Call for papers

SPECIAL ISSUE
Food consumption and sustainability. Social representations, public discourses and individual narrations.

EDITORS
Veronica Allegretti, Carlo Genova, Silvia Mazzucotelli Salice, Eleonora Noia, Alessia Toldo (University of Milan Cattolica, University of Turin)

CALL
Sustainability is among the main topics which have been debated in political and public discourse during the last decades: not by chance United Nations Agenda 2030 put Sustainability at the core of its Development Goals. Food, in all its different dimensions (production, processing, distribution, consumption, disposal), is one of the issues at the core of this debate. Talking about sustainability in the context of food implies considering a wide range of imaginaries, representations, narratives but also practices that spread across individual, organisational and political levels.

But what do we talk about referring to “food sustainability”? In particular referring to food consumption? As it is well known, the concept of sustainability has fuzzy boundaries and different possible declensions, even considering a single field. Individual and social definitions and representations of sustainability have a strong influence both on individual choices and on public policies: depending on how sustainability, as well as its drivers, are defined, different practices will be embraced, different strategies of intervention and improvement will be developed, different criteria of evaluation will be adopted.

Moreover, these variable declensions also reveal contradictory and critical aspects. Within the rhetoric of food sustainability, political issues related to environmental transitions, responsible consumption and nutritional changes are thus often addressed through discipline-based discourses. This normative approach focuses on the one hand on the imperative need to move towards a more sustainable food system, but on the other hand implies a moral and individual burden, which generates a sense of guilt and shame associated with not adopting (or not adopting enough of) healthy and sustainable diets (Jensen 2019).

At the same time, individual discourses and representations associate the choice of highly sustainable food styles with differentiated reasons and meanings. However, the sphere of motivations for sustainable food consumption only partly involves ethical or political reasons: from this point of view, both in the production, distribution and consumption of sustainable food, the needs for self-expression, socio-cultural positioning and identity construction appear increasingly relevant.

Aim of the special issue, published only in English, is to reflect upon how individuals and organisations talk about sustainability, and what imaginaries, social representations and narrations emerge from their discourses. Following this perspective, contributions – both based on field research and theoretical – on how individuals represent their attitudes and practices concerning food sustainability, as well as works on public discourses, imaginaries and idealisations of food sustainability, are welcomed.

Potential topics for the articles:
1) Sustainable Food Cultures and Practices

Public discourses about food consumption and sustainability
Reasons and meanings for sustainable food choices
Sustainable food movements and activism
Culinary heritage and food history as part of idealised "sustainable past"
Food and sustainability in social and mass media
Critical approaches to the concept of sustainability referring to food consumption

2) Sustainable Food Geographies

Spatial dimension of sustainable food consumption
Local food and short supply chain programs
Local and global policies for food sustainability
Food justice, democracy, sovereignty, accessibility
Moralising discourses around poor consumers

3) Sustainable Food Economies

Emerging Practices in production, distribution, consumption, waste reduction
Sustainable Food Futures
Sustainable Supply and Value Chains
Alternative Food Networks
Culinary Tourism and Environmental Sustainability

INFO & DEADLINES

Language of the special issue: ENGLISH

Deadline for abstracts proposal:15^thJULY 2023
Submissions of the abstracts must be sent to the editors by e-mail to the following email address: rivista.studisociologia@unicatt.it - Please include the title of the special issue “Food consumption and sustainability” in the subject line of your email

Acceptance of the abstracts by the editors and subsequent communication to the authors will follow on 13^th OCTOBER.

The submission of the complete essay (with name, surname, e-mail address, affiliation, and abstract of 800-1000 characters and five keywords) is scheduled for 12^th JANUARY 2024.

The essays will be submitted for double blind peer-review, the results of which will be announced by 10^th MAY 2024.

Final essays for publication are due by 6^th SEPTEMBER 2024.

The submitted abstract (250 words) must be completed with the author's affiliation and email address. Texts submitted must be between 30,000 and 35,000 characters (including spaces and bibliography). The article must be composed following the guidelines downloadable from the link “Avvertenze per i collaboratori” which is on the journal website https://studisociologia.vitaepensiero.it/
For any information please write to carlo.genova@unito.it or silvia.mazzucotelli@unicatt.it

EDITORIAL GUIDELINES
Style for references in the text:
Boudon (1985) writes that ..., (Boudon 1985), (Boudon 1985: 112), (Alexander 1987a: 18), (Alexander 1987B: 11-14)
References to web pages must declare the last date of access (e.g. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/, visited 2/12/2005)

Style for references at the end of the article:
Archer, M.S.
1982 Morphogenesis Verus Structuration: On Combining Structure and Action, «British Journal of Sociology», 33, pp. 455-483.
1997 La morfogenesi della società, Angeli, Milano.
Woolgar, S.
1983 Irony in the Social Study of Science, in K. Knorr-Cetina e M. Mulkay (eds.), Science Observed. Perspectives on the Social Study of Science, Sage, London/Beverly Hills/New Delhi, pp. 239-266.

CONVEGNO
60 anni di Studi di Sociologia. Persona, società, futuro
24 Novembre 2023
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano

Call for papers

In occasione del Convegno 60 anni di Studi di Sociologia. Persona, società, futuro, che celebrerà i 60 anni della rivista edita da Vita e Pensiero, si terrà una sezione pomeridiana sul tema: La nuova frontiera della conoscenza: le sfide dell'Intelligenza Artificiale.
La call intende sollecitare giovani studiose e studiosi all'inizio della loro carriera (assegniste/assegnisti, ricercatrici/ricercatori) a presentare lavori di riflessione teorica e di natura empirica che riflettano su come il diffondersi dell'intelligenza artificiali produce/può produrre trasformazioni nei diversi ambiti di studio della sociologia (l'educazione, la conoscenza, i processi culturali, il welfare, ecc.).
Il Comitato Scientifico selezionerà 6 contributi tra quelli proposti, che saranno presentati nella sessione dedicata del Convegno. I migliori contributi saranno pubblicati su un numero monografico della rivista «Studi di Sociologia».

Gli studiosi e le studiose interessati sono invitati a inviare entro il 10 luglio 2023 un long abstract del contributo (15.000 caratteri, bibliografia compresa), a: rivista.studisociologia@unicatt.it, indicando nell'oggetto della mail "Convegno Studi di Sociologia".
Gli abstract devono essere organizzati nel seguente modo:

1) nome e cognome, università di afferenza, contatti dell'autore/i; titolo del contributo; 4 keywords;
2) domanda di ricerca o questione teorica affrontata;
3) metodologia e tecniche utilizzate;
4) principali risultati.

L'esito della selezione sarà comunicato entro il 10 ottobre.
Gli autori/le autrici dei 6 abstract selezionati per la presentazione nella sessione del Convegno dovranno inviare il testo definitivo (25.000 caratteri, compresa la bibliografia e le eventuali tabelle e note) a rivista.studisociologia@unicatt.it entro il 4 novembre: i papers saranno sottoposti al processo di referaggio in doppio cieco per la successiva pubblicazone sulla rivista. Il Comitato Scientifico si riserva la facoltà di selezionare anche altri abstract per la eventuale pubblicazione: in questo caso gli autori/autrici saranno invitati/e a produrre il paper di 25.000 caratteri che seguirà il normale processo di referaggio.