Food Security and Resilience: The Potential for Coherence and the Reality of Fragmented Applications in Policy and Research

Abstract

While the topic of food security has long been a focal point for research and policy concerned with development, resilience represents a newer area of work. Given the complexity of each topic on its own, the task of integrating the inherently multidimensional concepts of resilience and food security is an ambitious undertaking. Against this background, the present chapter was motivated by two questions: How can the integration of food security and resilience be conceptualized? What trends can be observed when food security and resilience are linked? To answer the first question, the chapter offers a new conceptual model that articulates possibilities for connecting food security and resilience. In response to the second question, a case study of selected policy documents and a sample of research was conducted. From a methodological perspective, the case study combined lexical analysis methods with a scoping review protocol. The findings from the policy review and from the research literature revealed that attempts to integrate food security and resilience were limited, inconsistent, and largely superficial. The conceptual model and the findings from the case study highlight the need for more coherent integration of work situated at the intersection of food security and resilience.