Transdisciplinary data assemblages for a socio-historical understanding of the formation of Caribbean food systems

需要采取系统的办法来应对迄今为止难以解决的营养不良导致慢性病的全球挑战，但世界上最贫穷的国家除外。加勒比共同体各国政府已经认识到肥胖和慢性病高发率对社会和经济发展的挑战，并致力于改善当地健康食品生产和消费的政策解决方案。我们正在利用历史学家和卫生研究人员进行的全球气候变化框架可行性研究，以了解牙买加从1945年到现在的食物景观的演变，因为这些食物景观是由过去世纪家庭和工作生活以及地方和全球食物系统的深刻历史和社会变化形成的。通过这项工作，我们与利益攸关方共同确定，迫切需要建立跨学科网络和方法，以便更系统和创新地利用现有数据来源，为政策行动提供重要信息。描述粮食系统的数据-从粮食定价、消费模式、进口率、土地使用到疾病趋势-具有内在的关联性和跨学科性，要求研究人员跨越学科和部门界限，为循证政策提供信息。然而，中低收入国家的数据源往往没有得到充分利用、被忽视、支离破碎和没有联系。在这个拟议的项目中，我们问如何跨学科的社会历史数据可以系统地组装，以了解加勒比粮食系统的时间复杂性。我们将在埃克塞特大学召开跨学科数据集合研讨会，向在大数据和系统思维等相关领域工作的国际领先学者学习，并解决类似问题。埃克塞特和西印度群岛大学的早期职业研究人员将合作开发过程，系统地识别，评估和收集牙买加粮食系统从第二次世界大战到今天的历史演变有意义的数据源。这将作为一个在线“数据组合索引”提供给来自研究、政策和实践领域的一系列国家、区域和国际利益攸关方，指明并解释有意义的数据联系或组合及其用途。我们的跨学科组合方法的实用性最终将与关键利益相关者一起进行测试，方法是使用索引来共同设计工作实例和策略，例如为公共可食用花园构建商业案例。我们建议，我们需要利用这一历史视角，为政策和实践战略提供信息，以改善未来的营养和健康，这些战略植根于当地社区并对当地社区有意义。

A systems approach is needed to address the so far intractable global challenge of malnutrition leading to chronic diseases in all but the poorest countries in the world. The governments of the Caribbean Community have recognised the challenge of high obesity and chronic disease rates in their social and economic development and committed to policy solutions that improve local healthy food production and consumption. We are building on GCRF feasibility research undertaken by historians and health researchers to understand the evolution of Jamaica's foodscapes from 1945 to the present, as these have been shaped by profound historical and social changes to family and work life and local and global food systems over the past century. From this work, we identified together with stakeholders that there is an urgent need to develop cross-disciplinary networks and methods that make more systematic and innovative use of existing data sources that can significantly inform policy action. Data describing food systems - from food pricing, consumption patterns, import rates, land usage to disease trends - are inherently relational and transdisciplinary, and require researchers to cross disciplinary and sectoral boundaries to inform evidence-based policy. However, data sources in LMICs are often under-used, overlooked, fragmented and unlinked. In this proposed project we ask how transdisciplinary socio-historical data can be systematically assembled to understand the temporal complexity of Caribbean food systems. We will convene a Symposium on Transdiciplinary Data Assemblage at the University of Exeter to learn from leading international scholars who work in this and related fields such as Big Data and systems thinking and grapple with similar questions. Early Career Researchers at Exeter and the University of the West Indies will then collaborate to develop processes to systematically identify, appraise and assemble meaningful data sources for the historical evolution of Jamaica's food system from the Second World War to today. This will be made available to a range of national, regional and international stakeholders from research, policy and practice as an online "data assemblage index" that signposts and explains meaningful data linkages or assemblages and their uses. The usefulness of our method of transdisciplinary assemblages will finally be tested together with critical stakeholders by using the index to co-design worked examples and strategies such as building a business case for communal, edible gardens. We propose that we need to harness this historical perspective to inform policy and practice strategies for better future nutrition and health that are embedded in and meaningful to local communities.