THESES

— PhD Thesis — This dissertation contributes to the migration-development literature by integrating food security into the analysis of South-South migration. While migration and development have been extensively studied, the connection between migration and food security remains underexplored, particularly in South-South migration contexts. The dissertation highlights the role of migration as both a coping strategy for food insecurity and a source of…

— PhD Thesis — This dissertation critically examines the transformation of Nairobi’s food system within the context of rapid urbanization, retail liberalization, and the growing influence of supermarket economies. Drawing on extensive data from household surveys, policy analysis, and documentation research, it investigates the application of the supermarket revolution model and food desert concept within the specific socio-economic and cultural dynamics of…

— Master’s Thesis — The informal food sector is big and persistent in sub-Saharan Africa and provides employment and livelihood opportunities to a large proportion of urban residents. Although feminization of the informal food sector has been recognized, its gendered dimensions have not been fully understood. Most studies have focused on both male and female food vendors with less attention given…

— Master’s Thesis — The transition and upgrading of grain security to food security, it is the deepening of China’s food security policy in the new era, as well as an important area of safeguarding and improving people’s livelihood. With the rapid socio-economic development leading to the increasingly diversified food consumption needs of residents, the importance of food consumption structure and…

— Master’s Thesis — With the support of national policies and the active participation of relevant enterprises, China’s new retail industry has grown rapidly and become one of the largest retail markets in the world. The combination of the new retail model and the fresh retail industry has given birth to a new way of purchasing fresh food, which has had…

— PhD Thesis — In the global South, food remittances play a significant role in the food and nutrition security of many households, especially low-income families. However, in the last two decades, debates and research on migration, remittances, and development have primarily focused on cash transfers. Non-cash remittances such as food transfers have received limited attention. The bias of being…

— PhD Thesis — With the substantial increase in migrant remittances to developing countries since the 1990s, there is a growing interest in migration and development among academics and development practitioners. Remittances, if channelled as investments into income-generating activities (IGAs), can be a crucial source of development finance to improve people’s livelihoods from the bottom up. In the context of…

— Master’s Thesis — The COVID-19 epidemic has been a devastating global health catastrophe, and the ensuing lockdowns and limitations have exacerbated numerous inequities along racial, ethnic, class, and gender lines. Recent studies have shown that undocumented migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers have been further affected, due to policy responses that mostly exclude them from targeted COVID-19 mitigation efforts aimed…

— PhD Thesis — This dissertation investigates how myriad actors, including the state, citizens, civil society, refugees, and the media, intersect to shape refugee experiences in urban centers in South Africa. Building on six months of ethnographic fieldwork, it focuses on refugee lived experiences in this context to determine the actors, their relations, processes, and factors that condition refugees’ everyday…