Tamara Nair

Towards Asia 2025: policy and technology imperatives. Summary of the main findings of the second international conference on Asian food security held in Singapore on 21–22 August 2014

& To suggest recommendations that contribute towards enhancing food security at the national and regional levels, and identify clear policy directions and interventions to guide efforts towards food security. & To provide concrete and actionable policy recommendations attuned to the new realities of food security challenges as Asia approaches 2025. & To identify ways in which Asia could position itself to maximise the full benefits of its connectivity and build on its comparative advantage within and vis-a-vis other regions.

Climate Change and Food Insecurities: Destabilisers of ASEAN Centrality?

There is an increasing awareness and acknowledgement of the effects on the earth’s natural systems attributed to climate change effects. However, some scholars have highlighted how people often miss out on the ‘intangible third-order socio-political and institutional effects’ that have not been fully recognised. This study addresses these ‘intangible’ effects. It is informed by ideas on how physical changes in the environment, translate to social responses, and beyond that can affect regional governmentality and solidarity. Through extensive and multidisciplinary literature reviews, this chapter examines the effects of climate change on something as palpable and important to humans as food production. The possible effects of climate change on food systems have been studied quite closely given the importance of food production to the survival of the species. Furthering the study and moving beyond the effects of climate change on food, I look into the potential for conflict in climate-induced food insecurities and how such events may or may not destabilise regional institutions such as ASEAN.

Power, Capability and Cultural Subjects: An Inquiry into “Institutional Neglect” in Participatory Planning

Abstract Amartya Sen’s capability approach stresses the importance of social choice and moves away from utilitarian reasoning in development studies. Studies in the developing world have shown how reduced capabilities have compromised the effective participation of marginalized communities in participatory development. Extending Sen’s capability approach through Foucault’s ideas on power and subject creation, by further literature review, I explore the possibilities of examining the origins of institutional neglect of marginalized communities in Kerala, India. Concepts of normalization and homogenization through the workings of traditional sources of power are put forward as a basis for these communities’ disenfranchisement. From here, I argue that a reassessment of the state’s decentralized development by reviewing cultural contexts surrounding public participation and by adopting a multilevel approach to understanding complex power arrangements, thereby going beyond an economic framing of development, are ways of ensuring effective democratic decentralization. These steps are imperative if development objectives are to be met and sustained.