Activities
Online conference
Thursday, 29 October 2020, 17.30 Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00)
Brown Bag Seminar with Jasmine Lorenzini who will present a paper on:
“Alternative Food Organizations: What Is Wrong with the Existing Food Regime?”
The existing food system builds on specific understandings of the role of the state, markets, and citizens coming from neoliberalism and representative democracy. When put into practice these ideals produce specific externalities. Research shows that different types of Alternative Food Organizations (AFOs) promote a sustainable, socially just, and healthier food regime. However, few studies analyze how these organizations define the main problems in the field and whether these AFOs share a common understanding of these problems. In this paper, we identify three negative externalities resulting from the corporate environmental food regime where political conflict may arise – health, social justice, environmental protection – prevailing views about markets and democracy could also be contested. Using frame and network analyses, we examine to what extent AFOs active in Geneva (Switzerland) share a specific understanding of problems in the existing food regime. Our empirical study shows that AFOs address a broad set of issues, but seldom discuss problems associated with the food regime (6 percent of the overall framing used refers to problems). We find limited evidence of a shared understanding of main problems in the prevailing food regime in Geneva.
The event is co-organized by University of Creta Research Center and the Center for Bioethics (poster of the event)
Interdisciplinary workshops
In the framework of the project, we organize workshops that bring together researchers working on issues associated with food activism in different Swiss universities. The goal is to bring together scholars from different disciplines such as environmental research, geography, philosophy, political science, or sociology and to build bridges within the Swiss academic community.
Sustainability and the good life, Friday November 16th, 1.30-5.00 pm
Discussion group
In the framework of the project, we organize a discussion group involving researchers working on political participation and civil society organizations. During the semester, the group meets once a month to discuss texts selected by the participants. The group offers an opportunity to discuss publications and authors in these two fields with researchers also working in political sociology. But also to raise theoretical or empirical questions in relation to on-going research (PhD thesis, publications, etc.).
Rencontres épistémologiques
En collaboration avec le GREC (Groupe de Rercherche sur les Elections et la Citoyenneté Politique), nous organisons un cycle de rencontres épistémologiques afin de discuter les fondements philosophiques qui sous-tendent nos recherches. Ce groupe est ouvert à tou-te-s les doctorant-e-s et post-doctorant-e-s qui s'intéressent à ces questions.