Monthly Archives: June 2013

Knowledge and Food Systems, Scientific community

2013 Yale Food Systems Symposium: Urbanization and Food Systems Transformation

Request for Proposals
2013 Yale Food Systems Symposium: Urbanization and Food Systems Transformation
Yale University, October 18-19, 2013

The parallel forces of urbanization and globalization are transforming our planet. They are bringing unprecedented changes to food production and distribution, livelihoods, communities, and the environment. While the pace of this transformation presents significant challenges to the creation of just and sustainable food systems, it may also create powerful opportunities: to support ecological stewardship, promote economic sustainability, cultivate human health, and ensure social justice. Currently, divergent food system paradigms compete for validity. How can these diverse perspectives be negotiated? How can we synchronize the efforts of research, policy, and practice?

The Yale Food Systems Symposium will bring emerging and established scholars and practitioners to work together in action-oriented sessions that address the complex ecological and socio-economic processes of food production, consumption, climate change and rapid urbanization. A variety of session formats will encourage transdisciplinary dialogue and an active exchange of ideas. We seek a diversity of proposal formats: panels, working groups, roundtables, poster presentations, and papers. We welcome perspectives from the natural and social sciences, from applied disciplines, and from community practitioners. Proposals that bring scholars and practitioners together, work across disciplines, or partner emerging and established researchers are especially encouraged.
Topic areas include, but are not limited to:

  • Climate change and the food system
  • Urbanization, land use change, and food systems planning
  • Politics, policies, and governance across scales
  • Agricultural biodiversity and issues of genetic property
  • Sustainable intensification, multi-functional agriculture
  • Urban-rural linkages
  • Public and market-based approaches to regulating the food system
  • Alternative food networks
  • The right to food, food justice, and food sovereignty movements
  • Industrial ecology approaches to food systems analysis
  • Sustainable diets and assessing and forecasting nutrition trends
  • Sustainable supply chains
  • University-community partnerships
  • Research methods, participatory practice, and frameworks for collaboration

Submission form and deadlines:

Deadline for submission is July 1, 2025. Abstracts & workshop proposals should be 150-200 words and include a title and keywords. Please submit online using our abstract submission form. Accepted proposals will be notified by August 15, 2013.

For more information, please see:
www.yalefoodsymposium.org

Questions about proposal submission and registration may be directed to [email protected].

Scientific community

GIGA establishes award for comparative area studies

Press release by the German Institute of Global Area Studies, Hamburg

GIGA establishes award for comparative area studies

How do sanctions affect autocracies such as North Korea or Iran? What is the role of religion in conflicts in Africa and Latin America – and do parallels exist between the distinct trouble spots? The field of comparative area studies (CAS) has developed rapidly in recent years. CAS scientists have left the beaten track of their discipline and have established international networks. The goal? To gain fresh insights by comparing – insights into the structure of authoritarian regimes, the impact of economic crises or the similarities of violent conflicts.

The GIGA recognised the potential of this still-young field of science years ago. As one of Europe’s leading research institutes for CAS, the GIGA has established itself as a centre of academic excellence and has given CAS a scientific home.

To promote the development of this innovative field, the GIGA has established a new award for the best journal article in CAS. A distinguished international jury will be responsible for selecting the winning article, for which the victor will receive a prize of 2,500 euros. Scientists worldwide can submit their work until mid-September. The award ceremony will take place during the international conference ‘Adapting Institutions: A Comparative Area Studies Perspective’, which will mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the GIGA in Hamburg in April 2014.

‘With the GIGA CAS Award, high-quality, original scientific contributions in the field of comparative area studies will be awarded,’ says Andreas Mehler, director of the GIGA Institute of African Affairs and responsible for the CAS Award. ‘Far too often, Eurocentric experiences are elevated quickly to universal insights – for example, experiences with immigration, climate change and democratic societies,’ he says. CAS could offer a way out of this impasse. ‘For a long time, we at the GIGA have been using the opportunities that arise from the comparison of non-European regions,’ says Mehler.

For more information see: www.giga-hamburg.de/cas

Contact:

PD Dr. Andreas Mehler
Neuer Jungfernstieg 21
20354 Hamburg, Germany

Phone: +49 (0)40 - 428 25-523
Email: [email protected]