William G Moseley
Biographic Data
| ID | 144708 |
|---|---|
| NAME | William G Moseley |
| GIVEN NAMES | William G |
| FAMILY NAME | Moseley |
| SIGNATURE | MOSELEY W G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Macalester College |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0662-962X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 49 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 308 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Multi-scalar policy uptake of the six-dimensional food security framework
Agricultural Value Chain Development Projects and Household Nutrition in Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Côte d'Ivoire
Many mainstream development actors and scholars concerned about rural poverty and hunger in Africa recommend integrating smallholder farmers, especially women, into formally structured agricultural value chains (AVCs). This influential approach rests on the assumption that productivity-enhancing technologies and stronger market linkages will raise farmer incomes, and in turn improve food and nutrition security (FNS) in farmer households via incre…
Staying on Track
The Advanced Placement Human Geography (APHG) program has played a crucial supporting role to the discipline of geography in the United States over the past 23 years. This is all the more important as the discipline faces challenging headwinds amidst higher education enrollment declines and departmental mergers and closures. This commentary examines some potential shifts within the APHG program that may undermine this partnership, coupled with ad…
Snapshot of a crisis
In Sri Lanka, conventional and organic smallholder producers grow seventy percent of the country's tea, bring in significant export earnings, and are differentially exposed to input supply shocks. While tea production may be advantageous for the nation's economy, it is less clear whether it is good for the food security of those smallholders involved. This study examines how economic status (income and wealth) and method of tea farming (organic o…
The hidden safety net
Mainstream development thinking suggests that increasing agricultural production will increase wealth and lead to improved diets. However, in Burkina Faso, even better off rural areas are still experiencing widespread nutrition insecurity. Wild plants play a key role in rural diets and serve as a nutritional safety net. This research investigates the use of wild plants for dietary diversity among women rice farmers and their households in southwe…
A Bridge between Two Worlds
Amidst ongoing debates regarding the pros and cons of Advanced Placement Human Geography (APHG) for the field of geography, this article asks whether it has been good for the discipline in the United States. The authors argue that APHG has strengthened U.S. geography because it has been remarkably effective at building bridges between high school and college geography educators, providing professional development opportunities for K–12 teachers, …
Confronting the Climate Crisis
Greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise despite domestic and international efforts to mitigate climate change. Recent scholarship has expressed concerns that academic careers require considerable amounts of air travel. These trends raise a series of ethical dilemmas for academic geographers who conduct international field research. Building on work on slow geographies and slow scholarship, we argue for more relational approaches and under…
Debating African Issues
Sustaining Rural Systems
The key organizing theme for this special issue is “Sustaining Rural Systems: Rural Vitality in an Era of Globalization and Economic Nationalism.” The multiplicity of roles that rural communities play in economic and social systems are often overlooked in conversations about globalization and economic nationalism. Yet rural communities, economies and landscapes are closely tied to global industries, migrant flows and markets, while simultaneously…
When Agronomy Flirts with Markets, Gender, and Nutrition
Advocates of the Green Revolution for Africa (GR4A) argue that the best way to address malnutrition is to incorporate smallholders into the global food economy via value chains involving the use of improved inputs, production technologies, and access to markets. Moseley and Ouedraogo critically assess these tactics using a feminist political ecology lens to analyze GR4A efforts in southwestern Burkina Faso which target female rice farmers. They e…
Viewpoint
The definition of food security has evolved and changed over the past 50 years, including the introduction of the four commonly cited pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability, which have been important in shaping policy. In this article, we make the case that it is time for a formal update to our definition of food security to include two additional dimensions proposed by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food S…
Development assistance and Boserupian intensification under geopolitical isolation
Geography
Alexander B. Murphy. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2018. xii and 162 pp., maps, diagrams, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $45.00 cloth (ISBN 9781509523009); $12.95 paper (ISBN 97815095230
The secret is in the sauce
In Burkina Faso, New Green Revolution projects have focused on increasing and commercialising agricultural output to ameliorate poor nutrition, but have been blind to foraging as an important source of micronutrients and dietary diversity. We seek to understand: if foraged foods collected and consumed by female farmers are associated with positive measures of food access; and if a rice commercialisation project is impacting foraging practices. Re…
This food crisis is different
Our analysis situates the current COVID-19 induced food crisis within a longer-term historical perspective on policy responses to past food crises. We argue that the legacies left by these past policies created vulnerabilities in the face of the present crisis, which is characterized by three interlocking dynamics: disruptions to global food supply chains, the loss of income and livelihoods due to the global economic recession, and uneven food pr…
The Vulnerability and Resilience of African Food Systems, Food Security, and Nutrition in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the globe, ebbing and flowing from one region to the next, new infections and deaths continue to rise (Johns Hopkins 2020). Some of the first documented cases in Africa occurred in areas frequented by foreign tourists. Early on, the disease also circulated among Africa's jet-setting political classes that had spent time in other regions of the world with higher infection rates. Since then, infections have tak…
Beginning to End Hunger
Geography and engagement with UN development goals
It is sensible to assert that geographers ought to participate in an ongoing discussion about the UN development goals because development will be better for it. I largely agree with this sentiment but also wonder whether this means walking into an intellectual cul-de-sac of sorts, a debate where the parameters are too restrictively defined. This essay is written in response to a paper by Diana Liverman and is divided into three parts: questionin…
Limits of the New Green Revolution for Africa
In order to address food insecurity, the New Green Revolution for Africa (GR4A) promotes tighter integration of African smallholder farmers, especially women, into formal markets via value chains to improve farmers' input access and to encourage the sale of crop surpluses. This commentary offers a theoretical and practical critique of the GR4A model, drawing on early findings from a five-year study of value chain initiatives in Burkina Faso, Côte…
Dependency Theory
In contrast to the relatively uniform set of development stages suggested by modernization theory, dependency theory stressed the unequal relationships between countries that had been constructed from the colonial period to the present. Dependency theorists argued that economies in the tropics were “underdeveloped” during the colonial era as European countries refashioned these economies for their own benefit. Through a combination of taxation po…
A Risky Solution for the Wrong Problem
There's a standard setup that many food‐policy experts use to frame the global hunger problem and its solution. It typically goes like this. We have a global population of 7.5 billion today of whic
Introduction
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Minimalist State and Donor Landscapes
Mali's 2012 coup d'état and subsequent rebellion created much hardship for those living in the northern and southern parts of the country. This article explores the changes that occurred during the period of uncertainty in the country, the role of the minimalist state, and the implications of these conditions for future development initiatives. The way in which Mali muddled through the 2012-2013 period has left two distinct aid landscapes: a heav…
Food Security and ‘Green Revolution’
Africa’s Gene Revolution
Frequently framed as the final frontier for global agricultural development, the African continent has been a major focus of donors, public actors, and private firms in recent years. Central to the
This food crisis is different
Our analysis situates the current COVID-19 induced food crisis within a longer-term historical perspective on policy responses to past food crises. We argue that the legacies left by these past policies created vulnerabilities in the face of the present crisis, which is characterized by three interlocking dynamics: disruptions to global food supply chains, the loss of income and livelihoods due to the global economic recession, and uneven food pr…
A geographical perspective on poverty-environment interactions
This paper examines prevailing wisdoms on the topic of poverty-environmental interactions, problematizes some standard assumptions and interrogates the geographical literature on the subject. Dominant development discourse has tended to blame the poor for environmental degradation, ignoring the role of other processes and actors at various scales in causing environmental degradation. We examine how definitions of poverty, institutional arrangemen…
Limits of the New Green Revolution for Africa
In order to address food insecurity, the New Green Revolution for Africa (GR4A) promotes tighter integration of African smallholder farmers, especially women, into formal markets via value chains to improve farmers' input access and to encourage the sale of crop surpluses. This commentary offers a theoretical and practical critique of the GR4A model, drawing on early findings from a five-year study of value chain initiatives in Burkina Faso, Côte…
Viewpoint
The definition of food security has evolved and changed over the past 50 years, including the introduction of the four commonly cited pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability, which have been important in shaping policy. In this article, we make the case that it is time for a formal update to our definition of food security to include two additional dimensions proposed by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food S…
Global cotton and local environmental management
This study examines the hypothesis that poor households engage in less sustainable soil management practices than rich households in a similar socioeconomic environment. This broad objective is explored in Mali's southern cotton belt through three specific research questions. First, is there empirical evidence to support the claim that poor households engage in less sustainable soil management practices than rich households? Second, what local an…
The Vulnerability and Resilience of African Food Systems, Food Security, and Nutrition in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the globe, ebbing and flowing from one region to the next, new infections and deaths continue to rise (Johns Hopkins 2020). Some of the first documented cases in Africa occurred in areas frequented by foreign tourists. Early on, the disease also circulated among Africa's jet-setting political classes that had spent time in other regions of the world with higher infection rates. Since then, infections have tak…
The political ecology of poverty alleviation in Zimbabwe's Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE)
Fair Trade Wine
The history of unfair labour practices in South Africa's wine industry is as old as the sector itself, dating back to the seventeenth century. The situation, however, has begun to slowly change since the fall of Apartheid in 1994. While the South African wine industry is still largely white owned, the country's major wine production zone (the Western Cape) is now dotted with a variety of black-owned and black co-owned vineyards that are Fair Trad…
West African Environmental Narratives and Development-Volunteer Praxis
Environmental narratives in Africa have been examined in a flurry of publications since the mid‐1990s. In this article we seek to offer insights into the role and motivations of volunteer development workers in perpetuating environmental narratives. We examine the factors that led to the questioning or nonquestioning of environment‐development discourses and their influence, if any, on the actual work undertaken by volunteers. As former developme…
Seed Provision and Agricultural Development
Robert Tripp. Seed Provision and Agricultural Development: The Institutions of Rural Change. London: Overseas Development Institute/Oxford: James Currey/Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 2001. viii + 174 pp. Tables. Notes. References. Index. $64.00. Cloth. The aim of this book is to provide a comprehensive overview of nature of provision, a topic author, Robert Tripp, situates at forefront of contemporary debates on rural in global south. Tripp astute…
Fighting Fire With a Broken Teacup
Since the rise of its first democratically elected government in 1994, South Africa has sought to redress its highly inequitable land distribution through a series of land‐reform programs. In this study we examine land‐redistribution efforts in two of South Africa's provinces, the Western Cape and Limpopo. By analyzing a cross‐section of projects in these two locales we develop a political ecology of stymied land‐reform possibilities to explain t…
When Agronomy Flirts with Markets, Gender, and Nutrition
Advocates of the Green Revolution for Africa (GR4A) argue that the best way to address malnutrition is to incorporate smallholders into the global food economy via value chains involving the use of improved inputs, production technologies, and access to markets. Moseley and Ouedraogo critically assess these tactics using a feminist political ecology lens to analyze GR4A efforts in southwestern Burkina Faso which target female rice farmers. They e…
The secret is in the sauce
In Burkina Faso, New Green Revolution projects have focused on increasing and commercialising agricultural output to ameliorate poor nutrition, but have been blind to foraging as an important source of micronutrients and dietary diversity. We seek to understand: if foraged foods collected and consumed by female farmers are associated with positive measures of food access; and if a rice commercialisation project is impacting foraging practices. Re…
Introduction
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Minimalist State and Donor Landscapes
Mali's 2012 coup d'état and subsequent rebellion created much hardship for those living in the northern and southern parts of the country. This article explores the changes that occurred during the period of uncertainty in the country, the role of the minimalist state, and the implications of these conditions for future development initiatives. The way in which Mali muddled through the 2012-2013 period has left two distinct aid landscapes: a heav…
Engaging The PubliC Imagination
Numerous publications have recently called on geographers to be more publicly engaged (Murphy 2003, 2006a; Alderman 2004; Murphy and others 2005; K. Mitchell 2006). Other articles have focused on geographical scholarship, public-policy formation, and geographies (White 1972; Castree 2001, 2005; Martin 2001; Dorling and Shaw 2002; Burgess 2005; Ward 2005, 2006; Pain 2006; Walker 2006). Much of this literature expresses dismay at the seemingly limi…
A Risky Solution for the Wrong Problem
There's a standard setup that many food‐policy experts use to frame the global hunger problem and its solution. It typically goes like this. We have a global population of 7.5 billion today of whic
Recovering from livelihood insecurity and political instability in northern Mali
Northern Mali has experienced political instability and a humanitarian crisis since a March 2012 coup d’état, subsequent rebellion and French military intervention. Rebuilding livelihood security in this region will be a key policy objective after a new government has been elected and donor assistance has returned. This policy brief reviews key background on rural livelihoods in northern Mali before exploring current food insecurity in the region…
Lessons from the 2008 global food crisis
High food prices in 2008 sparked food riots around the world, with urban West Africa suffering many of these disturbances. Urban Mali appears to have been spared the worst of this crisis as consumers shifted from rice to sorghum, a grain whose production increased steeply as cotton production collapsed in the wake of lower global prices for this commodity. This study comments on the ‘rice bias’ in policy circles, the tension between cotton and fo…
Multi-scalar policy uptake of the six-dimensional food security framework
Development assistance and Boserupian intensification under geopolitical isolation
Geography and engagement with UN development goals
It is sensible to assert that geographers ought to participate in an ongoing discussion about the UN development goals because development will be better for it. I largely agree with this sentiment but also wonder whether this means walking into an intellectual cul-de-sac of sorts, a debate where the parameters are too restrictively defined. This essay is written in response to a paper by Diana Liverman and is divided into three parts: questionin…
The evolving global agri-food system and African–Eurasian food flows
Agriculture, long a backwater development topic, erupted onto the global stage in 2007–2008 when food riots broke out across globe. The ways in which governments responded (by blocking grain exports, intensifying domestic food production with new technologies, and exploring new sources of food in other countries) exposed and reinforced a longer-term trend of deepening connections between the food economies of Eurasia and Africa. These ties are de…
Social History and African Environments
William Beinart and Joann McGregor, eds. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2003. xi and 275 pp., diags., figs., maps, photos, and index. $44.95 cloth (ISBN 0-8214-1425-9). Environmental history is
African evidence on the relation of poverty, time preference and the environment
Indigenous Land Management in West Africa
The political ecology of poverty alleviation in Zimbabwe's Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE)
Seed Provision and Agricultural Development
Robert Tripp. Seed Provision and Agricultural Development: The Institutions of Rural Change. London: Overseas Development Institute/Oxford: James Currey/Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 2001. viii + 174 pp. Tables. Notes. References. Index. $64.00. Cloth. The aim of this book is to provide a comprehensive overview of nature of provision, a topic author, Robert Tripp, situates at forefront of contemporary debates on rural in global south. Tripp astute…
Social History and African Environments
William Beinart and Joann McGregor, eds. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2003. xi and 275 pp., diags., figs., maps, photos, and index. $44.95 cloth (ISBN 0-8214-1425-9). Environmental history is
A geographical perspective on poverty-environment interactions
This paper examines prevailing wisdoms on the topic of poverty-environmental interactions, problematizes some standard assumptions and interrogates the geographical literature on the subject. Dominant development discourse has tended to blame the poor for environmental degradation, ignoring the role of other processes and actors at various scales in causing environmental degradation. We examine how definitions of poverty, institutional arrangemen…
Global cotton and local environmental management
This study examines the hypothesis that poor households engage in less sustainable soil management practices than rich households in a similar socioeconomic environment. This broad objective is explored in Mali's southern cotton belt through three specific research questions. First, is there empirical evidence to support the claim that poor households engage in less sustainable soil management practices than rich households? Second, what local an…
Collaborating in the field, working for change
Academics and development organizations approach fieldwork with somewhat different motivations, constraints and challenges. In many instances, fieldwork might be improved if greater collaboration occurred between these two parties. Rural communities are also important yet frequently taken for granted partners in the research process that deserve greater respect. This paper explores and describes the real and imagined impediments to greater collab…
Hanging by a Thread
Mali’s Cotton Conundrum
Hanging by a Thread
Scott Lacy is a contributing author, "Cotton Casualties and Collectives: Re-inventing Farmer Collectives at the Expense of Rural Malian Communities." Book description: Hanging by a Thread: Cotton, Globalization, and Poverty in Africa illuminates the connections between Africa and the global economy. The editors offer a compelling set of linked studies that detail one aspect of the globalization process in Africa, the cotton commodity chain. From …
Fair Trade Wine
The history of unfair labour practices in South Africa's wine industry is as old as the sector itself, dating back to the seventeenth century. The situation, however, has begun to slowly change since the fall of Apartheid in 1994. While the South African wine industry is still largely white owned, the country's major wine production zone (the Western Cape) is now dotted with a variety of black-owned and black co-owned vineyards that are Fair Trad…
West African Environmental Narratives and Development-Volunteer Praxis
Environmental narratives in Africa have been examined in a flurry of publications since the mid‐1990s. In this article we seek to offer insights into the role and motivations of volunteer development workers in perpetuating environmental narratives. We examine the factors that led to the questioning or nonquestioning of environment‐development discourses and their influence, if any, on the actual work undertaken by volunteers. As former developme…
Fighting Fire With a Broken Teacup
Since the rise of its first democratically elected government in 1994, South Africa has sought to redress its highly inequitable land distribution through a series of land‐reform programs. In this study we examine land‐redistribution efforts in two of South Africa's provinces, the Western Cape and Limpopo. By analyzing a cross‐section of projects in these two locales we develop a political ecology of stymied land‐reform possibilities to explain t…
Beyond Knee-Jerk Environmental Thinking
Attention to scale, use of space and connections between places and regions are general, yet distinctive, geographical concepts that may be employed in introductory level human-environment geography courses to distinguish them from other environmental studies offerings. This article demonstrates how attention to the aforementioned concepts provides fresh insight into the notions of exploitation, conservation and preservation for many environmenta…
Reaching the limits
Engaging The PubliC Imagination
Numerous publications have recently called on geographers to be more publicly engaged (Murphy 2003, 2006a; Alderman 2004; Murphy and others 2005; K. Mitchell 2006). Other articles have focused on geographical scholarship, public-policy formation, and geographies (White 1972; Castree 2001, 2005; Martin 2001; Dorling and Shaw 2002; Burgess 2005; Ward 2005, 2006; Pain 2006; Walker 2006). Much of this literature expresses dismay at the seemingly limi…
On engaging with New Economic Geography
Lessons from the 2008 global food crisis
High food prices in 2008 sparked food riots around the world, with urban West Africa suffering many of these disturbances. Urban Mali appears to have been spared the worst of this crisis as consumers shifted from rice to sorghum, a grain whose production increased steeply as cotton production collapsed in the wake of lower global prices for this commodity. This study comments on the ‘rice bias’ in policy circles, the tension between cotton and fo…
Chocolate Nations
The evolving global agri-food system and African–Eurasian food flows
Agriculture, long a backwater development topic, erupted onto the global stage in 2007–2008 when food riots broke out across globe. The ways in which governments responded (by blocking grain exports, intensifying domestic food production with new technologies, and exploring new sources of food in other countries) exposed and reinforced a longer-term trend of deepening connections between the food economies of Eurasia and Africa. These ties are de…
The New Scramble for Africa By PádraigCarmodyMalden, Mass
Recovering from livelihood insecurity and political instability in northern Mali
Northern Mali has experienced political instability and a humanitarian crisis since a March 2012 coup d’état, subsequent rebellion and French military intervention. Rebuilding livelihood security in this region will be a key policy objective after a new government has been elected and donor assistance has returned. This policy brief reviews key background on rural livelihoods in northern Mali before exploring current food insecurity in the region…
Food Security and ‘Green Revolution’
Interrogating the technocratic (neoliberal) agenda for agricultural development and hunger alleviation in Africa
This paper introduces a special issue that critically examines the dominant technocratic, neoliberal agenda for agricultural development and hunger alleviation in Africa. We briefly review the history of African agricultural and food security policy in the post-colonial period in order to contextualise the productionist approach embedded in the New Green Revolution for Africa, a strategy comprising the use of hybrid seeds, fertilisers, and pestic…
Geography (33 works) · Economics (30 works) · Political science (30 works) · Sociology (23 works) · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development (21 works) · Economic growth (20 works) · Agriculture (19 works) · Development economics (16 works) · Food security (16 works) · Politics (11 works)