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Research article2020Peer reviewedOpen access

Technovisions for Food Security as Sweden Restores Its Civil Defence

Eriksson, Camilla; Fischer, Klara; Ulfbecker, Ebba

Abstract

After three decades of demobilising the Swedish defence sector following the end of the Cold War, Sweden recently revived civil defence planning, including new instructions to plan for food security in the event of war. This policy shift has raised questions as to how farming's vulnerability to disruptions differs today from in the Cold War era, as well as how this vulnerability might best be mitigated. This article presents and discusses key vulnerabilities in Swedish farming as perceived by farmers and some technological solutions to these envisioned by rural entrepreneurs. The focus is on technologies that could increase farm-level self-sufficiency and decrease vulnerability to trade disruptions. Using a sociotechnical imaginaries framework, to which we contribute the concept of 'technovisions', we highlight how farmers' perceptions of potential technological solutions are embedded in social, material and moral values. We conclude that the technovisions presented, based on the production of renewable fuels, can contribute to reducing dependency on imported fuel and fertilisers and thus decrease vulnerability, and that these technovisions are placed firmly within a productionist imaginary of how food security can be achieved.

Keywords

Civil defence; food security; sociotechnical imaginaries; technovision; renewable fuels

Published in

Science, technology & society
2020, article number: UNSP 0971721819889924
Publisher: SAGE PUBLICATIONS INDIA PVT LTD

      SLU Authors

      • Sustainable Development Goals

      SDG2 Zero hunger
      SDG7 Affordable and clean energy

      UKÄ Subject classification

      Renewable Bioenergy Research
      Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
      Agricultural Science

      Publication identifier

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0971721819889924

      Permanent link to this page (URI)

      https://res.slu.se/id/publ/104084