Food Charities

Call for Abstracts | Sustainability Transitions Research Network Call for Abstracts We are pleased to announce the Call for Abstracts for the 17th International Sustainability Transitions Conference, to be held in Zurich, Switzerland between August 31 and September 2, 2026, co-hosted by the […]

Call for papers – Track #15 Systematic Event Approaches to Sustainability Transitions: Sequencing Reproduction, Disruption and Change 🌱

We are happy to share that our team is working with other researchers on a panel at the IST conference 2026!

👉 www.transitionsnetwork.org/ist-2026/cal...

Food Charities - At the heart of food support lies a web of relations Food Charities aims to uncover how these connections build, sustain, transform, and at times hinder responses to food insecurity across different contexts.

We also discussed regional nuances, comparing the academic tone of this ethnography to US narrative styles. It sparked a great talk on how local Mediterranean contexts shape marginality.

Stay updated: foodcharities.eu

Food Charities - At the heart of food support lies a web of relations Food Charities aims to uncover how these connections build, sustain, transform, and at times hinder responses to food insecurity across different contexts.

This week, we discussed Paolo Boccagni’s Undoing Nothing, our first reading focused on Europe. We explored the "methodology of silence," looking at how boredom and a loss of "relevance" are central to the asylum seeker experience—a powerful parallel to our own urban poverty research

Food Charities - At the heart of food support lies a web of relations Food Charities aims to uncover how these connections build, sustain, transform, and at times hinder responses to food insecurity across different contexts.

An urban ethnography reading group update! 📚

With the new year, our reading group has started again with much exciting literature ahead. Visit our website to read our reflections 👉 foodcharities.eu/urban-ethnog...

Like to know more about our project and stay updated? Follow our page! 💡

3 Research Assistants join for the food charities project  - Food Charities We are excited to welcome 3 Research Assistants, Benedetta, Misaki and Elke to the food charities project!  They are already working on the coding task for each country, Italy, Japan and the Netherlan...

Find a detailed introduction and more information about their work here: foodcharities.eu/3-research-a...

We are excited to welcome 3 Research Assistants: Benedetta, Misaki, and Elke! They are already working on coding for Event Sequence Analysis (ESA) in Italy, Japan, & the Netherlands. Their work analyzes how charitable food providers obtain the resources necessary to fulfil their mission.

Alejandro detailed our plans to utilize Event Sequence Analysis (ESA) to map the evolution of food provision. He gained valuable exposure to novel, multimodal approaches and sophisticated statistical models that can be the inspiration for our future analysis plans.

We are pleased to share that Alejandro @alexciordia.bsky.social gave a presentation, "Reconstructing the emergence of charitable food provision fields through ESA: Goals, challenges and prospects." at the ARS’25 Tenth International Workshop on Social Network Analysis in Naples on 30-31 October 2025.

Urban Ethnography Reading Group #1 - Food Charities Last week, we met for our biweekly reading group on urban ethnography to discuss some foundational works and their review.  We read Sidewalk, by Mitchell Duneier (1999), Code of the Street: Decency, V...

Following Wacquant’s critique, we discussed how ethnographers balance data and theory, and how to treat common sense as both lived and socially constructed. Reflecting on this helps clarify what it means to represent everyday life in research. Find out more on foodcharities.eu/urban-ethnog...

Each book offers a window into distinct worlds — the sidewalk’s social order, the moral codes of inner-city life, and the working poor’s struggles. Together, they reveal how structure and culture intertwine in shaping survival and dignity in urban spaces.

Last week, our urban ethnography reading group met to discuss influential works 📚 — Sidewalk (Duneier, 1999), Code of the Street (Anderson, 1999), No Shame in My Game (Newman, 1999), and Wacquant’s (2002) review of these studies on urban poverty.

The project - Food Charities The Food Charities project explores how charitable food systems evolve in cities across Italy, Japan, and the Netherlands, focusing on impact and governance.

PhD researchers Simona, Marga & Shiori shared their first paper progress, leading to a fruitful discussion on our project's approach. The first three out of four research modules are now underway! Find out more on our website. foodcharities.eu/about/the-pr...
We concluded with a nice team lunch 🥗

The Food Charities project had a kick-off meeting on Sept 24th at the Maastricht Sustainability Institute! PI Filippo Oncini @pipponcini.bsky.social gave a project overview, & postdoc Alejandro Ciordia @alexciordia.bsky.social presented on Events Sequence Analysis (key method for research module 1).

Some belated professional news:

A few months ago I started working as a postdoc at Maastricht University on the exciting ERC project @erc-foodcharities.bsky.social led by @pipponcini.bsky.social

Really happy to be part of this international team, based at the Maastricht Sustainability Institute!

Who we are: Team - Food Charities Meet the researchers behind the Food Charities project at Maastricht University, exploring food systems, inequality, and social sustainability through multi-method research.

Marga brings her experience in economic sociology. Shiori hopes to bridge European and Japanese Urban Studies. Simona specializes in urban and sustainability studies.

Find out more about their backgrounds: foodcharities.eu/about/who-we...

#FoodCharities #PhD #UrbanEthnography

Thrilled to welcome 3 new PhD researchers to our Food Charities project! 🎉

Marga (Rotterdam), Shiori (Kyoto), and Simona (Palermo) will conduct comparative urban ethnography in each city, exploring survival strategies through charitable food provision.

📆Key submission dates:
Abstract: 1 December 2025
Full paper: 31 May 2026

🔗Call for Paper: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

The special issue welcomes contributions from across disciplines and contexts and encourage you to share the call widely!

The special issue, co-edited by @pipponcini.bsky.social and Roberto Sensi, invites contributions that move beyond emergency food aid to critically interrogate different forms of food support and how the very nature of food insecurity in high-income countries should be conceptualized and understood.

🔎What really is food (in)security in high-income countries? How does it differ, if at all, from poverty, deprivation, or inequality in access to food?
🔎Food banks and surplus food redistribution have become emblematic responses, but how do these practices reshape welfare, rights, and sustainability?

We are very excited to share the launch of a special issue in Global Food Security!

👉 Understanding Food Insecurity in High-Income Countries: New Theoretical Approaches, Multidimensional Perspectives, and Innovative Practices and Policy Responses

Read more and find the link below🔽

Food Charities - At the heart of food support lies a web of relations Food Charities aims to uncover how these connections build, sustain, transform, and at times hinder responses to food insecurity across different contexts.

We are now on Bluesky 🎉

Using a comparative and relational approach, the Food Charities project explores how charitable food provision operates in urban spaces in different welfare and civil society contexts: Italy, Japan, and the Netherlands.

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