Call for Papers: Population, Food and the Environment

Special Issue of Population and Environment

Guest Editors: Raya Muttarak and Anna Dimitrova

Deadline: 10 December 2021

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 seeks to “[e]nd hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.” The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that the global population affected by severe food insecurity increased to 750 million in 2019. This negative trend is likely to continue given the rise in poverty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, wildfires, and temperature extremes induced by climate change adversely impact agricultural production. These events can directly affect livelihoods and food security through a reduction in food availability or indirectly through a reduction in agricultural income, increased unemployment, higher food prices, or violent conflict. The potential impact of environmental change on food production, distribution and access can have multiple ‘knock-on’ effects in other areas of human life, including health, migration, urbanization, and overall socio-economic development. Childhood malnutrition, for instance, which is closely linked with food insecurity, has long lasting impacts on health and wellbeing, ranging from physical and mental health, to cognitive development and labor market performance. Food insecurity can also influence population dynamics: fertility (e.g., through affecting maternal and fetal health), mortality (e.g., through increasing health risks), and migration (e.g., through disruptions of livelihoods or conflict). Given nations’ unequal vulnerability and capacity to respond and adapt to climate change, the impacts mentioned above will vary across geographies and population subgroups. Population, food and the environment are therefore closely connected.

For this special issue, we seek a range of empirical, theoretical and review papers from multiple social science disciplines, including but not limited to demography, sociology, economics, geography, anthropology, and public health. Topics may explore the complex interactions between environmental change, food security and a wide range of population outcomes such as health, fertility, mortality, migration, urbanization, educational attainment, and labor market performance. Papers may also offer projections of food security and related impacts under future population and climate change scenarios. We are also interested in papers that approach the topic from a different angle, including the role of population dynamics and food production systems as drivers of environmental change in the present and in the future. Theoretical or review papers providing comprehensive and critical discussions of the nexus population-environment-food are highly welcome. We consider contributions at any geographic scale and locations.

Population and Environment is the sole social science journal focused on interdisciplinary research on social demographic aspects of environmental issues. The journal publishes cutting-edge research that contributes new insights on the complex, reciprocal links between human populations and the natural environment in all regions and countries of the world. Quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods contributions are welcome. Population and Environment has several submission categories which are described fully on the website: 25-page empirical research articles; 15-page research briefs; and 20-page review articles. Consult the website for instructions for authors and submission procedures.

Submission Deadline: December 10, 2021. Please submit questions prior to this deadline to Raya Muttarak (muttarak@iiasa.ac.at) or Anna Dimitrova (adimitrova@ucsd.edu), the Guest Editors of this Special Issue, or Elizabeth Fussell (Elizabeth_Fussell@brown.edu), Editor-in-Chief. Submitted manuscripts should be formatted in accordance with Population and Environment guidelines available in the journal or at www.springer.com. Manuscripts should be uploaded to the journal’s website Editorial Manager and authors should select the category “Population, Food and Environment”.