Conundrums of food governance in South African metropoles

This thesis reflects on the discourse and practice of urban food governance in the city of Cape Town, considered from the point of view of a Foucauldian analysis of deliberative statecraft. The focus is on the ways in which metropolitan governments have tried to make food systems visible and galvanise strategic intent to govern them. Food systems governance discourse (FSGD) lies at the heart of these efforts. It interprets food systems issues as a wicked problem requiring adaptive governance. How does food systems problematisation inform governmental institutions, policies and rationalities? What are the resulting limitations and affordances of FSGD? To explore these questions, it distils insights from five papers. The first paper, “Mapping obesogenic food environments in South Africa and Ghana: Correlations and Contradictions” (Kroll et al 2019), considers a spatial strategy to problematise food environments. This reveals that, in Khayelitsha, formal shopping centres present problematic food environments, while street traders make healthier options more accessible. Although the key role of poverty highlights the need for interventions beyond food systems, the paper argues that food environments are an appropriate target for governance. Legibilising foodscapes promotes coherent institutional agendas, enabling the state to apply spatial governance instruments to food issues. In the second paper, “Digital storytelling for policy impact: perspectives from co-producing knowledge for food system governance in South Africa” (Adelle, Black and Kroll 2022) the focus of problematization is on how vulnerable people unfold agency in adverse food environments. The paper recounts an intervention that includes actor perspectives in deliberative processes. We argue that participants’ stories impact governance actors’ subjectivities, deepening their understanding and supporting shared agenda-setting. “Agroecology and the metropolitan biopolitics of food in Cape Town and Johannesburg” (Kroll 2021) explores state capabilities to promote agro-ecological transitions. It finds poor alignment between the rationalities and institutions of government and ‘deep, just transition’. However, the presence of sympathetic officials presents opportunities for alliances to reorient instruments of government. The paper argues for persistent strategic engagement between officials and agro-ecological proponents.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of the Western Cape

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Kroll, Florian

• African Food Security Urban Network
• City of Johannesburg
• Early Childhood Development Centre
• Food Systems Governance Discourse
• Food and Trees for Africa

Licence

• https://uwcscholar.uwc.ac.za/bitstreams/94837181-6eb1-4865-8fca-e08c3b0f7e38/download