Brown Bag Seminar
Co-organized by UCRC and the Center for Bioethics
Jasmine Lorenzini, PhD
Research Fellow at the Institute of Citizenship Studies at the University of Geneva
Visiting Researcher at UCRC (LIVEWHAT Project, PI M. Kousis)
“Alternative Food Organizations: What Is Wrong with the Existing Food Regime?”
Thursday, 29 October 2020, 17.30 Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00)
To join us, click the following link at the specified time and date:
https://zoom.us/j/92163222191?pwd=TWxKN1lMSklZUXVKYzlWSzdxUjMzdz09
Meeting ID: 921 6322 2191
Passcode: 252720
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.
Keywords: Food activism, Environment, Social Justice, Health, Civil Society Organizations
Jasmine Lorenzini is currently research fellow at the Institute of Citizenship Studies at the University of Geneva where she works of food activism, political participation, and social movement activism. In her doctoral research, she worked on youth long-term unemployment and its impact on economic, social, and political inclusion. Together with Marco Giugni and other colleagues, she wrote two books on this topic (Jobless Citizens & Young People and Long-Term Unemployment). During her post-doctoral research, she worked on protest in times of economic crisis. She edited a book with Hanspeter Kriesi and others on this topic (Contention in Times of Crisis).
Website: https://politicalconsumerism.unige.ch/team/jasmine-lorenzini/
*Brown Bag Seminars at UCRC aim to create an informal atmosphere for researchers to present their on-going research, stimulate cross-disciplinary dialogue, generate questions, and possibly some good answers.
