Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Professor Cheryl Mcewan's Outputs (66)

Food, memory, and changing framings of sustainable consumption in Johannesburg (2025)
Journal Article
McEwan, C., Dayab, S., & Hughes, A. (online). Food, memory, and changing framings of sustainable consumption in Johannesburg. Critical African Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2024.2445168

This paper addresses how food, tradition, and memories intersect with how sustainable food consumption is conceived, practiced, and mobilised. Using ethnographic research, the paper examines articulations and practices of ‘good food’ among food syste... Read More about Food, memory, and changing framings of sustainable consumption in Johannesburg.

Multispecies storytelling in botanical worlds: the creative agencies of plants in contested ecologies (2022)
Journal Article
McEwan, C. (2023). Multispecies storytelling in botanical worlds: the creative agencies of plants in contested ecologies. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 6(2), 1114–1137. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486221110755

This paper argues for engaging in multispecies storytelling with plants to better conceptualise the ethics and contested ecologies associated with biodiversity loss. It focuses specifically on proteas, the iconic species of South Africa's threatened... Read More about Multispecies storytelling in botanical worlds: the creative agencies of plants in contested ecologies.

Public-making in a pandemic: the role of street art in East Africa   (2022)
Journal Article
McEwan, C., Szablewska, L., Lewis, K., & Nabulime, L. (2022). Public-making in a pandemic: the role of street art in East Africa  . Political Geography, 98, Article 102692. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102692

Street artists around the world have been prominent in depicting issues concerning COVID-19, but the role of street art in public-making during the pandemic is unexplored. Despite burgeoning street art scenes in many African countries since the early... Read More about Public-making in a pandemic: the role of street art in East Africa  .

UK street art and the meaning of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020-21 (2022)
Journal Article
McEwan, C., Szablewska, L., & Lewis, K. (2022). UK street art and the meaning of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020-21. Social and Cultural Geography, 24(3-4), 503-523. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2022.2065695

TThis paper contributes to social and cultural geographies of the COVID-19 pandemic through an exploration of the role of UK street art in documenting the remarkable shifts in the practice of wearing facemasks, the tensions and emotions involved, and... Read More about UK street art and the meaning of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020-21.

Demonic Possession: Narratives of Domestic Abuse and Trauma in Malaysia (2021)
Journal Article
Sahdan, Z., Pain, R., & McEwan, C. (2022). Demonic Possession: Narratives of Domestic Abuse and Trauma in Malaysia. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 47(2), 286-301. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12485

Every society deploys narratives concerning the phenomenon of domestic abuse which serve to downplay and normalise it. Drawing on qualitative research with survivors in Malaysia, and working from a feminist postcolonial framework, this paper explores... Read More about Demonic Possession: Narratives of Domestic Abuse and Trauma in Malaysia.

Experiences of first-generation scholars at a highly selective UK university (2021)
Journal Article
Hindle, C., McEwan, C., Boliver, V., Maclarnon, A., Simpson, B., & Brown, H. (2021). Experiences of first-generation scholars at a highly selective UK university. Learning and Teaching, 14(2), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.3167/latiss.2021.140202

Targets set by the UK Office for Students require highly academically selective UK universities to enrol a greater percentage of students identified as least likely to participate in higher education. Such students are typically at a disadvantage in... Read More about Experiences of first-generation scholars at a highly selective UK university.

Taking on the tweed suits: Reflections on the ‘How the other half lives’ and its critique of masculinist geography (2020)
Journal Article
McEwan, C. (2020). Taking on the tweed suits: Reflections on the ‘How the other half lives’ and its critique of masculinist geography. Area, 52(4), 770-777. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12647

In this commentary I explore the groundbreaking interventions of Jacky Tivers’ (1978) ‘How the other half lives’ (Area 10, 4, 302‐6). I recount both the context in which I first read and was inspired by the paper and the significance of the context i... Read More about Taking on the tweed suits: Reflections on the ‘How the other half lives’ and its critique of masculinist geography.

Solar energy for all? Understanding the successes and shortfalls through a critical comparative assessment of Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Mozambique, Sri Lanka and South Africa (2018)
Journal Article
Kumar, A., Ferdous, R., Luque-Ayala, A., McEwan, C., Power, M., Turner, B., & Bulkeley, H. (2019). Solar energy for all? Understanding the successes and shortfalls through a critical comparative assessment of Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Mozambique, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Energy Research and Social Science, 48, 166-176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.10.005

Lanterns, homes systems, hot water systems and micro-grids based on small-scale solar have become prominent ways to address the energy access challenge. As momentum grows for this form of energy transition this paper draws together research on small-... Read More about Solar energy for all? Understanding the successes and shortfalls through a critical comparative assessment of Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Mozambique, Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Why ‘place’ matters in the development and impacts of Fairtrade production (2017)
Book Chapter
McEwan, C., Hughes, A., Bek, D., & Rosenberg, Z. (2017). Why ‘place’ matters in the development and impacts of Fairtrade production. In V. Nelson (Ed.), Fairtrade impacts : lessons from around the world (29-44). Practical Action Publishing. https://doi.org/10.3362/9781780449067.003

This chapter examines the importance of place for the cultural and environmental dynamics shaping Fairtrade cooperatives. It draws on a case study of the Eksteenskuil Agricultural Cooperative (EAC) in South Africa’s Northern Cape, which supplies Fair... Read More about Why ‘place’ matters in the development and impacts of Fairtrade production.

Enrolling the private sector in community development: Magic bullet or sleight of hand? (2017)
Journal Article
McEwan, C., Mawdsley, E., Banks, G., & Scheyvens, R. (2017). Enrolling the private sector in community development: Magic bullet or sleight of hand?. Development and Change, 48(1), 28-53. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12283

The role of the private sector in international development is growing, supported by new and evolving official programmes, financing, partnerships and narratives. This article examines the place of the private sector in ‘community development’ in the... Read More about Enrolling the private sector in community development: Magic bullet or sleight of hand?.

Using Art to Fight HIV/AIDS in Uganda (2016)
Book Chapter
Nabulime, L., & McEwan, C. (2016). Using Art to Fight HIV/AIDS in Uganda. In P. Stupples, & K. Teaiwa (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives in art and international development (151-164). Routledge

Fairtrade, place and moral economy: between abstract ethical discourse and the moral experience of Northern Cape farmers (2016)
Journal Article
McEwan, C., Hughes, A., & Bek, D. (2017). Fairtrade, place and moral economy: between abstract ethical discourse and the moral experience of Northern Cape farmers. Environment and Planning A, 49(3), 572-591. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x16674722

This paper explores the significance of the relationships and disjunctures between the global moral discourses of Fairtrade that are articulated through ethics of fairness in supply chains and the everyday moral experiences, discourses and practices... Read More about Fairtrade, place and moral economy: between abstract ethical discourse and the moral experience of Northern Cape farmers.

Spatial processes and politics of renewable energy transition: land, zones and frictions in South Africa (2016)
Journal Article
McEwan, C. (2016). Spatial processes and politics of renewable energy transition: land, zones and frictions in South Africa. Political Geography, 56, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2016.10.001

This paper seeks to make a contribution to on-going debates about how to conceptualise the spatial processes of renewable energy transition. It makes a case for understanding renewable energy transitions as simultaneously spatial and political proces... Read More about Spatial processes and politics of renewable energy transition: land, zones and frictions in South Africa.

Geography, Culture and Global Change (2016)
Book Chapter
McEwan, C., & Daya, S. (2016). Geography, Culture and Global Change. In P. Daniels, M. Bradshaw, D. Shaw, J. Sidaway, & T. Hall (Eds.), An introduction to human geography (273-289). (5th ed.). Pearson

A High Road to Sustainability? Wildflower Harvesting, Ethical Trade and Social Upgrading in South Africa’s Western Cape (2016)
Journal Article
Bek, D., Binns, T., Blokker, T., McEwan, C., & Hughes, A. (2016). A High Road to Sustainability? Wildflower Harvesting, Ethical Trade and Social Upgrading in South Africa’s Western Cape. Journal of Agrarian Change, 17(3), 459-479. https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12149

This paper evaluates the outcomes from an ambitious wildflower harvesting programme in South Africa's Western Cape, which has sought to achieve positive outcomes in terms of socio-economic development and biodiversity conservation. Indigenous wildflo... Read More about A High Road to Sustainability? Wildflower Harvesting, Ethical Trade and Social Upgrading in South Africa’s Western Cape.

Mobilizing the Ethical Consumer in South Africa (2015)
Journal Article
Hughes, A., McEwan, C., & Bek, D. (2015). Mobilizing the Ethical Consumer in South Africa. Geoforum, 67, 148-157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.07.011

This paper presents a critical engagement with current initiatives for ethically-labeled goods in South Africa, thus offering an intervention in a literature on ethical consumption that has previously prioritized the global North. Through an intervie... Read More about Mobilizing the Ethical Consumer in South Africa.

Theorising middle class consumption from the global South: A study of everyday ethics in South Africa’s Western Cape (2015)
Journal Article
McEwan, C., Hughes, A., & Bek, D. (2015). Theorising middle class consumption from the global South: A study of everyday ethics in South Africa’s Western Cape. Geoforum, 67, 233-243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.02.011

Emerging research on the increasing significance of consumption in the global South is concerned with its links to the globalizing middle classes. Against the backdrop of optimism invested in the new global middle classes to fuel consumption-led grow... Read More about Theorising middle class consumption from the global South: A study of everyday ethics in South Africa’s Western Cape.

Postcolonial Perspectives on Global Production Networks: Insights from Flower Valley in South Africa (2015)
Journal Article
Hughes, A., McEwan, C., & Bek, D. (2015). Postcolonial Perspectives on Global Production Networks: Insights from Flower Valley in South Africa. Environment and Planning A, 47(2), 249-266. https://doi.org/10.1068/a130083p

This paper proposes dialogue between postcolonial theory and the analytical frameworks of global value chains (GVCs) and global production networks (GPNs). It does so in order to open up more culturally sensitive accounts of global supply networks an... Read More about Postcolonial Perspectives on Global Production Networks: Insights from Flower Valley in South Africa.

Embedding Fairtrade in South Africa: Global Production Networks, National Initiatives and Localized Challenges in the Northern Cape (2014)
Journal Article
Hughes, A., McEwan, C., Bek, D., & Rosenberg, Z. (2014). Embedding Fairtrade in South Africa: Global Production Networks, National Initiatives and Localized Challenges in the Northern Cape. Competition & Change, 18(4), 291-308. https://doi.org/10.1179/1024529414z.00000000062

This article contributes to debate on the evolving expressions of business responsibility in emerging market economies and developing economies by exploring and theorizing the ways in which the Fairtrade standard for supply chains is being re-worked... Read More about Embedding Fairtrade in South Africa: Global Production Networks, National Initiatives and Localized Challenges in the Northern Cape.