Reflecting on Béné’s review of important concepts for local food systems resilience in context of systemic shocks
Béné’s (May, 2020) review last year of the most important concepts for thinking about resilience of local food systems, in context of the pandemic and other shocks provides frameworks for situating empirical data on the resilience strategies employed by informal economic actors in the last mile of Nairobi’s urban food system specializing in fresh produce […]
Reflections on Kate Meagher’s work
Meagher’s work (1990) clearly demonstrates that what I would go on to see 25 years later at the borderland of Uganda and Kenya, she had already seen at the borderland of Uganda and then Zaire (now DRC). Possibly the only difference in our interpretation and narratives is due to our own positional frame of reference […]
Literature as Waymarkers: A New Series of Shorter Posts
Yesterday’s post was almost 2000 words long, I might as well just send it off to a journal. To find a compromise between the facilitation of thinking and writing that blogging offers me, and an optimal length of writing and extracting content references, I’m exploring a new approach. It fits where I’m at now in […]
This one’s on me
Sing for me a word song, he said. One of those magical ones you craft with the music of your keyboard as the accompaniment. Write for me the the words that would capture the magic of being freed from constraints and limitations, to let the mind roam as free as the fingers do on the […]
Strategy Tools for Value Creation by Including Informal Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
There is a lot to unpack in the title of this post and not all of it might happen here today. Consider this the amuse bouche of my current thinking and writing, with the unexpected side effect of releasing the first faint sounds of music that’s been long hidden in my keyboard. The phrasing of […]
Keep looking for the rhythm of the magic, don’t let it go
When I forget why I’m here and what I’m looking for, I forget to keep looking for it. I was drawn back to the keyboard to write this post today, after giving up for the umpteenth time to craft a coherent blogpost in the analytical style. I’ve got at least 4 different drafts saved with […]
Writing for pleasure
6 weeks into full-fledged blogging, I find myself approaching the keyboard for the sheer pleasure of writing again. Have I found the music of my word song that I was looking for? I don’t know. I haven’t actually thought about it recently, I’ve just been writing. The barrier to sitting down to write – for […]
Can Africa’s Informal Trade Ecosystems Provide Lessons for Navigating Uncertainty and Volatility in the post Pandemic World?
It is virtually impossible today to consider emerging markets without taking into consideration the vastly different operating environment of the majority of the countries in the global South. As the map, based on GSMA data, above shows clearly in bright red and blue, the clearest indication of this difference is in the way mobile telephony […]
Working Progress
I have come to deeply appreciate the role of the bystander, who stands there and smokes while watching the artist’s working progress.
Sensemaking in extreme conditions for enhancing resilience: Literature Review
Here, I want to explore themes of resilience and sensemaking together in extreme conditions. For now, I have considered the systemic shock of the global pandemic as an increase in volatility, complexity, and uncertainty of operating conditions, from the perspective of the informal urban food system in Nairobi, Kenya. Therefore I have deliberately excluded literature […]
