This book explores how power relationships, measured through qualitative social network analysis, impact planning participation and livelihood strategies of a marginalized group of farmers cultivating the Yamuna River floodplain in Delhi, India. Through an in-depth study of 165 farming households facing land development, this book offers insights from the ground-up into how social dynamics enable and constrain agency. A novel mixed-methods approach was used to measure social networks and access to resources based on the different types of people farmers might interact with as part of their livelihoods: hired laborers, vendors, other farmers, etc. Digging deeper into social network patterns, typologies of power are illustrated as they manifest household agency through diverse pathways. More broadly, a political ecology lens is used to link together the multiple and fragmented Yamuna farmers’ stories with broader social, ecological, infrastructural, and economic contexts to suggest future directions for inquiry and policy related to localized urban food systems and sustainable development.
This monograph will be of interest to academic faculty and graduate students in critical geography, cultural anthropology, food studies, landscape architecture/urban planning, and sociology.
Table of Content
Introduction.- Part I: A Political Ecology Lens.- Chapter 1. Vulnerable, Yet Resilient.- Part Ii: Social Networks And Access To Resources.- Chapter 2. Urban Food System Concepts.- Part Iii: Solutions Without Resolution.- Chapter 3. Land, Knowledge, Strategies.- Postscript: Final Reflection.- References.
About the author
Jessica Ann Diehl is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore where she teaches a community design studio addressing issues of urban food security in the Master of Landscape Architecture Programme. Her research interests include place-based investigation of social networks, health equity, and alternative food systems. Dr. Diehl holds a Ph D in Health and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Colorado Denver, USA where she was a National Science Foundation (NSF) IGERT Ph D Fellow in Sustainable Urban Infrastructure Systems and a 2013-14 Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellow affiliated with the School of Human Ecology at Ambedkar University Delhi, India. She holds a BLA/MLA in landscape architecture from The Pennsylvania State University, and a BA in English with a concentration in creative writing from West Virginia Wesleyan College.
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