors Chaire, Avant 2014, Jacquier Caroline , Bonthoux Françoise

La consommation engagée

Mathilde COUDRAY — 2021-11-03T18:29:19Z

Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier retrace l'histoire de la consommation engagée, qui s'impose aujourd'hui comme un mouvement puissant, capable d'influencer les gouvernements, les législateurs et les acteurs économiques. Lire la suite

Achats bio, boycott, refus de la publicité, éco-villages, véganisme… Multiforme, la consommation engagée fait du marché un lieu de contestation politique contre les excès du capitalisme et de la société d'accumulation.

Dès le XVIIIe siècle apparaît l'idée que les citoyens peuvent, en unissant leurs efforts individuels, infléchir les tendances délétères de la société. Depuis, ce mouvement n'a cessé de grandir et d'étendre ses prérogatives. Aux causes de justice sociale se sont désormais ajoutées les luttes contre la dégradation de l'environnement, pour les circuits courts, contre la souffrance animale, pour l'éthique dans les échanges, etc.

Critique à la fois contre et dans le marché, avec lequel elle entretient une relation ambiguë, la consommation engagée s'impose aujourd'hui comme un mouvement puissant, capable d'influencer les gouvernements, les législateurs et les acteurs économiques.

- Le consomm'acteur, moteur du changement ? / Ouvrage, Consommation, Sociale, Français, Ressources hors Chaire, Avant 2014, Dubuisson-Quellier Sophie

The practice and politics of food system localization

Mathilde COUDRAY — 2021-11-03T18:21:39Z

As an apparent counterpoint to globalization, food system localization is often assumed to be a good, progressive and desirable process. Such thinking rests on a local–global binary that merits closer scrutiny. This paper examines the social construction of “local”, by analyzing the practice and politics of food system localization efforts in Iowa, USA. It argues that desirable social or environmental outcomes may not always map neatly onto the spatial content of “local”, which itself involves the social construction of scale. These contradictions in turn relate to differing political inflections discernible in food system localization. Localization can be approached defensively, emphasizing the boundaries and distinctions between a culturally and socially homogeneous locality needing protection from non-local “others”. But through the experience of new social and gustatory exchanges, localization can also promote increased receptivity to difference and diversity. More emergent, fluid and inclusive notions of the “local”, however, may challenge the very project of crafting and maintaining distinctive food identities for local places. These themes are explored through a case study of food system localization efforts and activities in Iowa, an American state that has been a stronghold of conventional commodity agriculture. Demographic and agricultural histories are drawn on to understand recent food system localization practice that has come to emphasize a definition of “local” that coincides with sub-national state boundaries. The emergence and popularization of the “Iowa-grown banquet meal” and the shifting meaning of “local Iowa food” further illustrate the potential tension between defensiveness and diversity in food system localization.

- Prendre ses distances avec le local ? / Article scientifique, Système alimentaire, Holistique, Anglais, Ressources hors Chaire, Avant 2014, Hinrichs C. Clare

The place of food : mapping out the ‘local' in local food systems

Mathilde COUDRAY — 2021-11-03T18:19:41Z

‘Local food systems' movements, practices, and writings pose increasingly visible structures of resistance and counter-pressure to conventional globalizing food systems. The place of food seems to be the quiet centre of the discourses emerging with these movements. The purpose of this paper is to identify issues of ‘place', which are variously described as the ‘local'and ‘community' in the local food systems literature, and to do so in conjunction with the geographic discussion focused on questions and meanings around these spatial concepts. I see raising the profile of questions, complexity and potential of these concepts as an important role and challenge for the scholar-advocate in the realm of local food systems, and for geographers sorting through them. Both literatures benefit from such a foray. The paper concludes, following a ‘cautiously normative' tone, that there is strong argument for emplacing our food systems, while simultaneously calling for careful circumspection and greater clarity regarding how we delineate and understand the ‘local'. Being conscious of the constructed nature of the ‘local', ‘community' and ‘place' means seeing the importance of local social, cultural and ecological particularity in our everyday worlds, while also recognizing that we are reflexively and dialectially tied to many and diverse locals around the world.

- Prendre ses distances avec le local ? / Article scientifique, Système alimentaire, Holistique, Anglais, Ressources hors Chaire, Avant 2014, Feagan Robert

Should we go “home” to eat ? : toward a reflexive politics of localism

Mathilde COUDRAY — 2021-11-03T18:17:04Z

“Coming home to eat” [Nabhan, 2002. Coming Home to Eat : The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods. Norton, New York] has become a clarion call among alternative food movement activists. Most food activist discourse makes a strong connection between the localization of food systems and the promotion of environmental sustainability and social justice. Much of the US academic literature on food systems echoes food activist rhetoric about alternative food systems as built on alternative social norms. New ways of thinking, the ethic of care, desire, realization, and vision become the explanatory factors in the creation of alternative food systems. In these norm-based explanations, the “Local” becomes the context in which this type of action works. In the European food system literature about local “value chains” and alternative food networks, localism becomes a way to maintain rural livelihoods. In both the US and European literatures on localism, the global becomes the universal logic of capitalism and the local the point of resistance to this global logic, a place where “embeddedness” can and does happen. Nevertheless, as other literatures outside of food studies show, the local is often a site of inequality and hegemonic domination. However, rather than declaim the “radical particularism” of localism, it is more productive to question an “unreflexive localism” and to forge localist alliances that pay attention to equality and social justice. The paper explores what that kind of localist politics might look like.

- Prendre ses distances avec le local ? / Article scientifique, Système alimentaire, Holistique, Anglais, Ressources hors Chaire, Avant 2014, Goodman David , DuPuis E. Melanie

Avoiding the local trap : scale and food systems in planning research

Mathilde COUDRAY — 2021-11-03T18:15:58Z

A strong current of food-systems research holds that local food systems are preferable to systems at larger scales. Many assume that eating local food is more ecologically sustainable and socially just. We term this the local trap and argue strongly against it. We draw on current scale theory in political and economic geography to argue that local food systems are no more likely to be sustainable or just than systems at other scales. The theory argues that scale is socially produced : scales (and their interrelations) are not independent entities with inherent qualities but strategies pursued by social actors with a particular agenda. It is the content of that agenda, not the scales themselves, that produces outcomes such as sustainability or justice. As planners move increasingly into food-systems research, we argue it is critical to avoid the local trap. The article's theoretical approach to scale offers one way to do so.

- Prendre ses distances avec le local ? / Article scientifique, Système alimentaire, Anglais, Ressources hors Chaire, Avant 2014, Born Branden , Purcell Mark