Food security discourse, since the inception of the term in 1974, has shifted from a
narrow focus on food supply to a greater consideration of access, entitlements and
sustainability. An emphasis on vulnerability has coincided with increased recognition
that the causes of food insecurity are the result of a complex interaction between
ecological, social, political and economic events and processes. Vulnerability has been
used differently within various theoretical traditions and especially in food security
literature. Key theoretical perspectives and approaches applied to the concept of food
insecurity and vulnerability include: productivism, sustainable livelihoods (Chambers
& Conway 1992), entitlements (Sen 1981) and political ecology (Blaikie & Brookfield
1987; Bohle, Downing & Watts 1994; Watts & Bohle 1993). In recent times, there
have been attempts to utilise concepts from a social-ecological systems approach in
describing vulnerability to food insecurity (for example see Ericksen 2008). In this
research study, an entitlements perspective is applied to identify and describe
inequalities and how power structures and processes of marginalisation are operating
in communities. Ideas from the sustainable livelihoods approach were drawn upon to
understand how and why people can or cannot combine resources, and how strategies
are adapted to opportunities and to the nature of risks and hazards. Political ecology
further enabled an analysis of vulnerability and issues of power at multiple scales.
Finally, a social-ecological lens provided an opportunity to examine relationships
between society and ecology. Thus, an integrated and differentiated perspective on
food security is developed and applied in this study.