[csaa-forum] Date correction: Dr Alana Mann, 20th September 'Civil Society Engagement: UN Food and Agriculture Organisation',

[Fiona Martin]

Media at Sydney presents:



Civil Society Engagement: the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation



By Dr Alana Mann

The University of Sydney



Friday 20th September 2013





In 2008 the escalation of the world’s hungry to 870 million led to proclamations of a new ‘global food crisis’. This seminar explores how civil society actors including NGOs and social movements are establishing new understandings of issues related to rural poverty and hunger and communicating these in formal policy arenas. Based on interviews with policy-makers at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome and civil society groups in Geneva and Vienna, this research reveals patterns of action in political arenas where non-state actors aim not only to foster reconsideration of chronic problems in light of new frameworks and ideologies, but to change the very culture of global governing institutions. The study assesses the dynamics of change occurring in transnational food policy arenas as a result of increased interaction between civil society actors and the UN. It seeks to explain how this interaction occurs and to assess whether or not it has contributed to institutional change that better accommodates the views of non-state actors on food and agriculture policy.

 Dr Alana Mann teaches in the Media and Communications Department within the Faculty of Arts at the University of Sydney. The focus of her research is political communication, specifically the engagement of non-state actors in international politics. She applies an interdisciplinary approach with a strong focus on democracy, social justice and citizenship that is reflected in her focus on the power relations between the media, governments, institutions and civil society actors in the field of food security. Her book Power Shift: Global Activism in Food Politics,scheduled for publication by Palgrave McMillan in March 2014, has been described by Professor Philip McMichael of Cornell University as 'a comprehensive, multi-dimensional account of the global food system and its generation from crisis of a burgeoning food sovereignty counter-movement' that 'details the organising trajectory and culture of global opposition through cumulative networking and successful discursive reframing of what is at stake in a food insecure and environmentally challenged world', offering a 'didactic and challenging template to agri-food scholars and activists alike'. In her research and teaching Mann draws on grounded case studies of agrarian movements in countries including Chile, Mexico and Spain to theorise a diversity of counter-movement organising strategies and political alliances.



Details

 Date: 20th September 2013

 Time: 3-5 pm

 Location: Woolley Common Room, Level 4, John Woolley Building A20<http://sydney.edu.au/maps/campuses/?area=CAMDAR>, Science Road, University of Sydney (Camperdown campus)



RSVPs: http://www.eventbrite.com.au/org/4662406979?s=17518129

 or to Madeleine King e: mkin5545 at uni.sydney.edu.au<mailto:mkin5545 at uni.sydney.edu.au>



Media at Sydney is presented by the Department of Media and Communications, University of Sydney


For more information contact Dr Fiona Martin

T: 0428391122 or 02 90365098

E: fiona.martin at sydney.edu.au<mailto:fiona.martin at sydney.edu.au>

M: 0428 391 122



http://sydney.edu.au/arts/media_communications/


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