Integrating Food Culture with Socio-Environmental Recovery: Case Study Perspectives from the Global South

Lea Rekow

doi:10.3390/h9040134

Abstract

This paper discusses how local-level food systems, social remediation and environmental restoration can be linked to increase stability and build resilience inside extremely vulnerable communities. Specifically, it details how food culture entwines with socio-environmental restoration to benefit three low-income urban and peri-urban communities located in Thailand, India and Brazil. It aims to add to an existing body of knowledge that resides at the nexus of food, socio-environmental restoration and informality. It details effective, proven initiatives that have been regionally replicated to support marginalized communities to better cope with the negative effects of simultaneous stressors. It posits that imaginative visioning can be applied to simultaneously cultivate food security, remediate neglected lands and improve socio-economic opportunity. It provides a contribution to the field of social-ecological restoration planning in relation to food studies in lowest-income contexts.

Highlights

Through three case studies—located in Amphawa (Thailand), Kolkata (India) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)—this paper examines how creative involvement with food interlinks with restorative, socio-environmental practices to constructively reshape land use, tackle social exclusion and mitigate environmental degradation in areas suffering from neglect
This paper aims to enhance an integrative understanding of how local level foodways bind with social, economic, environmental and cultural restoration processes by exploring cases where food serves as a fundamental part of a collective lived recovery experience
Food acts as a cultural component a living lab, a functional concept that operates within a territorial context, bound by multidisciplinary processes that are open, participatory, fluid and connected to how actors perceive a sense of place (Frantzeskaki et al 2018)

Summary

Introduction

This study is based on the premise that these places can often hold significant socio-ecological heritage value (Otero et al 2013) and posits that both intangible and tangible forms of heritage, in the broadest sense—that which is or may be inherited—can be positively embedded in these places through locally-based food systems (Rekow 2014). These foodways are defined by multi-directional flows between locally based producers and distribution chains, the land that supports them and the culture that surrounds them. They illustrate the limitations and justice challenges (Lombard and Rakodi 2016) experienced by numerous poor communities

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion