Short Abstract:

While the scenario of emergencies - represented by sea landings, inland arrivals and border crossings- is marked by a lack of control and a sense of uncertainty at all levels, a specific question will lead our inquiry: where, when and how food is able to generate hope, agency and empowerment?

Long Abstract:

Although the literature on food on the one hand and refugees on the other is substantial and tackled from the most diverse perspectives, merging the two areas of study is barely considered (Lewis 2010;Cullen Dunn; Dharod; Rozakou; Palutan and Schmidt). Whenever taken into account, the issue is mainly addressed in terms of nourishment and food security leaving aside processes of re-signification in the new context, i.e. in the ritual and convivial spheres, in the construction of self, in rephrasing the gender role and in the communicative aspect. The panel aims to address the interplay between food and forced migration in European urban, rural and border areas (emergency shelters, official and informal camps, reception centres, soup kitchens, micro-enterprises, digital environments). While the present scenario of emergencies and pandemic is marked by a lack of control and a sense of uncertainty at all levels, a specific question, instead, will lead our inquiry: where, when and how food is able to generate agency and empowerment? By means of food we intend to explore spaces of constructive experiences and practices in which people attempt to regain control on their own lives; consider ways in which volunteers become active subjects in shaping models of societal responses; reflect upon creative ways in which a relationship with the society at large can be constructed. More broadly, the panel will strive to provide deeper insights on a chapter of contemporary history caught in the very process of its unfolding with food representing the privileged means enabling us to capture it