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

需要采取一种系统的办法来解决迄今难以解决的全球挑战，即营养不良导致除世界上最贫穷国家以外的所有国家都患有慢性病。加勒比共同体各国政府认识到高肥胖率和慢性病发病率在其社会和经济发展中面临的挑战，并致力于采取政策解决办法，改善当地的健康食品生产和消费。我们正在以历史学家和卫生研究人员进行的全球食品安全框架可行性研究为基础，以了解从1945年到现在牙买加食品格局的演变，因为这些演变是由过去一个世纪家庭和工作生活以及当地和全球食品体系的深刻历史和社会变化所塑造的。从这项工作中，我们与利益攸关方一起认识到，迫切需要发展跨学科网络和方法，以便更系统和更有创意地利用能够为政策行动提供重要信息的现有数据来源。描述食品系统的数据--从食品价格、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，需要研究人员跨越学科和部门边界，为基于证据的政策提供信息。然而，LMIC中的数据源往往未得到充分利用、被忽视、支离破碎和没有联系。在这个拟议的项目中，我们询问如何系统地收集跨学科的社会历史数据，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汇编研讨会，向从事这一领域和相关领域(如大数据和系统思维)并努力解决类似问题的领先国际学者学习。埃克塞特大学和西印度群岛大学的早期职业研究人员将合作开发程序，系统地识别、评估和收集有意义的数据源，以了解牙买加食物系统从第二次世界大战到今天的历史演变。这将作为一个在线“数据汇编索引”向国家、区域和国际利益攸关方提供，包括研究、政策和实践，标示和解释有意义的数据联系或汇编及其用途。我们的跨学科组合方法的有用性将最终与关键利益相关者一起进行测试，方法是使用该索引来共同设计工作实例和战略，例如为公共可食用花园构建业务案例。我们建议，我们需要利用这一历史视角，为嵌入当地社区并对其有意义的未来更好的营养和健康的政策和实践战略提供信息。

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.