Department of Global Health and Development, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Health and Nutrition Cluster, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
Int J Health Policy Manag. 2021 Dec 1;10(12):809-816. doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.2020.250.
The exercise of power is central to understanding global health and its policy and governance processes, including how food systems operate and shape population nutrition. However, the issue of power in food systems has been little explored empirically or theoretically to date. In this article, we review previous work on understanding power in addressing malnutrition as part of food systems that could be used in taking this issue further in future food systems research. In particular, we examine why acknowledging power is vital in addressing food systems for better nutritional outcomes, approaches to assessing power in empirical research, and ways of addressing issues of power as they relate to food systems.
We undertook a narrative review and synthesis. This involved identifying relevant articles from searches of PubMed and Scopus, and examining the reference lists of included studies. We considered for inclusion literature written in English and related to countries of all income levels. Data from included articles were summarized under several themes.
We highlight the importance of power as a critical issue in food systems, present approaches that can be taken by food-systems researchers and practitioners in power to understand the ways in which power works in food systems and wider society, and present material relating to power and developing strategies to improve food systems for better nutrition, health and well-being.
A range of research approaches exist that can inform examination of power in food systems, and support the development of strategies to improve food systems for better nutrition, health and well-being. However, there is considerable scope for further work in this under-researched area. We hope that this review will support the necessary research to understand further power in food systems and drive the much-needed transformative change.
权力的行使是理解全球健康及其政策和治理过程的核心，包括食物系统的运作方式及其对人口营养的影响。然而，迄今为止，食物系统中的权力问题在实证或理论上都没有得到充分的探讨。本文回顾了以往关于理解权力在解决营养不良问题方面的工作，这些工作是解决食物系统问题的一部分，可用于在未来的食物系统研究中进一步探讨这一问题。特别是，我们探讨了为什么承认权力对于改善营养结果的食物系统至关重要，评估实证研究中权力的方法，以及解决与食物系统相关的权力问题的方法。
我们进行了叙述性综述和综合。这包括从 PubMed 和 Scopus 的搜索中识别相关文章，并检查纳入研究的参考文献列表。我们考虑纳入英语撰写的、与所有收入水平国家相关的文献。纳入文章的数据根据几个主题进行总结。
我们强调了权力作为食物系统中一个关键问题的重要性，提出了食物系统研究人员和实践者可以采取的方法，以了解权力在食物系统和更广泛的社会中运作的方式，并提供了与权力和制定战略相关的材料，以改善食物系统，促进更好的营养、健康和福祉。
存在多种研究方法，可以为研究食物系统中的权力提供信息，并支持制定改善食物系统以促进更好的营养、健康和福祉的战略。然而，在这个研究不足的领域，还有很大的工作空间。我们希望这篇综述将支持进一步研究权力在食物系统中的作用，推动急需的变革性改变。
