Paper short abstract:

This presentation considers how to approach an ethnography of food-sharing in crisis circumstances. What concepts enable us to unpack ethnographic detail of food shared between neighbours, families and community organisation/s—disentangling embodied practice from the visceral to the virtual.

Paper long abstract:

The Delta COVID-19 outbreak in 2021 brought into relief Sydney’s existing inequities, showing that negative consequences are not distributed fairly and fall along existing social, political and economic fault lines. Whilst being part of the COVID contact tracing efforts, I heard how those isolating under Sydney’s strictest lockdown rules negotiated food access. I witnessed their distress from not being able to feed others or themselves. This presentation considers how to approach an ethnography of food-sharing in crisis circumstances. What conceptual frameworks enable us to unpack ethnographic detail of food shared between neighbours, families and community organisation/s—disentangling embodied practice from the visceral to the virtual. We have seen this pandemic give rise to social, cultural improvisations mediated by virtual places and actualised by the preparation and sharing food with those in need. The passing of ‘time’ is of import to distinguish what is generative, ephemeral and permanent. I will also critically reflect on my own repertoires, norms and improvisation whilst living through crises. My sojourn into the literature precedes fieldwork that will be undertaken in Sydney to investigate the structural drivers of inequity and document the lived experiences of this liminal phase as they are refracted around food.