What could go wrong with cooking? Exploring vulnerability at the water, energy and food Nexus in Kampala through a social practices lens
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What could go wrong with cooking? Exploring vulnerability at the water, energy and food Nexus in Kampala through a social practices lens. / Mguni, Patience; van Vliet, Bas ; Spaargeren, Gert; Nakirya, Doreen ; Ssekamatte, Tonny ; Osuret, Jimmy; Isunju, John Bosco; Mugambe, Richard.
In: Global Environmental Change, Vol. 63, 102086, 2020.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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T1 - What could go wrong with cooking? Exploring vulnerability at the water, energy and food Nexus in Kampala through a social practices lens
AU - Mguni, Patience
AU - van Vliet, Bas
AU - Spaargeren, Gert
AU - Nakirya, Doreen
AU - Ssekamatte, Tonny
AU - Osuret, Jimmy
AU - Isunju, John Bosco
AU - Mugambe, Richard
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Sub-Saharan African cities like Kampala face challenges with rapid urbanization and impacts of climate change. These challenges have exacerbated the struggle to provide adequate infrastructural and socio-ecological services to Kampala's growing poor. Based on a social practices perspective, this paper presents a study of emergent vulnerabilities at the urban Nexus of water, energy and food (WEF) in the informal settlements of Bwaise and Kanyogoga. We employ methods of observation, interviews, focus group discussions and a vision-building workshop to explore the growing vulnerabilities of poor households as they daily navigate deteriorating water quality, rising energy prices and food insecurity. Results indicate that most household-level vulnerabilities relate to energy poverty. Households scale back on water treatment practices such as boiling and the cooking of highly-nutritious yet energy-demanding foods such as beans in efforts to conserve charcoal. Emergent practices of everyday resilience-building include the use of biomass briquettes as an alternative to solid charcoal as well as social networks and capital which allow households to borrow food and energy. We suggest the notion of ‘precarious consumption’ as a tool for understanding emergent everyday vulnerabilities in relation to the urban WEF Nexus service provision and resilience policy-making in cities of the Global South.
AB - Sub-Saharan African cities like Kampala face challenges with rapid urbanization and impacts of climate change. These challenges have exacerbated the struggle to provide adequate infrastructural and socio-ecological services to Kampala's growing poor. Based on a social practices perspective, this paper presents a study of emergent vulnerabilities at the urban Nexus of water, energy and food (WEF) in the informal settlements of Bwaise and Kanyogoga. We employ methods of observation, interviews, focus group discussions and a vision-building workshop to explore the growing vulnerabilities of poor households as they daily navigate deteriorating water quality, rising energy prices and food insecurity. Results indicate that most household-level vulnerabilities relate to energy poverty. Households scale back on water treatment practices such as boiling and the cooking of highly-nutritious yet energy-demanding foods such as beans in efforts to conserve charcoal. Emergent practices of everyday resilience-building include the use of biomass briquettes as an alternative to solid charcoal as well as social networks and capital which allow households to borrow food and energy. We suggest the notion of ‘precarious consumption’ as a tool for understanding emergent everyday vulnerabilities in relation to the urban WEF Nexus service provision and resilience policy-making in cities of the Global South.
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102086
U2 - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102086
DO - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102086
M3 - Journal article
VL - 63
JO - Global Environmental Change
JF - Global Environmental Change
SN - 0959-3780
M1 - 102086
ER -
ID: 244650443