In our series of guest blogs from the Nexus Network Annual Conference on 19 November 2015, we are pleased to publish this post from conference participant Rachael Taylor.
Political and social dimensions of the nexus
The blog is Rachael’s overview of the contribution from Dr Antonio Ioris, University of Edinburgh to the ‘Nexus struggles: agricultural scales, policy spaces and nexus interactions’ – also see her other blog post on The hidden voices of nexus struggles.
Dr Antonio Ioris, University of Edinburgh suggested there is currently fragmentation within the nexus which leads to a series of related struggles. He suggests that struggles related to food and agriculture have been created by Western capitalism and science. The complexities and challenges of the nexus reveal the shortcomings of mainstream science and policy-making.
Antonio then commented that nexus issues cannot be reduced to only a human or social dimension but instead that the nexus is inherently socio-natural and deeply political. Alternatives pathways to overcome these struggles should be associated with nexus discourses; agro-ecology presents an alternative but is also part of the struggle within the nexus.
The nexus should represent the totality of relations between interconnected sectors, issues, and challenges.
Rachael is a Doctoral researcher at SPRU, the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex.
Image credit: with thanks to Maurice Frazer on flickr.
