Food Security and the Contemporary World Call for papers for a special issue of /Contemporanea/.///Rivista di storia dell’800 e del ’900/
Food security is currently the focus of an international
debate, which, in tackling the questions of malnutrition and starvation, also
looks at global problems such as the North-South relationship, asymmetrical
access to resources, and the world food system. Historians have contributed to
this debate by generally identifying the years following the Second World War
as the period in which contemporary policies took shape. This development//may
been seen by the United Nations' decision to take up the question of food
security and the creation of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), later
accompanied by the World Food Programme (WFP 1961). From this perspective, the
policies of the UN Agencies, intergovernmental agreements and negotiations between
states have providedscholars with a key to interpreting the events of later
decades within the context of the Cold War.
Some studies, however, have challenged this periodization
and have broadened the range of possible approaches to the topic. Special
attention has been devoted to the rise of colonial empires whose development
was linked to the historical construction of the global food system. Scholars
have shown how the research conducted among the colonial populations of Africa
and Asia was of fundamental importance in establishing nutritional sciences at
an international level, and for the emergence of the debate over the possible
role these sciences play in ensuring the health and well-being of humanity. The
League of Nations later recognized the importance of the food question when it
devised policiesof socio-economic cooperation that revolved around the linkages
between agricultural production, nutrition and health care, but also as part of
emergency aid programs undertaken to address the devastation of the post-war
period. It was precisely on this second front that the problem of addressing
basic food needs also became crucial for non-governmental organizations and
took centre stage as the priority intervention area for international
humanitarianism.
In view of the interpretations suggested by all these
studies, the special issue of /Contemporanea/ aims to engage in a reflection on
food security in the widest sense of the term, which includes the political and
economic choices made by institutions, relations between states,
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, the connection between
the availability of food and international stability. We also intend to look at
the circulation of cultures and practices within the transnational space that
historically defines the relationship between food, health, individual and
collective well-being. In particular, /Contemporanea /is looking for proposals
that deal with the topic of food security in relation to:
* The global food
system
* Health, welfare
and nutritional sciences
* The
transnational aspects of food cultures
* Humanitarian
programs and the administration of food aid
* Right to food
and human rights
* Agricultural
and environmental policies
* Economic
cooperation
* Food policies
and international relations
* Transnational
itineraries of experts in nutrition
The proposals (around 500 words) accompanied by a brief
CV should be sent by January 31, 2014to the editor Silvia Salvatici (ssalvatici@unite.it <mailto:ssalvatici@unite.it>) along
with a CC to the editorial secretary (contemporanea@mulino.it
<mailto:contemporanea@mulino.it>).
The essays selected have to be delivered in their final form by July 15, 2014;
all manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process (double blind). The
issue will be published by spring 2015.
/Contemporanea/publishes contributions in Italian and
English. For more information about the journal:
/Contemporanea /is indexed by: ISI Web of Science (Art
& Humanities Citation Index), Scopus Bibliographic Database, Historical
Abstracts,
America: History and Life, Articoli italiani di periodici
accademici (AIDA), JournalSeek, Essper, Bibliografia storica nazionale,
Catalogo italiano dei periodici (ACNP), Google Scholar