2^nd Call for Papers: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2015, Exeter, 2-4 September 2015

 

Abstracts by Friday 30^th January 2015 please

 

Session title

Food Matters: geographical perspectives on food in the anthropocene

 

Convened by: Mags Adams ([log in to unmask]), Richard Armitage ([log in to unmask]) and Mike Hardman ([log in to unmask])

 

Sponsored by: Geographies of Justice Research Group

 

Food matters have become increasingly important in academic, policy and political agendas in recent years, acknowledging the coproduction of food and society: the key role food plays in sustaining society alongside its potential to be shaped by society. From concerns about where food comes from, how it is produced, what it contains and how it is marketed to concerns with how it is consumed, who can afford it, why it is wasted and where possible sites of intervention might lie, researchers have increasingly been exploring the role of food in relation to (in)security, justice, production and consumption. The political and economic tensions surrounding different modes of engagement with food, and contestations about the sites and forms of interventions (whether government policy, third sector, charitable) are tied up with more radical geo-political concerns about human society and planetary governance. The aim of this session is to encourage critical debate about the relationship between food and society and to reconfigure and advance understandings of food in the context of the Anthropocene. Such reconfiguration and advancing is important in the context of, amongst other things: the call for an increased role for urban food production, the seeming disconnect between food production and consumption, the increasing incidence of food poverty in the context of abundance, the paradox of a connection between poverty and obesity, the intensification of agriculture, the levels of food surplus and food waste, the relationship between food miles and local food production, and the UK’s targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (linked both to transportation and waste).

 

Many researchers are working in the area of geographies of food but there has been little coordination of their efforts. There have been a notable, but limited, number of special issues and conferences on food themes to which geographers have contributed, but to date there has been no coordination of geographers in the UK with a mutual interest in the geographies of food and agriculture. With the ever-increasing interest in this area, there is therefore an urgent need for such coordination; this session will act as a mechanism for bringing together actors working in the geographies of food field.

 

In this session we are interested in developing conversations exploring the methodological, empirical, theoretical and ethical implications of geographies of food and agriculture. We therefore invite proposals for papers that present research falling within this broad theme.  Theoretical and empirical contributions are welcomed that address:

 

• The role of urban agriculture in addressing food (in)security
• The ways in which social practices of food acquisition are shaped and defined
• Philanthropy and food poverty
• The coproduction of food waste and food poverty
• The relationship between food, water and energy
• Local and global food networks
• Food justice in the anthropocene
• Interdisciplinary methodologies for researching geographies of food

 

Format: We propose a paper session consisting of 3 x 15 minute papers plus 4 ‘PechaKucha’ PhD/early career papers (PechaKucha is of Japanese origin and involves giving 20 quick-fire slides of 20 secs each, totalling 6.7mins each). This provides space for summaries of projects at various stages to be presented, allowing 7 presentations in the allocated time-slot. It also allows time at the end for 25 minutes of discussion.

 

The session organisers are aware of the need for better coordination of geographers working on food and agricultural issues and hope to develop enough interest through the session to form a Food Matters Research Group (or working group in the first instance). We also hope successful contributors to the session will be interested to write up their papers for a special issue on the geographies of food. We are also aware of other food related cfp's this year and hope to liaise so that they don't overlap.

 

Proposals for papers, with a title, a short abstract of 250 words and your full contact details, should be sent to one the co-organisers by 4pm on Friday 30^th January 2015:

Mags Adams ([log in to unmask]), Richard Armitage ([log in to unmask]) and Mike Hardman ([log in to unmask]).

 

Please also indicate your interest in contributing to the development of a new research group and/or a special issue.

 

 

 

Dr Mags Adams

Lecturer in Human Geography | Environment & Life Sciences

Room 307, Peel Building, University of Salford, Salford, UK  M5 4WT

t: +44 (0) 161 295 4067

[log in to unmask] | www.salford.ac.uk