The merits of the human security paradigm : a materialist account of peasant insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa

Contemporary food security concerns in sub-Saharan Africa centre on the pertinence of food versus fuel forms of production. As the global energy market enters into the postfossil-fuel epoch, the demand on land for commercial biofuel and feedstock production threatens the livelihood of sub-Saharan Africa's sizeable peasant community. This paper examines the theoretical and paradigmatic attributes of the human security and food security rubric, and its pertinence in accounting for the social threats which threaten individuals within an increasingly interconnected global economic system. While the emergence of these neologisms of the critical security studies school represent a marked divergence from that of the traditional approach of understanding security threats, they remained mired in contestation due to their lack of theoretical parsimony.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Political Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Lobban, Ryan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Akokpari, John

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12221

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12221