Markus Keck

Universität Augsburg | UNA · Institute of Geography

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, digital services such as apps for food and health have become much more widely used, especially in urban settings, where the majority of human society now resides. Therefore, the context in which food choices are made has changed significantly. We suggest that understanding food environments and their entanglements with...

In light of recent pink bollworm (PBW) pest infestations in several cotton-producing states in India, farmers of genetically engineered Bt cotton (Bt for Bacillus thuringiensis) have faced fierce criticism for their noncompliance with the national insect resistance management (IRM) strategy. We argue that this criticism is short-sighted and one-dim...

Bioeconomic ideas and visions have received increasing attention from scientists and policy makers to address socioecological challenges. However, the role of imagined futures in the design of bioeconomic innovations and transitions has hitherto been widely neglected. In this study, we therefore explore the role of imaginaries of the future to unde...

After genetically engineered Bt cotton lost its effectiveness in central and southern Indian states, pink bollworm infestations have recently returned to farmers' fields and have substantially shifted their vulnerability context. We conceive Bt cotton as a neoliberal technology that is built to protect farmers only temporarily from Lepidopteran pes...

The number of organic shops in Bengaluru has increased remarkably in the last few years, with millets being the main products drawing consumers. Yet, organic shops are only attracting middle-class consumers. We observed and interviewed 104 customers in five organic shops in Bengaluru to find out why this is the case. In this article, we follow prac...

Food loss and waste are associated with an unnecessary consumption of natural resources and avoidable greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations have thus set the reduction of food loss and waste on the political agenda by means of the Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3. The German Federal Government committed itself to this goal by impleme...

Empirical research is essential for Geography as a discipline. However, due to the current pandemic, collecting data and conducting fieldwork abroad has become an impossibility. Under current circumstances projects can only be carried out with reduced scope or have been completely put on hold, while researchers and PhD candidates are struggling wit...

Since its introduction in India, Bt ( Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton technology has been the object of controversial scholarly and non-academic debate. The recent return of pink bollworm ( Pectinophora gossypiella) pests in several Indian states has provided cause for concern about widespread resistances in Lepidopteran pests towards the endotoxins...

Current agri-food systems cause severe environmental, socioeconomic, and health-related problems. The ways how food and other agricultural goods are produced, marketed, consumed, and disposed of are leading drivers of environmental degradation and climate change (Campbell et al. 2017; Weis 2010). At the same time, large-scale profit-oriented agri-f...

While early scientific literature on Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton documented its positive agronomic effects on yields, revenue and reductions in pesticide use, the recent return of pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella) pests in India raises doubt in regard to the technology’s longevity. Especially its long-term effects on farmers’ liveliho...

Since 2014, an increasing number of package-free shops are spreading in Germany, in which customers can buy their groceries in containers so that no packaging waste is generated. Purchasing in package-free stores involves additional effort, which raises the question of the suitability of this retail concept for the masses. In order to answer this q...

The number of organic shops in Bengaluru has increased remarkably in the last few years, with millets being the main products drawing consumers. Yet, organic shops are only attracting middle-class consumers. We observed and interviewed 104 customers in five organic shops in Bengaluru to find out why this is the case. In this article, we follow prac...

Dieser Beitrag stellt ein Plädoyer für die Analyse des Globalen aus Perspektive der Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie dar. Das Ziel besteht darin, das Konzept des "Worldings" für die empirische Untersuchung konkreter Entwicklungsprojekte im ländlichen Raum fruchtbar zu machen. Die konzeptionellen Überlegungen werden anhand des Beispiels der Auseinandersetzun...

Under present conditions of economic globalization, social-ecological systems undergo rapid changes. In this context, internal and external forces put heavy pressure on the governance systems of commons to adapt effectively. While institutional learning has been identified as a key element for the adap-tive governance of social-ecological systems,...

Under present conditions of economic globalization, social-ecological systems undergo rapid changes. In this context, internal and external forces put heavy pressure on the governance systems of commons to adapt effectively. While institutional learning has been identified as a key element for the adap-tive governance of social-ecological systems,...

In Vietnam, approximately 39 million tons of rice (Oryza sativa) residues accrue every year. In this study, we quantified soil nutrient balances of paddy rice fields under different crop-residue management practices in northern Vietnam. On twelve farms, we calculated nutrient balances for the four prevalent rice-residue management practices, i.e.,...

In Vietnam, approximately 39 million tons of rice (Oryza sativa) residues are produced every year. While a substantial quantity of these residues are used for animal feed, soil mulching, or fuel purposes, a large portion is burned on-farm. The burning of crop residues not only causes environmental pollution through greenhouse gas emissions adding t...

In Vietnam, approximately 39 million tons of rice (Oryza sativa) residues are produced every year. While a substantial quantity of these residues are used for animal feed, soil mulching, or fuel purposes, a large portion is burned on-farm. The burning of crop residues not only causes environmental pollution through greenhouse gas emissions adding t...

To date, the role of borderlands in global production networks is an under-researched topic. In this study, we take the production network of the highly valuable non-timber forest product ophiocordyceps sinensis (yarsagumba) as a case to study the transborder connectivities of state and non-state actors in the borderland of India, Nepal and China l...

In the public debate, sustainable innovations are mostly associated with urban contexts, whereas rural areas are rarely seen as potentially creative sites. In contrast to this widespread suggestion, however, recent studies show that rural communities can also play a pivotal role in generating sustainable solutions. Yet, the transformative potential...

Food is a basic human need, but megacities research has hardly touched upon it, as a functioning food system is largely taken for granted. The projects ‘The mega-urban food system of Dhaka’ and ‘Multiple modernities in the megacity: Economic and spatial restructuring of food markets’ recognised that economic globalisation, environmental change, rur...

Megacities are said to be especially prone to social and ecological crises, particularly in times of an increasing probability of natural hazards induced by climate change. In a context where governance structures are weak, financial resources are scarce, and the economy is largely run informally, providing infrastructure for the efficient supply o...

Megacities are seen as one of the major challenges of contemporary global urbanisation (Kraas 2010). One focus of the SPP was to shed light on the manifold risks and the diverse vulnerabilities that are emerging for different people in today’s megacities. With a focus on Dhaka in Bangladesh and on Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Dongguan in China, the ove...

In 2002, Bt Cotton was introduced to the market as the first genetically engineered crop of India. Since then, it has been debated whether or not to enable the commercialization of transgenic food crops. While proponents argue for the potentials of genetic engineering to improve agricultural productivity necessary for feeding India’s increasing pop...

The tremendous increase of people accessing the Himalayan grasslands for collecting yarshagumba (caterpillar fungus) lead to a general degradation of local habitats and to local conflicts over access rights. In this study, we analyse the institutional frame of yarshagumba collection in Nepal and India and study its underlying governance system in c...

Das Themenfeld „Ernährung“ wird seit Jahrzehnten im Geographieunterricht behandelt. Im Zuge der derzeit forciert betriebenen sogenannten Agri-Food-Studies sind auch im Schulkontext neue ernährungsgeographisch relevante Unterrichtsinhalte aufzuarbeiten. Vor diesem Hintergrund gilt es zu prüfen, ob und inwieweit das im Rahmen der Agri-Food-Studies er...

Die weltweite Ernährungssituation befindet sich auch über zwei Jahre nach Auslaufen der Millennium-Entwicklungsziele in beunruhigender Schieflage. Die Geographie der Ernährung folgt dem Ziel, die sozialen und ökologischen Ungerechtigkeiten des globalen Ernährungssystems kritisch zu beleuchten, ihren Ursachen auf den Grund zu gehen und wissenschaftl...

Der fünfte Sachstandsbericht des Weltklimarates (2014) macht unmissverständlich klar: Um Mensch und Natur bedrohende Umweltveränderungen zu vermeiden, gilt es den zunehmenden Anstieg des globalen Ressourcenverbrauchs herunterzufahren, den anthropogen erzeugten Schadstoffausstoß zu reduzieren sowie die weitere Treibhausgaskonzentration in der Erdatm...

Der fünfte Sachstandsbericht des Weltklimarates (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - IPCC 2014) macht unmissverständlich klar: Zukünftige, für Mensch und Natur existenzbedrohende Umweltveränderungen sind nur zu vermeiden, wenn der zunehmende Anstieg des globalen Ressourcenverbrauchs heruntergefahren, der anthropogen erzeugte Schadstoffausst...

Consumers in Germany purchase more and more shares of their food basket from their specific region, especially eggs, vegetables, fruits, meat and dairy products. Large retail chains have taken up this trend. Today, locally produced foods are no longer to be found in farm shops or farmer’s markets only, but also in supermarkets and even in some disc...

In this contribution, the authors apply the model of “didactic reconstruction” (cf. Kattmann et al., 1997) to the subject area of “sustainable food”. The didactic reconstruction entails three steps: 1) the larification of the scientific field of interest, 2) the empirical analysis of students’ perspectives, and 3) establishing references between th...

Since the 1990s, “space”, “place”, “spatiality” and “geographies” have become key categories in social sciences. While disciplines like sociology, economics, social anthropology, history or political science have ignored such categories for a long time, the multiple globalization processes and their implications for societies worldwide after the fa...

In 2007 and 2008, Bangladesh was subject to a food crisis, which intensely hit the country's capital. Dhaka's food supplies were repeatedly disconnected due to floods and cyclones and world market prices for staple foods increased dramatically. In the middle of this situation, the national government launched eviction drives of numerous informal ma...

In 2007 and 2008, Bangladesh was subject to a food crisis, which intensely hit the country's capital. Dhaka's food supplies were repeatedly disconnected due to floods and cyclones and world market prices for staple foods increased dramatically. In the middle of this situation, the national government launched eviction drives of numerous informal ma...

In 2007 and 2008, Bangladesh was subject to a food crisis, which intensely hit the country's capital. Dhaka's food supplies were repeatedly disconnected due to floods and cyclones and world market prices for staple foods increased dramatically. In the middle of this situation, the national government launched eviction drives of numerous informal ma...

When it comes to deforestation in Indonesia, researchers assume that land conflicts mainly arise when forests are cut down. However, land conflicts do not only emerge in frontiers, i.e. zones of transition between forests and agricultural land. Access to land and natural resources is equally contested in post-frontiers. These are areas that have al...

The food system of Bangladesh is currently producing a wide range of contradictions: Domestic food production was increased at unprecedented rates, but not without ecologically damaging side effects. Supply chains work efficient insofar as enough food is transported to the consumers. Nevertheless, stark discrepancies can be detected between the inv...

The focus of this article is on the planned relocation of Kawran Bazar, the largest traditional food market of Dhaka, Bangladesh, from the city center to three new locations on the urban periphery. We are interested in this specific case as the plans for relocating and decentralizing the market are by now already 20 years old, but have not as yet a...

The focus of this article is on the planned relocation of Kawran Bazar, the largest traditional food market of Dhaka, Bangladesh, from the city center to three new locations on the urban periphery. We are interested in this specific case as the plans for relocating and decentralizing the market are by now already 20 years old, but have not as yet a...

Am Beispiel Nepals wird untersucht, wie Menschen im Alltag mit den Herausforderungen des Bürgerkrieges umgehen. Hierbei interessiert in erster Linie der soziale Raum. Anhand der sozialen Praktiken der Betroffenen wird demonstriert, dass Menschen unterschiedliche Formen von Resilienz im Umgang mit alltäglicher Gewalt zeigen. Dabei wird der Begriff d...

Seit Rahimafrooz Superstores Ltd. im Jahr 2001 mit zwei Filialen die erste Supermarktkette Bangladeschs eröffnete, zeichnet sich vor allem in den Städten des Landes eine sukzessive Restrukturierung des Lebensmittelhandels und eine Veränderung gängiger Einkaufspraktiken ab. Die rasante Verbreitung von Supermärkten in Dhaka ist sowohl ökonomisch als...

Der Lebensmittelhandel in Dhaka war lange Zeit geprägt von einer Vielzahl kleiner inhabergeführter Geschäfte, bis im Jahr 2001 die erste Supermarktkette eröffnete. Seither wandelt sich der städtische Markt für Lebensmittel in Bangladesch rasant. Eigenen Erhebungen zufolge gibt es momentan (Dezember 2012) neun Supermarktketten, die in Dhaka zusammen...

The focus of this article is on the planned relocation of Kawran Bazar, the largest traditional food market of Dhaka, Bangladesh, from the city center to three new locations on the urban periphery. We are interested in this specific case as the plans for relocating and decentralizing the market are by now already 20 years old, but have not as yet a...

Food security is a central issue in the megacities of the global south. However, basic knowledge lacks about how food supply and distribution currently work in these agglomerations. Drawing on recent research in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in this contribution, the supply and distribution channels of rice are outlined. It is clarified how rice is produced,...

Megacities in developing countries are regarded as global risk areas. Due to the concentration of daunting numbers of people, their unprecedented growth rates, their complexities and dynamism, and not least due to the harsh socio-economic fragmentation, these agglomerations are seen as one of the major challenges of contemporary urbanization. From...

In 2007 and 2008, Bangladesh was subject to a food crisis – the outcome of multiple causes – which had a severe impact on the urban poor of the country’s capital. Dhaka’s food supplies were repeatedly disconnected due to floods and cyclones, yet there was always enough food in the megacity thanks to wholesale traders’ diverse and flexible supply ne...

Over the last decade, a growing body of literature has emerged which is concerned with the question of what form a promising concept of social resilience might take. In this article we argue that social resilience has the potential to be crafted into a coherent analytic framework that can build on scientific knowledge from the established concept o...

Twelve years after the discussions on development and institutions at the meeting of the Geographischer Arbeitskreis Entwicklungstheorien (GAF, 2000) in Zurich, this paper seeks to put institutions back on the research agenda in development geography. The authors explore recent trends in institutional theory and propose a dialectic understanding of...

This chapter follows Ananya Roy's (2009, P. 82) notice that informality is as much the purview of squatters and slum-dwellers as it is that of wealthy urbanites. By taking food wholesale markets in Dhaka (Bangladesh) as a case, this study emphasises the negotiability of merchants' rights to appropriate and utilise public land for their marketing ac...

The article investigates underlying social mechanisms that contribute to the remarkable resilience of Dhaka’s food system with a special focus on wholesalers and their informal business networks. A relational approach to the subject matter is elaborated that understands informality as a specific governance mode of business relations that is coined...

The article investigates underlying social mechanisms that contribute to the remarkable resilience of Dhaka’s food system with a special focus on wholesalers and their informal business networks. A relational approach to the subject matter is elaborated that understands informality as a specific governance mode of business relations that is coined...

Violent conflicts and social order are not antipodes. People in warscapes try to maintain social life despite their exposure to erratic acts of violence. Their coping strategies can not be reduced to physical survival. In this paper, it is asked for the means that people apply in a context of violence and distress for keeping up social interaction....

Dhaka, die Hauptstadt Bangladeschs, ist eine der am schnellsten wachsenden Städte der Welt. Erhebliche Bevölkerungswachstumsraten und die rapide Ausdehnung des Stadtgebietes gehen einher mit einer Zunahme von städtischer Armut. Etwa ein Viertel der rund 14 Millionen Dhakaiyas leben heute in sogenannten Slums unter sehr schwierigen Bedingungen.

Review of: Bertuzzo, Elisa T.: Fragmented Dhaka. Analysing Everyday Life with Henri Lefebvre's Theory of Production of Space. Elisa Bertuzzo unternimmt den beachtenswerten Versuch, die Gesamtheit dieser vielfältigen und widersprüchlichen Prozesse der Megacity mit Hilfe von Henri Lefebvres Theorie der Produktion des Raums (1991 [1974]) analytisch z...

Amartya Sen, in his seminal work on food entitlements and deprivation (1981), has effectively demonstrated that food security is first and foremost a question of access to food rather than of general availability. Furthermore, research has shown that not only the rural populations are vulnerable to food insecurity, but that it is a significant chal...

Recent research on the informal economy no longer distinguishes ‘the formal’ and ‘the informal’ as distinct antipodes, but looks at a continuum of interwoven and intertwined socio-economic processes with different degrees of (in)formality. Using empirical evidence from research on the food system of the megacity of Dhaka (Bangladesh) it is argued i...

Food systems are increasingly "double exposed" to a variable and unpredictable physical environment, particularly in the context of climate change, and to the vagaries of market instability and volatility that inevitably come with globalization. These double exposures threaten all aspects of food security, including the availability, accessibility...

Hardly any other city in the world grew as rapidly in the last few decades as the capital of Bangladesh. Today there are 14 million people in Dhaka. This growth has occurred largely due to ongoing rural-urban migration, which is often triggered by environmental change. Thirty to forty percent of the megacity’s population live in marginal, partly il...

This article re-frames resilience as a people-centred approach and highlights the importance of agency-based perspectives, taking the food system of Dhaka, Bangladesh as a case.

Der Beitrag geht der Frage nach, inwiefern die theoretische Perspektive der „Sozialgeographie alltäglicher Regionalisierungen“ als Grundlage der geographischen Konfliktforschung fungieren kann. Aktuellen Debatten innerhalb der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung wird mit Konzept des „Sozialraumes“ begegnet. Dieser konstituiert sich als Hybride aus Mate...

Food security is a central issue in the numerous megacities of the global south. However, basic knowledge lacks about how food supply and distribution currently work in these agglomerations. Drawing on recent research in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in this article we outline the supply and distribution channels of rice and clarify how goods pass “from ploug...

Seit Unterzeichnung des Friedensabkommens ringen die politischen Parteien Nepals um die Schaffung einer langfristig friedlichen Ordnung. lnsbesondere die Maoisten müssen dabei dafür Sorge tragen, dass auch die Basis den angestrebten Wandel der Partei mitträgt. Zusätzlich verfügen die Maoisten über Verbindungen zu zahlreichen Rebellenorganisationen...

Seit 1996 kämpfen Maoisten in Nepal gegen den Staat, die Monarchie und das hinduistische Gesellschaftssystem. Etwa 13 000 Menschen starben in diesem blutigen Bürgerkrieg. Wie konnte eine derart gewaltsame Situation in einem einstmals friedlichen Land entstehen? Markus Keck analysiert die Hintergründe des Bürgerkrieges aus der Sicht der verschiedene...