Publications: Journal Articles

World Development, 2021 Like many emerging economies in the Global South, China is experiencing major transformations of its national and local food system characterized by the rise of supermarkets. There has been an ongoing debate on the relationship between supermarkets and wet markets in developing countries. Drawing on data from a city-wide supermarket mapping and…

Urban Forum, 2019 The complex dynamics of the informal food sector in urban Africa are poorly understood. Urban informal food systems are beginning to receive attention from scholars and policymakers, but the notable absence of detailed empirical information and necessary theoretical engagement with their emergence, structure, and operation has thus far limited efforts to understand…

Urban Forum, 2019 Small-scale food enterprises occupy a critical space in the food system of Kingston, Jamaica. While they serve the entire population, poor urban households are disproportionately reliant on small-scale food retailers. The nodes and networks of retailers play an important role in the value and commodity chain by providing access to comparatively cheap…

Urban Forum, 2019 Informal vendors are a critical source of food security for urban residents in African cities. However, the livelihoods of these traders, and the governance constraints they encounter, are not well-understood outside of the region’s capital and primate cities. This study focuses on two distinct secondary cities in Nigeria, Calabar in the South-South…

Urban Forum, 2019 In South Africa, the informal sector, including food vending, is either criminalized or ignored. This is despite the fact that it plays an important role in the economy in terms of employment, income generation, food distribution and livelihoods for the urban poor. This paper assesses the nature, operations, strategies and challenges of…

Urban Forum, 2019 In the Global South, the informal food economy is both a source of income for disadvantaged urban groups and an accessible source of food for consumers. Yet, governance of this economy has commonly been restrictive among Southern countries including China. Consequently, in China there has been an antagonistic relationship between vendors and chengguan—China’s…

Urban Forum, 2019 The City of Maputo’s food system comprises a diversity of retailers providing access to food from both domestic and international suppliers. Food markets, whether formal and informal, are the most commonly accessed food source within the city and provide an important source of employment for city residents. As urban labour markets continue…

Urban Forum, 2019 Understanding the root causes of informal economic activity is crucial for the effective governance of the informal sphere. Precisely what these root causes are, however, is subject to significant debate. This article contributes to these debates by arguing that the state is central to the origin and evolution of informality. Stressing the…

Urban Forum 2019  Much of the literature on urban food systems has focused on supermarket expansion and their ability to reach urban consumers. However, the current pace of urbanisation and rising urban poverty has been accompanied by a major upsurge in informality and a growing role for the informal food sector. One of the persistent…

Sustainability 2019, 11(1), 37. Informal settlements in rapidly-growing African cities are urban and peri-urban spaces with high rates of formal unemployment, poverty, poor health outcomes, limited service provision, and chronic food insecurity. Traditional concepts of food deserts developed to describe North American and European cities do not accurately capture the realities of food inaccessibility in…