Historicising global nutrition: critical reflections on contested pasts and reimagined futures

The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked a range of economic shocks, food systems shocks, public health crises and political upheavals across the globe, prompting a rethink of associated global systems. Prepandemic anticolonial movements that challenged hierarchies of race, space, gender and expert knowle...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Stuart Gillespie, Nicholas Nisbett, Erica Marie Nelson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2021-11-01
Series:BMJ Global Health
Online Access:https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/11/e006337.full
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850135501200162816
author Stuart Gillespie
Nicholas Nisbett
Erica Marie Nelson
author_facet Stuart Gillespie
Nicholas Nisbett
Erica Marie Nelson
author_sort Stuart Gillespie
collection DOAJ
description The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked a range of economic shocks, food systems shocks, public health crises and political upheavals across the globe, prompting a rethink of associated global systems. Prepandemic anticolonial movements that challenged hierarchies of race, space, gender and expert knowledge in global health took on new meaning in the context of the unequal impacts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as it moved through different kinds of spaces and distinct political contexts. In light of these dynamics, and the desire of many current practitioners in global health to reimagine the future, the need for critical analyses of the recent past have become more urgent. Here we challenge linear understandings of progress in global health—with a focus on the field of nutrition—by returning to consider a previous cycle of dramatic social, political and economic change that prompted serious challenges to the dominance of Western powers and US-based philanthro-capitalists. With a ‘global’ health and nutrition audience in mind, we put forward considerations on why a better understanding of the continuities and divergences between this past and the present moment are necessary to challenge a status quo that was, and is, highly flawed.
format Article
id doaj-art-e0696c7842f844b694a46e210e2fa70e
institution OA Journals
issn 2059-7908
language English
publishDate 2021-11-01
publisher BMJ Publishing Group
record_format Article
series BMJ Global Health
spelling doaj-art-e0696c7842f844b694a46e210e2fa70e2025-08-20T02:31:23ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Global Health2059-79082021-11-0161110.1136/bmjgh-2021-006337Historicising global nutrition: critical reflections on contested pasts and reimagined futuresStuart Gillespie0Nicholas Nisbett1Erica Marie Nelson2independent consultant, UKHealth and Nutrition Cluster, The Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UKHealth and Nutrition Cluster, The Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UKThe COVID-19 pandemic has provoked a range of economic shocks, food systems shocks, public health crises and political upheavals across the globe, prompting a rethink of associated global systems. Prepandemic anticolonial movements that challenged hierarchies of race, space, gender and expert knowledge in global health took on new meaning in the context of the unequal impacts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as it moved through different kinds of spaces and distinct political contexts. In light of these dynamics, and the desire of many current practitioners in global health to reimagine the future, the need for critical analyses of the recent past have become more urgent. Here we challenge linear understandings of progress in global health—with a focus on the field of nutrition—by returning to consider a previous cycle of dramatic social, political and economic change that prompted serious challenges to the dominance of Western powers and US-based philanthro-capitalists. With a ‘global’ health and nutrition audience in mind, we put forward considerations on why a better understanding of the continuities and divergences between this past and the present moment are necessary to challenge a status quo that was, and is, highly flawed.https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/11/e006337.full
spellingShingle Stuart Gillespie
Nicholas Nisbett
Erica Marie Nelson
Historicising global nutrition: critical reflections on contested pasts and reimagined futures
BMJ Global Health
title Historicising global nutrition: critical reflections on contested pasts and reimagined futures
title_full Historicising global nutrition: critical reflections on contested pasts and reimagined futures
title_fullStr Historicising global nutrition: critical reflections on contested pasts and reimagined futures
title_full_unstemmed Historicising global nutrition: critical reflections on contested pasts and reimagined futures
title_short Historicising global nutrition: critical reflections on contested pasts and reimagined futures
title_sort historicising global nutrition critical reflections on contested pasts and reimagined futures
url https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/11/e006337.full
work_keys_str_mv AT stuartgillespie historicisingglobalnutritioncriticalreflectionsoncontestedpastsandreimaginedfutures
AT nicholasnisbett historicisingglobalnutritioncriticalreflectionsoncontestedpastsandreimaginedfutures
AT ericamarienelson historicisingglobalnutritioncriticalreflectionsoncontestedpastsandreimaginedfutures