Hitting the ground: an international arts-led transdisciplinary partnership to address GBV in food systems through a body/story/environment approach
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Greenwich
Department Name: Natural Resources Institute, FES
Abstract
GBV touches virtually on all aspects of life. However, its relationship to food systems - the complex networks of people and activities involved in food, from production to consumption - is largely not understood. This is surprising given the importance of food in our daily lives and that the gendered nature of food systems is well established: women are disproportionately represented in informal and unpaid labour in food systems, and their labour is characterised by intense manual work, often combined with care and community work — including food provision — with low or no pay or protection, poor access to resources and limited decision-making authority. These issues are more pronounced when gender interacts with other intersectional characteristics. However, how these systemic issues link to the food system remains largely unrecognised by high-level decision makers such as the High-Level Panel for Food Security and Nutrition, and GBV prevention and support interventions. Experience in the sector informs us that this 'gap' in policy, research and practice is related to a lack of evidence of the relationship between GBV and food systems, in addition to the lack of appropriate, and trauma informed skills and methodologies within the food systems research community.
Our vision is to facilitate a new policy, research and practice agenda to address GBV and contribute to building food systems that are safe, dignifying and empowering. We focus on women workers who occupy precarious positions within the food system, particularly, but not limited to, the Global South. Our project has three research objectives:
Firstly, we will establish an arts-led international and transdisciplinary research partnership to co-create an innovative new methodology - 'body/story/environment' - to increase understanding and prevention of GBV in food systems from women's intersectional and embodied perspectives. This approach merges somatic practice and storywork in place (activities linked to an environment or context), and utilises team expertise in the Global South and North in arts (storywork, immersive experience, somatic practice), participatory action research methods from the social sciences, and practice-based expertise in GBV prevention/response, with women food system workers.
Secondly, we will co-create new, context-specific methods in Colombia and Nigeria to produce new evidence on GBV in food systems. This will be achieved through the development of multi-modal and trauma-informed forms of inquiry across body/story/environment through the production of individual and collective narratives and artefacts that promote dignity of women workers and co-create solutions to GBV in food systems.
Thirdly, we will establish a network for meaningful engagement of public health, legal and food system sectors (local to global; policy, research and practice), around new research evidence through immersive events, exhibitions and artefacts. Activities are expected to 'change hearts and minds' towards addressing GBV in food systems led by women's own narratives. We also expect improved valorisation of arts-led research, particularly in the context of the social sciences, and to further demonstrate the effectiveness in arts-based approaches in GBV research.
'Hitting the ground' will expand an existing arts-informed project in Colombia and Nigeria to understand GBV linked to two major food staples, rice and cassava, respectively. Our practice is centred on meaningful engagement with diverse women, considering intersectional differences, and the facilitation of equitable learning partnerships for exchange and immersion in women's stories in the Global South and North.
Our vision is to facilitate a new policy, research and practice agenda to address GBV and contribute to building food systems that are safe, dignifying and empowering. We focus on women workers who occupy precarious positions within the food system, particularly, but not limited to, the Global South. Our project has three research objectives:
Firstly, we will establish an arts-led international and transdisciplinary research partnership to co-create an innovative new methodology - 'body/story/environment' - to increase understanding and prevention of GBV in food systems from women's intersectional and embodied perspectives. This approach merges somatic practice and storywork in place (activities linked to an environment or context), and utilises team expertise in the Global South and North in arts (storywork, immersive experience, somatic practice), participatory action research methods from the social sciences, and practice-based expertise in GBV prevention/response, with women food system workers.
Secondly, we will co-create new, context-specific methods in Colombia and Nigeria to produce new evidence on GBV in food systems. This will be achieved through the development of multi-modal and trauma-informed forms of inquiry across body/story/environment through the production of individual and collective narratives and artefacts that promote dignity of women workers and co-create solutions to GBV in food systems.
Thirdly, we will establish a network for meaningful engagement of public health, legal and food system sectors (local to global; policy, research and practice), around new research evidence through immersive events, exhibitions and artefacts. Activities are expected to 'change hearts and minds' towards addressing GBV in food systems led by women's own narratives. We also expect improved valorisation of arts-led research, particularly in the context of the social sciences, and to further demonstrate the effectiveness in arts-based approaches in GBV research.
'Hitting the ground' will expand an existing arts-informed project in Colombia and Nigeria to understand GBV linked to two major food staples, rice and cassava, respectively. Our practice is centred on meaningful engagement with diverse women, considering intersectional differences, and the facilitation of equitable learning partnerships for exchange and immersion in women's stories in the Global South and North.
