Newsletter from Spoke 7 “Policy, behaviour and education” - April 2024

Starting from April, we're introducing something new in the OnFoods Spoke 7 Mentorship Programme! Each month, we'll release one episode to discuss the OnFoods Spoke 7 projects in an informative and direct manner, with a touch of irony.

These episodes will be available on Spreaker and Spotify.

We invite all of you to submit an episode to share insights about your project, aiming to reach as wide an audience as possible and contribute to culture through science.

To propose an episode, please email giampiero.mazzocchi@crea.gov.it.

Cecilia Marocchino, Urban Planner FAO in partnership with the Master’s Course Food&Foodways UNIMIB

On Friday, April 5th, h. 9:30-13:00
In-person at UNIMIB and Online

Domenico Perrotta, Professor of Sociology of economic, labour, environmental and territorial processes, University of Bergamo

Discussants: Francesca Crivellaro and Fulvia Antonelli
Team SUSFOODEDU, University of Bologna

On Wednesday, April 10th, h. 14:00-16:00
In-person at: Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Aula 5, Bologna (Piazza Scaravilli, 2) and Online

Through the analysis of a specific production chain within the agri-food industry, namely that of bagged salad, the seminar aims to discuss various discursive constructions surrounding the Made in Italy food consensus and how sustainability is addressed within this framework.

The sociological research was conducted through in-depth interviews with stakeholders located at various levels of the fourth-range product commodity system, including farm workers and entrepreneurs, labourers, owners, managers, technicians from processing industries, heads of producer organisations (POs), trade associations, labour cooperatives, activists, trade union delegates and officials, large-scale retail staff, and industry researchers. In total, 58 interviews were conducted between 2019 and 2020, primarily in Lombardy.

Organizing committee: Lucia Della Pellegrina, Riccarda Longaretti, Giulio Mellinato, Laura Prosperi, Simona Sacchi

On Friday, April 12th, h. 9:15-17:30
In-person at: Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, U6 building, classrooms 10 and 11

CISEPS is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Milano-Bicocca. The aim of the Centre is to contribute to the advancement of social sciences through research focused on improving the explanatory and predictive capabilities of basic models in the social sciences. Its members are scholars working in all fields that can contribute to achieving the above goals.

The Centre aims to disseminate the output of its scientific research through seminars, workshops, and conferences, while also creating partnerships with other centres and institutions. Research activities are conducted in Research Units and are open to students of any level, both internal and external to the University of Milano-Bicocca, who can gain direct research experience through internships.

CISEPS has an independent management body composed of a Scientific Director, an Executive Board (Scientific Committee), and an Advisory Board, who are responsible for organising the Centre’s activities.

Check here the Final Program and the Registration form!

Paola Nicolini, Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Macerata 

Discussants: Chiara Dalledonne Vandini and Arianna Lazzari
Team SUSFOODEDU, University of Bologna

On Tuesday, April 16th, h. 10:00-12:00
In-person at: Aula 5, Bodoniana, Via S. Donato 19/2, Bologna and Online

The seminar presents research on school canteens that involved 23 schools in the Marche region, Italy, 600 pupils, 81 teachers, and 48 canteen operators. The idea is that eating at school is an important educational act: the school canteen is a common good, an educational, cultural, and social device, a tool for initiating healthy lifestyles. In this sense, school lunch constitutes a space for the renegotiation of culturally sensitive and inclusive practices that involve not only the school but also the policies of the territory. The research was designed and carried out by a group of 23 students from the Educational Psychology course at the University of Macerata.

Prof. Carola Ricci in conversation with Martina Vitale Ney

On Tuesday, April 23rd, from 6 pm
In-person at: Auditorium di San Tommaso, Piazza del Lino, 2, 27100 Pavia PV

The formula adopted in the series of seminars curated by Stefano Conca Bonizzoni and Elisabetta Modena involves a dialogue between the realms of research, art, and public communication. Researchers, institutional representatives, and experts in behaviour, policies, and education on sustainable food and food waste come together to interact with artists, filmmakers, and creative individuals who have focused their work on the same themes.

These events aim to promote citizen science initiatives by actively engaging citizens in spreading knowledge about food sustainability and waste reduction. On Tuesday, 23rd April 2024, starting from 6 pm, Carola Ricci from the University of Pavia will engage in a conversation with Martina Vitale Ney regarding the initiatives promoted in Kenya by Action for Children in Conflict, an NGO dedicated to improving food security, quality education, and health for vulnerable children through empowerment and the protection of their rights and fundamental freedoms.

Ricci will provide commentary on the video testimonies regarding their School Feeding Programme in Thika (45 kilometres northwest of Nairobi) and the Rehabilitation Centre located at Karibaribi, Ngoigwa, in Kiambu County. This centre serves as a safe haven where street children, rescued by the centre, are provided with food grown in an urban context, shelter, clothing, and both formal and informal education in a protective and nurturing environment.

Valentina Furian and Claudia Losi are the artists selected to participate in the project "Beyond the Limit: Participatory Art Practices of Resistance to Food Waste and Heroic Agriculture (PARTAGRI)," developed by Stefano Conca Bonizzoni and Elisabetta Modena as part of the PNRR OnFoods project at the Department of Humanistic Studies, University of Pavia, under the scientific supervision of Prof. Federica Villa.

The artists, chosen through a public call for applications, have been awarded two scholarships for two residencies aimed at the realisation of original artistic projects. The themes of the residencies will specifically focus on the production, distribution, and waste of food; food in the context of the natural and artificial aspects of the Anthropocene age; digestion and indigestion as metaphors for the misuse of natural resources; and, more broadly, the cultural value of food and nutrition. At the conclusion of the residencies, two works will be produced as a result of participatory projects and practices developed in the field, utilizing immersive technologies such as virtual or mixed reality.

Both selected artists are active in the field of visual arts, both nationally and internationally.

Valentina Furian (born in Venice in 1989) employs moving images and temporal installations to explore the relationship between reality and fiction. Her work investigates the relationship between humans and nature, particularly focusing on the domestication of animals as a form of power, and human domestication in relation to social norms. In 2024, she is among the artists invited to the Gherdëina Biennial, where she will present the project "Centaur," developed during her artistic residency at Proa21 with the PROA Foundation and GAMeC in Buenos Aires. In the same year, she is awarded the New York Prize by ISCP - International Studio & Curatorial Program and the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America - Columbia University. In 2023, she was selected for the Nuovo Forno del Pane program at MAMbo in Bologna, where she began her research on the underground world in collaboration with Gruppo Speleologico Bolognese. Also in 2023, she presented her work at the Fondazione Stelline in Milan, MAXXI, and the Collezione Farnesina in Rome.

Claudia Losi (born in Piacenza in 1971) conducts research that begins with the observation of relationships between individuals and the communities they belong to, the ecosystems they share, and the collective imagination with which they identify. She creates multidisciplinary projects through walking, manual craftsmanship, and choral singing, working with various media including installations, site-specific performances, sculpture, photography, and drawing. She has exhibited her work in Italy and abroad. In 2021, she published "The Whale Theory: An Animal Imaginary" (Johan & Levi) and "Voice in the Wind" with Kunstverein Milano. In 2022, she published "Being There: Beyond the Garden" (Viaindustriae, Foligno), a book linked to the project of the same name, which won the 9th edition of the Italian Council.

The two projects are expected to be completed by the end of 2024 and will be curated by Elisabetta Modena, a researcher and professor of contemporary art history at the University of Pavia.