About us
We are a Junior Research Group based at the Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies at Heidelberg University. It is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Food for Justice looks into social mobilization targeted at injustices in the food system and into social and political innovations that address inequalities undermining food security such as class, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality. Food for Justice aims at providing a theoretical and conceptual framework – grounded on empirical research – to analyze social and political initiatives that address inequalities based on class, gender, race, ethinicity, rurality, citizenship, and categorical divisions between humans and more-than-humans, thus building ecological, just, and democratical food politics.
Context
Increasingly, citizens perceive the global food system as part of the historical causes of the ecological crisis and persisting hunger in the world. Reasons for these causal links have long been known, such as the use of food for profit, the gap between production and consumption, conflicts over land and water, exploitative labor relations, the energy matrix, and waste generation, among others. Nevertheless, research on food security and the bioeconomy tend to rely on the same solutions, i.e., searching for technological fixes toward a profit-oriented model that exploits living matter.
To complexify the debate and contribute to socio-environmental transformation, more knowledge about which food system citizens desire is needed. Further, it is important to explore which alternative knowledge and technologies already successfully handle such claims for Justice within food politics and how to redirect public policies towards a just, democratic, and ecological food system.
International Workshop “Alimento para Justiça”
The event takes place at Raízes do Brasil and CPDA/UFRRJ in Rio de Janeiro from August 22 to August 24, 2023.
Renata Motta, Marco Antonio Teixeira, Eryka Galindo, and Lea Zentgraf present their research at the International Workshop organized by Food for Justice (HCIAS), Ceresan (CPDA/UFRRJ), OPPA, and AS-PTA.
Food for Justice at the XX ISA World Congress 2023
Renata Motta, Marco Antonio Teixeira, Eryka Galindo, and Lea Zentgraf presented their research at the XX ISA World Congress 2023 in Melbourne, Australia.
Contag 1963-2023: Ações de Reprodução Social e Formas de Ações Coletivas
New book by post-doctoral researcher and project leader Marco Antonio Teixeira.
International Conference: “Climate Change and Social Sciences – What’s going on? What’s to be done?”
The conference took place at the Latin American Institute from February 2 to February 4, 2023.
New Article in Berliner Blätter
Renata Motta published an article on “We are fed up!: Political-ecological food coalition” in the Issue 86 (Food lokal/global in Bewegung: Politiken und Praktiken).
New article in Anthropology of Food
The article “Food sovereignty and popular feminism in Brazil” by Renata Motta and Marco Antonio Teixeira was published in the Edition 16 Feeding Genders.
Food for Justice Talks – Winter semester 2022/23 (Virtual Debate Series)
Food for Justice will hold several virtual online debates this winter semester 2022/23 during the next couple of weeks as part of the Food for Justice Talks – Series. We invited several guests to present and discuss research on food, inequalities and food systems in Latin America and Europe.
Special Issue Food and Social Change in The Sociological Review
We have three new articles published about food and social change, food movements and agrifood sytems and intersectional food inequalities.