Theoretical Framework: Linkages and Underpinnings in Food System Analysis

This book’s theoretical framework is a synthesis of the relevant elements of the neo-Gramscian theory of Robert W. Cox and that of Dependency theory. The essential elements of the framework take Cox’s understanding of global production and power and imbues it with insights from dependency theory, consequently allowing for an appreciation of how a neoliberal institution like the WTO produces structures in the ECOWAS region that generates a particular kind of food policy outcome. The book is persuaded that a propitious blend of the explanatory power of both the Coxian and dependency perspectives overcome the limitations of the neoliberal institutionist approach which tends to consign to the margin of analysis the critically relevant considerations of history, power and the associate syndromes of dependency.