Abstract Famine was, until recently, largely a matter of historical or theoretical interest, but the “four famines” threat of 2017 demonstrated that Somalia in 2011 was not an aberration or outlier: famine is a contemporary reality and threat. Current methods of famine analysis however tend to emphasize the severity of current-status indicators as the sole dimension of analysis. This article argues that a more multi-dimensional view is required for a full understanding of famine, including not only severity but also the magnitude of the crisis, the temporal dimension or duration, and the spatial dimension or geographic specificity of the crisis. The article draws on recent experience of famine analysis in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen to demonstrate the way in which our current analytical perspective misses critical dimensions of famine, and the consequences of this for analysis, prevention, and response. A more multi-dimensional perspective sheds new light on famine dynamics, but also highlights the importance of causal analysis in addition to classification or determination.

中文翻译：

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确定饥荒：二十一世纪的多维分析

摘要 直到最近，饥荒在很大程度上还是一个历史或理论问题，但 2017 年的“四次饥荒”威胁表明，2011 年的索马里并非异常或异常：饥荒是当代现实和威胁。然而，当前的饥荒分析方法倾向于强调当前状况指标的严重程度作为分析的唯一维度。本文认为，全面理解饥荒需要多维度的视角，不仅包括危机的严重程度，还包括危机的严重程度、时间维度或持续时间，以及危机的空间维度或地理特征。这篇文章借鉴了尼日利亚、南苏丹、索马里和也门最近的饥荒分析经验，以证明我们目前的分析观点忽略了饥荒的关键维度的方式，以及这对分析、预防和响应的影响。更加多维的视角为饥荒动态提供了新的视角，但也强调了除分类或确定之外的因果分析的重要性。