Conference May 2025
„Food Charity, Welfare State Transformations, and Affective Economies: Critical Engagements"
21 – 23 May 2025
WU Vienna
How to explain the rapid expansion of food charity institutions such as food banks, social supermarkets, and soup kitchens in Western welfare states in the last decades? To what extent have they gained importance in the context of the COVID-19 crisis or the cost-of-living crisis? What is the relationship between the rise of food charity and welfare state transformations? And what role do the dynamics of affective economies play in food charity’s consolidation and proliferation? The conference critically explores these questions,taking food charity as a contested political site.
| Please register by May 16, 2025 via email to contact.foodcharity@wu.ac.at with a note indicating which day(s) you plan to attend. |
Wednesday | May 21
Building: Executive Academy (EA). 6.020. WU Sky Lounge
5.30 pm | Welcome and Registration
5.45 pm | Introduction
Brigitte Bargetz, Markus Griesser, Jessica Gasior (WU Vienna), and Fynn Schröder (Kiel U)
6.00 pm | Roundtable: Food Charity – Critical Perspectives in Times of Crisis
Moderation: Martina Nußbaumer (Wien Museum)
Brigitte Bargetz/Markus Griesser (WU Vienna), Fabian Kessl (Wuppertal U), Hannah Lambie-Mumford (Sheffield U), and Tiina Silvasti (Jyväskylä U)
Supported by the Institute for Sociology and Social Research (WU Vienna)
Thursday | May 22
Building: Administration (AD). 0.090. boardroom 6
9.00 am | Morning Lecture
Silke van Dyk (FSU Jena)
Commonfare or community capitalism? On social rights, civic welfare and activism
Moderation: Brigitte Bargetz (WU Vienna)
10.00 am | Coffee Break
10.15 am | Ambivalent Affective Economies
Moderation: Hannah Lambie-Mumford (Sheffield U)
Hilje van der Horst/Thirza Andriessen (Wageningen U)
Why the food bank system goes unchallenged in the Netherlands?Unravelling the persistence of the food bank
system for food aid through the case of a failed alternative
Carolin Mauritz (Frankfurt U of Applied Sciences) Volunteers' feelings among food bank visitors
11.15 am | Coffee Break
11.30 am | Matters of Care
Moderation: Birgit Sauer (Vienna U)
Lisa Marie Borrelli/Andrea Friedli (HES-SO Valais-Wallis)/Livia Schambron (U of Applied Sciences and Art Northwestern Switzerland)
'It was my heart project': Volunteering at a food bank project during and after the Covid-19 pandemic in Switzerland
Giorgia Previdoli/Wendy Burton (York U, UK)/Rachel Benchekroun (UCL)
Transformations in community food support and implications for families with children: Case studies from an ongoing ethnography conducted in two UK cities
12.30 pm | Lunch Break
2.00 pm | Navigating World Views and Identity Constructions
Moderation: Michaela Neumayr (WU Vienna)
Marcus Böhme (U of Applied Sciences & Arts Northwestern Switzerland) Non-take-up and strategies for using food charity as an expression of identity constructions
Rosa Huotari (Helsinki U)
The diversity and dialogue of world views in Finnish food assistance
3.00 pm | Coffee Break
3.15 pm | Preventing and Redistributing Surplus Food
Moderation: Tiina Silvasti (Jyväskylä U)
Silvia Wiegel (Bayreuth U)
Redistribution of surplus food as a pathway to societal inclusion for the socioeconomically disadvantaged?Traditional and complementary food rescue organisations in Germany
Saskia Favreuille (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Transforming the current food system through efficient food redistribution, combining food charity and food waste prevention
4.15 pm | Coffee Break
4.30 pm | Fighting Food Poverty
Moderation: Fabian Kessl (Wuppertal U)
Ilaria Madama/Franca Maino/Elisa Bordin (Milan U)
The multidimensionality of food poverty and food insecurity: A systematic review of policies and practices targeting minors
Marie Chahrour/Hanna Lichtenberger/Jeremias Staudinger (Volkshilfe Austria)/Christina Lampl (Austrian National Public Health Institute)
Food poverty in Austria: Between food charity, social work and social policy
Friday | May 23
Building: Administration (AD). 0.090. boardroom 6
9.00 am | Morning Lecture
Kayleigh Garthwaite (Birmingham U)
"Because of you, someone will eat today": Labour, care, and advocacy in the charitable food aid system in 'rich but unequal' countries
Moderation: Markus Griesser (WU Vienna)
10.00 am | Coffee Break
10.15 am | Visual Constructions and Biopolitical Practices
Moderation: Filippo Oncini (Maastricht U)
Francesca Benedetta Felici (U of Rome La Sapienza)
Food charities as places of food biopolitics: An ethnoraphic research in Rome, Italy
Ville Tikka (Helsinki Deaconess Institute)
Food poverty in media imagery: Visual discourse analysis of food charity
11.15 am | Brunch Break
11.45 am | Alternative Pracitices of Solidarity
Moderation: Jessica Gasior (WU Vienna)
Meike Brückner (HU Berlin)
My plate, my choice? The potential of communal meals for social provisioning and food justice
Hannah-Maria Eberle (FH Campus Vienna)
Thinking Mitleidsökonomie as reciprocal support: Qualitative empirical results on the relations of the actors
12.45 pm | Coffee Break
1.00 pm | Utopian Concepts and Visions
Moderation: Fynn Schröder (U Kiel)
Milja Pollari/Anna Sofia Salonen (U of Eastern Finland)
Rethinking food assistance: Future visions from Finnish food assistance recipients
Anu Lainio/Marjukka Laiho (U of Eastern Finland)
Higher education students' utopias of food assistance: Processes of politicization and limits of imagination
2.00 pm | Goodbye
![[Translate to English:] Campus Plan WU Wien](/fileadmin/wu/_processed_/c/9/csm_CampusPlan_c1ec223a15.png)
