Category Archives: News

Job Opportunity: Assistant Professor in Public Engagement with Agriculture

News, Opportunities,

The Department of Community & Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is hiring a new tenure-track Assistant Professor specializing in public engagement with agriculture. The full listing, and instructions for applying, can be found here. Note: Applications must be submitted by September 30 to guarantee full consideration. 

The successful candidate will have an outstanding research record in public perceptions of and engagement with agricultural science and technology, with a research focus that is relevant and impactful for the Wisconsin dairy industry and complements existing faculty strengths. This might include but is not limited to public perceptions of and public engagement with: the role of science and technology in agriculture, animal welfare, the relationship between animal agriculture and land/water stewardship, labor relations, policy making and regulation of dairy production and organization, consumer decision-making, the relationship between community health and animal agriculture, the history and development of supply chains, social equity and class dynamics surrounding food and agriculture, or public understanding of nutritional labels and content. Research with international and comparative dimensions is welcome.

This newly created position is supported by the Dairy Innovation Hub in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. As a Hub-supported position, the faculty member will also have the opportunity to collaborate with other Hub researchers, pursue Hub funding opportunities, and participate in Hub programs.

Questions about the position? Contact Professor Noah Weeth Feinstein.

Symposium on emotional political ecology (29 August to 9 September 2022)

News

Massey University’s Political Ecology Research Centre, The Australian National University, Royal University of Phnom Penh, and POLLEN Political Ecology Network are convening a symposium on Emotional Political Ecology from 29 August to 9 September 2022.

Explore how emotions influence resource access, use, and control, and shape people’s everyday lives, and relationships with each other and the state through an exciting series of papers, commentaries and real time discussions.

Free, online,  open access – see this link for further details and to register: https://bit.ly/emotionalecology

Emotional Political Ecology Symposium Program

Workshop Opening Discussion: Monday 29th August  

Pre-recorded panel presentation videos live for viewing and discussion 

Featuring: 
Professor Andrea Nightingale 
Dr. April Bennett 
Dr. Sochanny Hak  
Link: https://massey.zoom.us/j/3350407554

Postgraduate Panel + Discussion: Thursday 8th September  

Convened by Leola Meynell and Matt Peryman 

Panel 1: Methodological questions in Emotional Political Ecology 

 With presentations by: 
Lisa Trogisch, Wageningen University 
Paola Solis, Justus-Liebig-Universität 
Daniel Read, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science 
Josie Wittmer, Queen’s University 

Discussants: Kanokwan Manorom  
Chair: Alice Beban 

Live session for this panel: Monday 5th September, 18:00 UTC
(Monday 10pm Amsterdam/Berlin; Monday 2PM NY;  Tuesday 6am Canberra; Tuesday 8am Auckland)   

Link: https://massey.zoom.us/j/3350407554

Panel 2: Care, commoning and restoration: Transforming human / non-human relationships through emotional political ecology  

With presentations by: 
Maureen W. Kinyanjui, University of Edinburgh  
Sony RK, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment 
Karen Kinslow, University of Kentucky 
Wigke Capri, Universitas Gadjah Mada 

Discussant: Laura McKay 
Chair: Sopheak Chann 

Live session for this panel: Wednesday 7th September, 10:00 UTC
(Wednesday 6am NY; Wednesday 11am Edinburgh; Wednesday 3:30pm Bengaluru; Wednesday 5pm Jakarta; Wednesday 8pm Canberra; Wednesday 10pm Auckland)  

Link: https://massey.zoom.us/j/3350407554

Panel 3: Emotional Political Ecology in ruptured and uncertain worlds 

With presentations by: 
Anna Sturman and Blanche Verlie, University of Sydney  
Noémi Gonda, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; and Andrea J. Nightingale, University of Oslo  
Sango Mahanty, Australian National University; and Sopheak Chann, Royal University of Phnom Penh 

Discussant: Siobhan McDonnell 
Chair: Sango Mahanty 

Live session for this panel: Friday 9th September, 10:00 UTC
(Friday 6am NY; Friday 11am Edinburgh; Friday 12pm Oslo/Berlin/Amsterdam; Friday 3:30pm Bengaluru; Friday 5pm Jakarta; Friday 8pm Canberra/Sydney; Friday 10pm Auckland)  

Link: https://massey.zoom.us/j/3350407554

What’s the future of Sydney’s food system?

News, ,

Charles Sturt University, the City of Sydney and Deliberately Engaging are inviting you envision the future of food in Sydney as part of a knowledge exchange community grant scheme.

Participants are warmly invited to come and contribute your thoughts, ideas and experiences.

For Food Innovators
11.00am, Tuesday
02 August, 2022
Registration Link

For Community Members
07:00pm, Wednesday
03 August, 2022
Registration Link

What’s a Food Innovator?
Anyone doing something interesting, new, sustainable, disruptive, a-bit-different, community-oriented and focused on food!

Think – food sharing, community gardens, new food products, new food services, cooperatives, collectives, markets, food boxes, new ways of growing and distributing food.

You can participate without downloading any software.

Please join the workshop from a computer (desktop or laptop) or a tablet.

The Zoom webinar will not be recorded. The video, audio and chat functions will not enable participants to see or hear each other to protect confidentiality

……
This workshop contributes towards a larger study into urban food systems innovation and will link with the global Urbal Study.

This study has been approved by the Charles Sturt University Human Research Ethic Committee Protocol number: H21466.

You can contact the Chief Investigator, Dr Sarina Kilham via email or on 0269332385 with any questions.

New book publication

Members' Work, News, , , , , , , , , , ,

Congratulations to all those involved in the new open access book Beyond Global Food Supply Chains: Crisis, Disruption, Regeneration.

Edited by Victoria Stead and Melinda Hinkson, the collection takes the upheaval of the pandemic as a springboard from which to interrogate a larger set of structural, environmental and political fault lines running through the global food system. In a context in which disruptions to the production, distribution and consumption of food are figured as exceptions to the smooth, just-in-time efficiencies of global supply chains, the essays examine the pandemic not simply as a particular and acute moment of disruption but rather as a lens on a deeper, longer set of structural processes within which disruption is endemic.

The thirteen chapters offer short, sharp interventions that track disruptive forces & political possibilities at key points along the global food supply chain – and, critically, beyond it. They traverse subjects ranging from agri-investment to corporate and alternative food production systems, labour relations, pandemic supermarkets, logistics systems, the politics of hunger, the limits of consumer ethics, and the possibilities of supply chain disruptions as moments of reprieve. They offer rich, generative reflections on the contemporary global food system, and would also be very well suited to being used as teaching resources.

Chapters

  1. Introduction: Beyond global supply chains by Melinda Hinkson and Victoria Stead
  2. Supply chains as disruption by Lauren Rickards and Melinda Hinkson
  3. Agri-investment cashing in on COVID-19 by Sarah Sippel
  4. Putting the crisis to work by Victoria Stead and Kirstie Petrou
  5. Going against the grain in the West Australian wheatbelt by Kelly Donati
  6. Reviving community agrarianism in post-socialist China by Daren Shi-Chi-Leung
  7. Fantasies of logistics in Aotearoa New Zealand by Matthew Henry and Carolyn Morris
  8. Reproducing hunger in pandemic America by Maggie Dickinson
  9. The pandemic supermarket by David Boarder Giles
  10. Disruption as reprieve? by Jon Altman and Francis Markham
  11. The UN Food Systems Summit: Disaster capitalism and the future of food by Tomaso Ferrando
  12. Against consumer ethics by Christopher Mayes and Angie Sassano
  13. Afterword: Temporary measures by Alex Blanchette

The book is available free to download here.

SAANZ Conference: Early bird registration now open

News, ,

Early bird registration for the Sociological Association of Aotearoa New Zealand (SAANZ) Conference 2022 is now open. The conference runs from 6-8 December at the Albany Campus, Massey University, New Zealand.

Other key dates to note are:
10 July – Call for panel closes
7 August – Call for papers closes
6 November – Early bird registration closes
7 November – Standard registration opens


Call for abstracts: 2022 NZGS Conference

News, , ,

Organisers of the New Zealand Geographical Society Conference are calling for abstract submissions. This year’s conference is titled TOITŪ: GEOGRAPHIES OF RESILIENCE and will take place in Christchurch, NZ from 23-25 November 2022. The conference is planned to be both on-site and virtual.

Abstracts and session proposals are encouraged to address the following themes or wider themes in geography:
Theme 1. Resilience in the context of environmental change, governance and/or justice
Theme 2. Well being and health approaches to resilience
Theme 3. Recovery & regenerative development: solutions, approaches, methodologies and practices for social and/or ecological restoration.
Theme 4. Resilience in the context of counter geographies
Theme 5. Resilience in the context of place-based, community grassroots geographies

For more information or to submit a proposal, please visit the conference website.

Abstract and session submissions close 15 July 2022.

PhD Opportunities at the University of Münster

News, Opportunities, ,

Two PhD opportunities are being offered within a new working group, Economic Geography and Globalisation Research at the Institute of Geography.

“Reimagining rural householding, livelihoods, and communities”
WWU are looking for a dynamic and inquisitive PhD researcher to focus on “Reimagining the Economy” through an investigation of traditional and alternative “neo-rural” practices within the region of Molise, Italy. For more information and to apply, please view the full listing at WWU.

“Digital Agri-food Futures in the Mediterranean”
WWU are looking for a dynamic and motivated PhD researcher to focus on “Digital Food Futures” and investigate the digitisation of farming in the Mediterranean. The goal is to develop and conduct a qualitative research study within one or more Mediterranean countries. For more information and to apply, please view the full listing at WWU.

Applications for both positions close 15 August 2022.

Food Utopias, (Mature) Care, and Hope – published

Members' Work, News, , , , , ,

Congratulations to AFRN member Paul Stock on the publication of his article Food Utopias, (Mature) Care, and Hope in The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food.

Here is his abstract for the article:
The current period is one of worry and concern over collapse. While many still go hungry, we anticipate a future of food without farmers. Yet in the wake of multiple disasters, the new can emerge. With a focus on food systems centred on care, utopias provide us with tools for dialogue that communicate problems, but also point to possible pathways forward. Following a theory of (mature) care focused on agri-food, food utopias offers a trialectic of critique, experimentation, and process to shape agri-food scholarship of the hopeful, care-centred stories of food and transformation. In combination with ideas about agri-food systems futures, this paper offers examples of care and food utopias from the US Midwest. This is an invitation to combine feminist ideas of care theory and food utopias scholarship that can help broaden our understanding of justice and scholarship around food, farmers, community, and feeding the world.

Stock, P. V. (2021) “Food Utopias, (Mature) Care, and Hope”, The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. Paris, France, 27(2), pp. 89–107. doi: 10.48416/ijsaf.v27i2.92.