Please join us on Thursday, October 30th from 12:00 pm -1:30 pm for our next Waterloo Food Issues Group (WatFIG) meeting, which will take place in Environment Building 2, room 2021 (EV2-2021) here at Waterloo. Two PhD students, Mary Coulas and Zhenzhong Si from the Faculty of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloowill each talk to us about their latest research.
Mary Coulas will talk about:
Local Food Policy in Ontario Municipal Governing
Municipal food politics is a relatively new, yet burgeoning field of study. This talk explores the rise of food policy popularity in North American municipal politics, with focus being placed on the inconsistent development of food policy in the Canadian context. This is illustrated using the case studies of Ontario’s eight regional municipalities. Introductory discussion will provide a review of the underlying societal pressures that have led to the inclusion of food within local governing, while a review of the study’s research methodology tackles a new approach of categorizing food policy as a means to measure municipal support of local food systems.
Zhenzhong Si will talk about:
Governmental versus Grassroots Agendas for Rural Development: Strategies, Challenges and Opportunities in the ‘New Rural Reconstruction Movement’ in China
The recent emergence and proliferation of alternative food networks (AFNs) in China is in part attributed to the ‘new rural reconstruction movement’ (NRRM). The values and strategies of the NRRM differ significantly from the state-led campaign of ‘new socialist countryside construction’ (NSCC), although they both centre on rural development. However, how the NRRM constructs and maintains its niche in a complicated sociopolitical context is largely undocumented. Based on in-depth interviews with key players in the NRRM and analysis of information from secondary sources, this paper characterizes the NRRM and examines the challenges and opportunities facing this movement from both state and society. We show first, how the NRRM is coping with state pressure by adopting mainstream discourses in promoting their activities and by seeking a harmonious relationship with the state; and second, how the NRRM adopts AFNs as powerful tools to concretize its once romantic and idealistic values, to reconnect it with the demands of society, and to build momentum for alternative rural development initiatives. The NRRM case in China indicates that when questioning orthodoxies, civil society initiatives can be successful by taking a more non-confrontational stance and advocating an amelioration rather than a reform of the current developmental regime.
Feel free to bring your own lunch. I hope you can join us.