Imagining Food for all through Social Media

LDN 323

Imagining Food for all through Social Media

Prof Marieke will discuss her research which examines ‘New Social Movement’s (NSMs) in South Africa, their social organization and networking, and how they use social media to imagine a new agricultural landscape based on community (instead of individualist commerciality in the wake of the many colonization eras of South Africa).

Imagining food for all through social media
 
In many countries, as is the case in South Africa, commercial farming is the norm, with the effect that small scale farming in urban areas, primarily in the inner-city decay zones and on the outskirts of cities in so-called traditional black townships established during the Apartheid history of the country, are on the margins of economic activity. This particular form of small-scale farming is constituted through the use of social media in combination with face-to-face community communication. The purpose of this particular form of farming is community development; that is providing food to the community often through non-profit organisations managed by local farmers themselves.