Module GEOG30Z7: Food Geographies and the Planetary Crisis

Department: Geography

GEOG30Z7: Food Geographies and the Planetary Crisis

Prerequisites

• Any level 2 BA Geography module.

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• This module will provide students with an in-depth analysis of food and eating within the context of contemporary planetary crises. We will discuss the politics of today’s atmosphere of crisis, interrogating who gets to define how we think about planetary emergencies and the specific ways that food features in these narratives. We will also critically reflect on the solutions being developed by a range of actors and across different scales and geographies that promise to ‘fix’ the future of food for the survival of planetary life.
• This module will:
• Theorise the concept of ‘planetary crisis’ in the context of food, tracing the historical and contemporary conditions that have framed food simultaneously as a driver, victim and solution to ecological and social collapse;
• Introduce key intellectual histories, theoretical approaches and empirical case studies from food geography scholarship and consider why food is good to think with in the context of planetary emergency;
• Analyse the gendered, racial and class dimensions of food in an era of planetary precarity;
• Enable critical engagement with the subject of food and food security from a geographical perspective.

Content

• Humans have always worried about food. Anxieties about scarcity (‘is there enough?’) and safety (‘will this harm me?’) have especially characterised our relationship with what we eat for millennia. In recent times, these anxieties have taken on a planetary dimension. Against the backdrop of climate change, deforestation, water pollution, biodiversity loss, forever chemicals, plastic pollution and soil degradation, as well as increased threats from chronic diseases, zoonoses and antimicrobial resistance, many argue that it is impossible to talk about the multiple planetary crises we face today without talking about food.
• In this module we will explore the geographies, politics and histories of food’s centring within contemporary debates about the planetary emergency. We will trace the conditions of this inclusion over time through policy, scientific and cultural discourses, and encounter some of the ways food’s role in driving planetary crises has been contested, and by whom. As well as examining how and why food’s planetary footprint has been increasingly spotlighted, we will also explore some of the solutions being proposed to ‘fix’ the future of food and the planet. We will critically reflect on the ideological drivers behind these solutions, interrogating their claims of what an ‘alternative’ and ‘better’ food system looks like. We will also explore the who and the where behind these solutions – i.e. who are the changemakers and saviours of our food in an era of planetary crisis, and what does this reveal about the contemporary cultural and spatial politics of enacting social change on behalf of planetary survival? In short, this module will show how food is a timely and important topic for geographers who are interested in understanding the contemporary context of planetary crisis.
• The module will draw on a range of theoretical work within food geographies and related academic fields, as well as research case studies and examples drawn from non-academic sources. Themes may include:
• The historical and contemporary politics of food security
• Food anxieties, scandals and scares
• Food and the body
• Alternative food networks
• Theories and practices of social change
• Gender, race and class politics in alternative food systems
• Silicon Valley and food tech
• Food and planetary crisis in science fiction
• The celebritisation of ‘better’ eating
• Animal activism and veganism
• Food, misinformation and conspiracy theories

Learning Outcomes

• On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
• Demonstrate an advanced level of understanding of the conditions that have centred food in contemporary debates about planetary crises;
• Recognize food (in)security as both political and spatial;
• Navigate public debates that depict alternative food solutions as either a utopian panacea or existential threat;
• Critically reflect on why food is good to think with for understanding the geographies, politics and histories of contemporary planetary crises.

• On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
• Apply theories from food geographies (and related academic fields) to critically examine historical and contemporary planetary crisis narratives and how food has been framed within these;
• Evaluate the merits of competing claims about the social, environmental, and economic consequences of alternative (i.e. planet-saving) food solutions;
• Critically examine their own everyday food practices, and how these are implicated within broader social systems and power relations around eating ‘well’ both for themselves and the planet;
• Produce writing that engages with key conceptual and substantive debates within food geography and related academic fields;

• At the end of this module, students are expected to be able to:
• Demonstrate clear and effective academic written communication skills;
• Demonstrate an ability to reflect critically on academic and non-academic sources;
• Demonstrate an ability to synthesise information and to develop an argument in relation to contemporary issues and problems;
• • Demonstrate a capacity to reflect critically and creatively on the relations between module concepts and a range of real-world problems and issues.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures: Lectures will introduce students to the geographies, politics and histories of food as planetary crisis. They will theorise the conceptual and ideological underpinnings of ‘planetary crisis’ in the context of food, examining the discursive and material politics of food as simultaneously a driver, victim and solution to ecological and social precarity – both historically and in the present day. Each lecture will introduce key concepts and theories from food geographies and related fields, and real-life case studies will be used throughout.
• Seminars: Seminars will provide an environment for exploring the material covered in lectures in greater depth. These sessions will integrate activities for students to undertake individually and in small groups, such as watching short videos, analysing images or text, or creative projects. The seminars will involve independent and critical thinking as well as a variety of learning techniques, such as presentations, group discussion of academic articles, or responses to media/policy examples.
• Formative assessment: Formative assessment will be through ongoing feedback during seminars and in the workshop. Students will also be asked to keep a journal throughout the course of the module – a kind of scrapbook of materials and media examples of food-related crisis narratives that they encounter in their everyday lives.
• Workshop: The workshop will provide an opportunity for students to take the lead in reflecting on the themes and materials covered in the module and discuss ideas for their summative assessment with staff and peer feedback. Students will be invited to share examples of food-related crisis narratives from their journals with their peers and engage in collective critical reflection drawing on themes covered in the module. The workshop will involve solo and group work and feature a range of active learning techniques, such as small-group discussion and free-writes.
• Summative assessment (multimedia essay): The summative assessment will require students to select multimedia examples of food-related crisis narratives encountered in their everyday life, drawing on examples from the journals they will be asked to keep over the duration of the course. The assessment will require students to critically analyse their chosen material(s), applying the concepts and theories covered in the module.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative assessment will be through ongoing staff and peer feedback in seminars and the mid-module workshop. Students will also be asked to keep a journal throughout the duration of the module in which they will collate and write short reflections on multimedia examples of food-related crisis narratives that they have encountered in their everyday lives. The workshop will provide opportunity for peer and staff discussion of their journal entries as part of planning and developing their summative essay.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University