Digital Food Activism
Food System Transparency
This project is being carried out as part of the Oxford Food Governance Group’s project on consumer engagements with food governance. Funded by the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, this multi-tiered, multi-sited project aims to elucidate the emerging forms, roles, and uses of food-related information and communication technologies (ICT) at the consumer level, and how they might shape the EU food governance landscape in years to come.
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Towards food system transparency: an interdisciplinary workshop
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Thursday 16 May 2013, 1:00 – 5:00pm
St Cross College, University of Oxford
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Bringing together scholars, advocates, and policy-makers, this afternoon seminar examined emerging efforts to enhance food system transparency in the EU. The seminar presentations explored food system transparency from the perspectives of policy, society, the environment, non-governmental organizations, and consumer advocacy, addressing the main concerns and methods of action for each. By facilitating discussion across these perspectives, the aim of the seminar was to identify areas of convergence, and highlight potential for future collaborative work among stakeholders.
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Conveners
Professor Stanley Ulijaszek, Dr Karen Eli (Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford), Dr Javier Lezaun, Dr Tanja Schneider (Institute for Science, Innovation & Society, University of Oxford), Dr Catherine Dolan (Saïd Business School, University of Oxford)
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Speakers:
Charles Godfray
(Director, Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, University of Oxford)
Welcome and overview
Future of Food website
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Christel Schaldemose
(Member of the European Parliament)
Food system transparency: a policy perspective
David Barling
(Centre for Food Policy, City University London)
Food system transparency: a society-focused perspective
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Tara Garnett
(Director, Food Climate Research Network, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford) Food system transparency: an environment-focused perspective
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Daniel Michels
(WikiProducts)
WikiProducts: a participatory approach to food transparency
slides
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Erinch Sahan
(Private Sector Policy Advisor, Oxfam)
Transparency by global food brands: what they disclose about how they source from the global south
Beyond Horsegate (blog)
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 The convenors |  Catherine Dolan introduces Daniel Michels |  David Barling and Erinch Sahan |
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 David Barling and Charles Godfray |
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Food Systems Advocacy
Thursday 22 May 2014, 1:30 – 6:00pm
St Cross Room, St Cross College, University of Oxford
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This seminar presented working papers on food systems advocacy, developed as part of the Oxford Food Governance Group’s research project on the role of ICTs in consumer-based food governance. This seminar was convened as part of the Oxford Food Governance Group’s project on consumer engagements with food governance. Funded by the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, this multi-tiered, multi-sited project aims to elucidate the emerging forms, roles, and uses of food-related information and communication technologies (ICT) at the consumer level, and how they might shape the EU food governance landscape in years to come.
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Convenors
Professor Stanley Ulijaszek, Dr Karen Eli (Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford), Dr Javier Lezaun, Dr Tanja Schneider (Institute for Science, Innovation & Society, University of Oxford), Dr Catherine Dolan (Saïd Business School, SOAS) (pictured here)
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 Geof Rayner delivers the keynote |  Catherine Dolan presents |  Tanja Schneider presenting on ‘Food Governance by Campaign’ |
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 Mike Rayner and Geof Rayner |  Tea time discussion |
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Digital Food Activism:
An Oxford Food Governance Workshop
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Wednesday 25 November 2015, St. Hilda’s College Oxford
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Steve Woolgar (University of Oxford) gave the keynote address.
Speakers included: Mariano Beguerisse Díaz (Imperial College, London), Melissa Caldwell (University of California, Santa Cruz), Ryan Foley (University of Oxford), Amy McLennan (University of Oxford), Eva Giraud (Keele University), Katharina Witterhold (University of Siegen)
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The workshop centred on the way in which new information and communication technologies (ICTs) increasingly enable social action and civic organisation, on both local and global scales. Within these fast-growing digital platforms for activism, food-related consumer action is gaining new contours and publics. This workshop examined and defined the emerging field of digital food activism, exploring how consumer-ICT interactions generate new knowledges and practices in relation to food. With invited talks by scholars studying food, new media and/or social activism, the workshop critically analysed and assessed how consumer activists, non-governmental organisations and social entrepreneurs use ICTs to facilitate new or alternative forms of engagement with food and how media, corporations, academia and government agencies respond to or mediate these engagements. The workshop builds on and extend the rich literature on food activism and critical food studies by asking what happens when food goes digital.
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OUTPUTS
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Schneider, T., Eli, K., McLennan, A.M., Dolan, K., Lezaun, J. and Ulijaszek. S.J. (2019). Governance by campaign: The co-constitution of food issues, publics and expertise through new information and communication technologies. Information, Communication and Society 22: 172-92. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1363264
Schneider T, Dolan C, Ulijaszek S, Eli K. (2018). Digital Food Activism: Values, Expertise and Modes of Action. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
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Beguerisse-Diaz, M., McLennan, A.K., Garduno-Hernandez, G., Barahona, M. and Ulijaszek, S.J. (2017). The ‘who’ and ‘what’ of #diabetes on Twitter. Digital Health 3: 1-29.
Eli K, Dolan C, Schneider T, Ulijaszek S. (2016). Mobile activism, material imaginings, and the ethics of the edible: Framing political engagement through the Buycott app. Geoforum74, 63-73.
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 Tanja Schneider opens the workshop |  From left - Steve Woolgar, Melissa Caldwell, Stanley Ulijaszek, Eva Giraud, Tanja Schneider, Catherine Dolan, Amy McLennan, Mike Goodman |  Steve Woolgar and Stanley Ulijaszek |
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