Papers by Christina Schiavoni
Routledge eBooks, Jul 26, 2018
Food sovereignty, as a movement and a set of ideas, is coming of age. Rooted in resistance to fre... more Food sovereignty, as a movement and a set of ideas, is coming of age. Rooted in resistance to free trade and the globalizing force of neoliberalism, the concept has inspired collective action across the world. We examine what has changed since food sovereignty first emerged on the international scene and reflect on insight from new terrain where the movement has expanded. We argue that to advance the theory and practice of food sovereignty, new frameworks and analytical methods are needed to move beyond binariesbetween urban and rural, gender equality and the family farm, trade and localism, and autonomy and engagement with the state. A research agenda in food sovereignty must not shy away from the rising contradictions in and challenges to the movement. The places of seeming contradiction may in fact be where the greatest insights are to be found. We suggest that by taking a relational perspective, scholars can begin to draw insight into the challenges and sticking points of food sovereignty by training their lens on shifts in the global food regime, on the efforts to construct sovereignty at multiple scales, and on the points of translation where food sovereignty is articulated through historical memory, identity, and everyday life.
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Apr 29, 2019
Contents vii 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Food sovereignty construction in Venezuela 2.3 Food sovereignty... more Contents vii 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Food sovereignty construction in Venezuela 2.3 Food sovereignty construction through time: a historical approach 2.4 Food sovereignty construction as process: a relational approach 2.5 State-society relations in food sovereignty construction: an interactive approach 2.6 Toward a historical, relational and interactive approach to food sovereignty research PROLOGUE TO CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 3: FOOD POLITICS IN VENEZUELA Abstract 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Colonial period and continuation of colonial patterns of production and consumption 3.3 Modernization period 3.4 Neoliberal reform and the rise of the Bolivarian Revolution 3.5 Contemporary period: food as control 3.6 Contemporary period: food as resistance ("En guerra hay que comer") 3.7 Conclusion PROLOGUE TO CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 4: EXPLORING THE "GRAY AREAS" OF STATE-SOCIETY INTERACTION IN FOOD SOVEREIGNTY CONSTRUCTION: THE BATTLE FOR VENEZUELA'S SEED LAW
University of Toronto Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2022
The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2009
Third World Quarterly, 2018
Over the past decade, agricultural investment has been presented as a catchall solution to a conv... more Over the past decade, agricultural investment has been presented as a catchall solution to a converging set of global crises, often with poor rural communities as the proclaimed beneficiaries. Yet the promises of such investment, such as poverty alleviation and improved food access, are routinely at odds with realities on the ground. This article offers frameworks for analysis of agricultural investment that are grounded in the realities of small-scale food providers, drawing from two studies. The first study employs a right to food framework to identify the main channels through which food for consumption is procured by small-scale food providers and the factors impacting these channels. It draws on empirical data from within the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), an investment model promised to lift rural communities out of poverty, which reflects a regional trend. Based on the shortcomings of the large-scale investments examined, the second study employs a food sovereignty framework to explore alternative forms of investment envisioned and/or already being put into practice by small-scale food providers in the SAGCOT area and elsewhere in Tanzania. While two different frameworks formed the basis of two different studies, both the studies and their frameworks are interrelated. The final section of this article makes the case for why both the right to food and food sovereignty are essential lenses for understanding agricultural investment vis-à-vis small-scale food providers and the ways in which they can serve as complementary tools for effective analysis.
The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2018
ABSTRACT In late December 2015, amidst plummeting oil prices, highly politicized food shortages, ... more ABSTRACT In late December 2015, amidst plummeting oil prices, highly politicized food shortages, and an all-around tense political climate in Venezuela, an unexpected event took place in the country’s National Assembly just days before a major shift in its political leadership. A new seed law was passed, with provisions including bans on genetically modified seeds and the patenting of life forms, recognition of both formal and informal seed systems, and protections for the seeds of the country’s peasant, Indigenous, and Afro-descendant communities. The processes behind the Law’s passage were long, messy, dynamic and contentious, with unanticipated twists and turns, betrayals and alliances. This article shares an ‘intimate perspective’ into these processes, as described by those directly involved in them, and as seen through the combined analytical lenses of a historical, relational and interactive approach to food sovereignty construction. This includes an exploration of the shifting of roles across state-society lines; the interaction of threats and opportunities as catalysts for collective action; and incremental shifts in power as social movements engage strategically in different types of spaces, including inside, outside, through and between formal structures of the state. Such an approach complicates simplified narratives around state co-optation of movements on the one hand or idealized depictions of state-society synergy on the other, revealing the many shades of grey involved. The aim is to contribute new insights into the complexities of state-society relations in the construction of food sovereignty, and into bottom-up policy-making processes more generally.
The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2016
Research into food sovereigntybroadly defined by transnational social movements as 'the right of ... more Research into food sovereigntybroadly defined by transnational social movements as 'the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems' (Nyéléni 2007a)is a dynamically evolving area of academic inquiry. Recent years have seen a bourgeoning of studies focused on theoretical explorations of the concept, on the dynamics within and among movements connected to it, and on real-life attempts to put it into practice. From within these studies is an emerging consensus that food sovereignty, in its multiple dimensions, is best understood and approached as a process (Edelman et al. 2014; Iles and Montenegro de Wit 2015; Shattuck, Schiavoni, and VanGelder 2015). The concept itself is a moving target, a reflection, in part, of the shifting terrain of global agrifood politics (McMichael 2015) and of the new actors who have taken it up (Patel 2009). The peasant movements that originally thrust the concept into public light continue to form a key mobilizing base for food sovereignty, while they
Globalizations, 2015
The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with p... more The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.
Third World Quarterly, 2015
ABSTRACT As food sovereignty spreads to new realms that dramatically diverge from the agrarian co... more ABSTRACT As food sovereignty spreads to new realms that dramatically diverge from the agrarian context in which it was originally conceived, this raises new challenges, as well as opportunities, for already complex transnational agrarian movements. In the face of such challenges calls for convergence have increasingly been put forward as a strategy for building political power. Looking at the US case, we argue that historically rooted resistance efforts for agrarian justice, food justice and immigrant labour justice across the food system are not only drawing inspiration from food sovereignty, but helping to shape what food sovereignty means in the USA. By digging into the histories of these resistance efforts, we can better understand the divides that exist as well as the potential for and politics of convergence. The US case thus offers important insights, especially into the roles of race and immigration in the politics of convergence that might strengthen the global movement for food sovereignty as it expands to new contexts and seeks to engage with new constituencies.
Globalizations, 2015
Abstract This article explores how ‘competing sovereignties’ are shaping the political constructi... more Abstract This article explores how ‘competing sovereignties’ are shaping the political construction of food sovereignty—broadly defined as ‘the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems'. This study was motivated by a lack of clarity on the ‘sovereignty’ of food sovereignty, as noted by numerous scholars—sovereignty for whom, and how? As there is a growing consensus that there are in fact ‘multiple sovereignties’ of food sovereignty that cut across jurisdictions and scales, there is the question of how these sovereignties are competing with each other in the attempted construction of food sovereignty. This question is becoming ever more relevant as food sovereignty is increasingly adopted into state policy at various levels, calling for state and societal actors to redefine their terms of engagement. This article explores questions of ‘competing sovereignties’ by developing an analytical framework, using the lenses of scale, geography, and institutions, and applying it to Venezuela, where for the past 15 years a food sovereignty experiment has been underway in the context of a dynamic shift in state–society relations.
Development, 2014
ABSTRACT Although food supply chains are global, and urban populations have ballooned, human bein... more ABSTRACT Although food supply chains are global, and urban populations have ballooned, human beings nonetheless remain inextricably linked to the land by the food they eat. However, the ways in which links between land and human nutrition are articulated and maintained today are complex. This article seeks to explore this complexity, in light of current policy debates, including those related to the Second International Conference on Nutrition.
Monthly Review, 2009
In April 2008, as people around the world took to the streets to protest the global food crisis a... more In April 2008, as people around the world took to the streets to protest the global food crisis and the lack of political will to address it, a crowd of a different nature gathered in Venezuela. Afro-Venezuelan cacao farmers and artisanal fishermen of the coastal community of Chuao came together to witness their president pledge that the food crisis would not hinder Venezuela's advancements in food and agriculture. "There is a food crisis in the world, but Venezuela is not going to fall into that crisis," said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias. "You can be sure of that. Actually, we are going to help other nations who are facing this crisis."1 He then went on to describe Venezuela's most recent developments in food and agriculture, as well as the work that still lay ahead. This was one of several weekly addresses that Chavez had dedicated to food and agriculture as the world food crisis unfolded. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 2012
This piece aims to shed light on Venezuela's current conjuncture, inquiring into food shortag... more This piece aims to shed light on Venezuela's current conjuncture, inquiring into food shortages, lines, and 'riots,' by employing a historical, relational and interactive approach to agrifood politics, with a focus on questions of power as related to race, class, gender and geography, as manifested in everyday practices around food. In doing so, we challenge dominant narratives around 'authoritarian populism,' by examining the differentiated impacts of the shortages and the visible and invisible forms of power driving them, through a complex web of relationships among state, society and capital. We look at the past to understand the historical continuities of extractive patterns, with attention to how food has served as a means of creating and maintaining social differentiations over time, particularly the formation of a powerful elite, a middle class aligned with it, and a class of 'others'. To understand the concentration of power in the food system, we...
Monthly Review
Few countries and political processes have been subject to such scrutiny, yet so generally misund... more Few countries and political processes have been subject to such scrutiny, yet so generally misunderstood, as Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution. This is particularly true today, as the international media paints an image of absolute devastation in the country, wrought by failed policies and government mismanagement. One way to comprehend the complexities of what is happening in Venezuela today—missed entirely by the dominant, mainstream narrative—is by homing in on the dynamics around Venezuela's most highly consumed staple foods.
Third World Quarterly, 2018
Over the past decade, agricultural investment has been presented as
a catchall solution to a conv... more Over the past decade, agricultural investment has been presented as
a catchall solution to a converging set of global crises, often with poor
rural communities as the proclaimed beneficiaries. Yet the promises
of such investment, such as poverty alleviation and improved food
access, are routinely at odds with realities on the ground. This article
offers frameworks for analysis of agricultural investment that are
grounded in the realities of small-scale food providers, drawing
from two studies. The first study employs a right to food framework
to identify the main channels through which food for consumption
is procured by small-scale food providers and the factors impacting
these channels. It draws on empirical data from within the Southern
Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), an investment
model promised to lift rural communities out of poverty, which
reflects a regional trend. Based on the shortcomings of the large-scale
investments examined, the second study employs a food sovereignty
framework to explore alternative forms of investment envisioned
and/or already being put into practice by small-scale food providers
in the SAGCOT area and elsewhere in Tanzania. While two different
frameworks formed the basis of two different studies, both the studies
and their frameworks are interrelated. The final section of this article
makes the case for why both the right to food and food sovereignty
are essential lenses for understanding agricultural investment vis-à-vis
small-scale food providers and the ways in which they can serve as
complementary tools for effective analysis.
This piece aims to shed light on Venezuela’s current conjuncture, inquiring into food shortages, ... more This piece aims to shed light on Venezuela’s current conjuncture, inquiring into food shortages, lines, and ‘riots,’ by employing a historical, relational and interactive approach to agrifood politics, with a focus on questions of power as related to race, class, gender and geography, as manifested in everyday practices around food. In doing so, we challenge dominant narratives around ‘authoritarian populism,’ by examining the differentiated impacts of the shortages and the visible and invisible forms of power driving them, through a complex web of relationships among state, society and capital. We look at the past to understand the historical continuities of extractive patterns, with attention to how food has served as a means of creating and maintaining social differentiations over time, particularly the formation of a powerful elite, a middle class aligned with it, and a class of ‘others’. To understand the concentration of power in the food system, we focus in on the staple food of corn, as expressed through a maiz-harina-arepa complex. This leads us to emerging trends of authoritarian populism in Venezuela today, different from those portrayed in dominant narratives, stemming from elite alliances long in the making. Key to these trends are the ways in which food is used to exert control over the majority of the population. Arguably, through processes of colonization, modernization, and today, globalization, the entire set-up of the modern industrial food system--i.e., offering foods appealing to the tastes of the masses, but in a highly controlled and controlling way--easily lends itself to being a tool of authoritarian populism, as seen in Venezuela today. The flip side is that food is also being used as a tool for resistance, manifested in a multitude of grassroots efforts. We explore these responses, and the hard questions they raise, emphasizing that today in Venezuela, the urgent tasks of the short-term are defining the contours of broader transformation in the long-term, and that it is within the everyday that the possibilities for emancipation exist.
In late December 2015, amidst plummeting oil prices, highly
politicized food shortages, and an al... more In late December 2015, amidst plummeting oil prices, highly
politicized food shortages, and an all-around tense political climate
in Venezuela, an unexpected event took place in the country’s
National Assembly just days before a major shift in its political
leadership. A new seed law was passed, with provisions including
bans on genetically modified seeds and the patenting of life forms,
recognition of both formal and informal seed systems, and
protections for the seeds of the country’s peasant, Indigenous, and
Afro-descendant communities. The processes behind the Law’s
passage were long, messy, dynamic and contentious, with
unanticipated twists and turns, betrayals and alliances. This article
shares an ‘intimate perspective’ into these processes, as described
by those directly involved in them, and as seen through the
combined analytical lenses of a historical, relational and interactive
approach to food sovereignty construction. This includes an
exploration of the shifting of roles across state-society lines; the
interaction of threats and opportunities as catalysts for collective
action; and incremental shifts in power as social movements engage
strategically in different types of spaces, including inside, outside,
through and between formal structures of the state. Such an
approach complicates simplified narratives around state co-optation
of movements on the one hand or idealized depictions of statesociety
synergy on the other, revealing the many shades of grey
involved. The aim is to contribute new insights into the complexities
of state-society relations in the construction of food sovereignty,
and into bottom-up policy-making processes more generally.
In late December 2015, amidst plummeting oil prices, highly politicized food shortages, and an al... more In late December 2015, amidst plummeting oil prices, highly politicized food shortages, and an all-around tense political climate in Venezuela, an unexpected event took place in the country’s National Assembly just days before a major shift in its political leadership. A new seed law was passed, with provisions including bans on genetically modified seeds and the patenting of life forms, recognition of both formal and informal seed systems, and protections for the seeds of the country’s peasant, Indigenous, and Afro-descendant communities. The processes behind the Law’s passage were long, messy, dynamic and contentious, with unanticipated twists and turns, betrayals and alliances. This article shares an ‘intimate perspective’ into these processes, as described by those directly involved in them, and as seen through the combined analytical lenses of a historical, relational and interactive approach to food sovereignty construction. This includes an exploration of the shifting of roles across state-society lines; the interaction of threats and opportunities as catalysts for collective action; and incremental shifts in power as social movements engage strategically in different types of spaces, including inside, outside, through and between formal structures of the state. Such an approach complicates simplified narratives around state co-optation of movements on the one hand or idealized depictions of state-society synergy on the other, revealing the many shades of grey involved. The aim is to contribute new insights into the complexities of state-society relations in the construction of food sovereignty, and into bottom-up policy-making processes more generally.
(FREE for a limited time at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2016.1234455)Thi... more (FREE for a limited time at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2016.1234455)This contribution puts forward a historical, relational and interactive (HRI) approach to food sovereignty research. A historical lens allows us to understand the social structures and institutions that condition the politics of food over time and the ways in which the agency of relevant state and societal actors has been, and continues to be, enhanced and exercised, or not, in the political contestation over the food system. A relational lens allows us to capture the process-oriented nature of food sovereignty – the ways in which the very meanings and attempted practices of food sovereignty are being dynamically and contentiously shaped and reshaped over time. An interactive lens allows us to analyze how actors within the state and in society are dialectically linked, molding the construction of food sovereignty through their interactions. Rather than an enquiry into food sovereignty per se, this piece is about efforts toward food sovereignty, partly to address a tendency in the literature and political debates to conflate the two. This is thus an investigation into food sovereignty construction, meaning how food sovereignty is being articulated and attempted, as well as contested – including resisted, refracted or reversed – in a given setting. The case of Venezuela is examined as one of a growing number of countries where food sovereignty has been adopted into state policy and among the longest-running experiments in its attempted construction. Concluding reflections are shared on the extent to which the HRI framework can help us understand the current conjunctural crisis facing Venezuela’s food system, and implications for food sovereignty research and activism more broadly.
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Papers by Christina Schiavoni
a catchall solution to a converging set of global crises, often with poor
rural communities as the proclaimed beneficiaries. Yet the promises
of such investment, such as poverty alleviation and improved food
access, are routinely at odds with realities on the ground. This article
offers frameworks for analysis of agricultural investment that are
grounded in the realities of small-scale food providers, drawing
from two studies. The first study employs a right to food framework
to identify the main channels through which food for consumption
is procured by small-scale food providers and the factors impacting
these channels. It draws on empirical data from within the Southern
Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), an investment
model promised to lift rural communities out of poverty, which
reflects a regional trend. Based on the shortcomings of the large-scale
investments examined, the second study employs a food sovereignty
framework to explore alternative forms of investment envisioned
and/or already being put into practice by small-scale food providers
in the SAGCOT area and elsewhere in Tanzania. While two different
frameworks formed the basis of two different studies, both the studies
and their frameworks are interrelated. The final section of this article
makes the case for why both the right to food and food sovereignty
are essential lenses for understanding agricultural investment vis-à-vis
small-scale food providers and the ways in which they can serve as
complementary tools for effective analysis.
politicized food shortages, and an all-around tense political climate
in Venezuela, an unexpected event took place in the country’s
National Assembly just days before a major shift in its political
leadership. A new seed law was passed, with provisions including
bans on genetically modified seeds and the patenting of life forms,
recognition of both formal and informal seed systems, and
protections for the seeds of the country’s peasant, Indigenous, and
Afro-descendant communities. The processes behind the Law’s
passage were long, messy, dynamic and contentious, with
unanticipated twists and turns, betrayals and alliances. This article
shares an ‘intimate perspective’ into these processes, as described
by those directly involved in them, and as seen through the
combined analytical lenses of a historical, relational and interactive
approach to food sovereignty construction. This includes an
exploration of the shifting of roles across state-society lines; the
interaction of threats and opportunities as catalysts for collective
action; and incremental shifts in power as social movements engage
strategically in different types of spaces, including inside, outside,
through and between formal structures of the state. Such an
approach complicates simplified narratives around state co-optation
of movements on the one hand or idealized depictions of statesociety
synergy on the other, revealing the many shades of grey
involved. The aim is to contribute new insights into the complexities
of state-society relations in the construction of food sovereignty,
and into bottom-up policy-making processes more generally.
a catchall solution to a converging set of global crises, often with poor
rural communities as the proclaimed beneficiaries. Yet the promises
of such investment, such as poverty alleviation and improved food
access, are routinely at odds with realities on the ground. This article
offers frameworks for analysis of agricultural investment that are
grounded in the realities of small-scale food providers, drawing
from two studies. The first study employs a right to food framework
to identify the main channels through which food for consumption
is procured by small-scale food providers and the factors impacting
these channels. It draws on empirical data from within the Southern
Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), an investment
model promised to lift rural communities out of poverty, which
reflects a regional trend. Based on the shortcomings of the large-scale
investments examined, the second study employs a food sovereignty
framework to explore alternative forms of investment envisioned
and/or already being put into practice by small-scale food providers
in the SAGCOT area and elsewhere in Tanzania. While two different
frameworks formed the basis of two different studies, both the studies
and their frameworks are interrelated. The final section of this article
makes the case for why both the right to food and food sovereignty
are essential lenses for understanding agricultural investment vis-à-vis
small-scale food providers and the ways in which they can serve as
complementary tools for effective analysis.
politicized food shortages, and an all-around tense political climate
in Venezuela, an unexpected event took place in the country’s
National Assembly just days before a major shift in its political
leadership. A new seed law was passed, with provisions including
bans on genetically modified seeds and the patenting of life forms,
recognition of both formal and informal seed systems, and
protections for the seeds of the country’s peasant, Indigenous, and
Afro-descendant communities. The processes behind the Law’s
passage were long, messy, dynamic and contentious, with
unanticipated twists and turns, betrayals and alliances. This article
shares an ‘intimate perspective’ into these processes, as described
by those directly involved in them, and as seen through the
combined analytical lenses of a historical, relational and interactive
approach to food sovereignty construction. This includes an
exploration of the shifting of roles across state-society lines; the
interaction of threats and opportunities as catalysts for collective
action; and incremental shifts in power as social movements engage
strategically in different types of spaces, including inside, outside,
through and between formal structures of the state. Such an
approach complicates simplified narratives around state co-optation
of movements on the one hand or idealized depictions of statesociety
synergy on the other, revealing the many shades of grey
involved. The aim is to contribute new insights into the complexities
of state-society relations in the construction of food sovereignty,
and into bottom-up policy-making processes more generally.