The Graduate Program and Sustainable Agriculture and Department of Community and Regional Planning invites you to join us for:

"Dimensions of Access across the Urbanising Food-Energy-Water Nexus"

with 

Dr. Kareem Usher

Assistant Professor - The Ohio State University

Columbus, Ohio

While the majority of studies are focused on objective measures of access, much less have explored the concept of perception as a key component of how individuals procure meals.  Previously, I  applied Penchansky and Thomas’ expanded concept of ‘access’ to food access.  This was helpful in highlighting five critical dimensions of access while also capturing broader themes of objectivity and perception.  However helpful this conceptualization is, it does not speak to the interactivity among dimensions nor does it provide a way to analyze the cause-effect relations between the five dimensions and the broader food environment. In this study, I argue that the five dimensions of access are critical to the analysis and decision-making of sustainable food system initiatives for vulnerable populations in urban areas. With the use of spiderweb diagrams, I demonstrate the degree of interactions among the five dimensions with respect to the societal elements of perception and objectivity. While, the DPSIR causal framework is used to analyze the cause-effect relations between the five dimensions and the DPSIR components: drivers, pressures, state, impact, and response. These are explained through case studies from literature.

Wednesday, February 10 - Online Meeting

3:10 - 4:15 p.m. Presentation with Q&A Session

WebEx Link: https://iastate.webex.com/iastate/j.php?MTID=mbcdc8bfe2833dd0705ff1ae84…

Password: SUSAG600

Dr. Kareem M. Usher is an Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning at the Knowlton School of Architecture. His academic identity can be described as a public scholar who strives to create a peaceful, joyful and loving world through community-engaged planning research - the co-production of knowledge between community members and faculty, with the site of inquiry being food systems at the neighbourhood scale.  Dr. Usher’s research focuses on urban food systems and he engages this topic at the intersection of food access, social justice, regional governance and community economic development.   Methodologically, his work incorporates compassion as a planning approach and ‘action research’ or community-engaged scholarship. By working with communities on food systems in real places and in real time, he has developed a body of empirical work that provides the foundation for an emergent research programme at the intersections of community development, theory and practice. Dr. Usher employ’s these as epistemological tools to query and investigate geographies of contrast – rural-urban-suburban, Global South-Global North, in order to understand and to help to relieve suffering around the world.

Affiliated Faculty Positions

Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT)
Center for African Studies
Center for Latin American Studies
The STEAM Factory at The Ohio State University
Humanitarian Development and Innovation
Environmental Sciences Graduate Program
Food Innovation Center
Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Those not enrolled in SUSAG 600 may request to attend. Please send an RSVP to kellis@iastate.edu