About the Journal

The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food.
 
The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food (IJSAF) is the primary publication outlet for the Research Committee on Food and Agriculture (RC-40) of the International Sociological Association (ISA).
 
It actively seeks out high-quality manuscripts that present theoretically informed research on issues related to the social organization of food and agriculture.
 
Manuscripts are welcomed from scholars across the social sciences including sociology, science and technology studies, human and cultural geography, political science, consumer management, agricultural economics, anthropology, philiosphy and environmental studies.
 
IJSAF also welcomes manuscripts from and about all regions of the World.

Current Issue

This is the second issue of Volume 30, published in October 2024.

This issue includes regular papers as well as a special section on novel foods.

Published: 31-10-2024

Articles

Factors leading to differences in the internal structures of French agricultural quality groups

Chris Bardenhagen, Philip Howard, Marie-Odile Nozières-Petit, Loïc Sauvée
Abstract 177 | PDF Downloads 131

Page 5-26

Underutilized or undervalued?

Dalia Mattioni, Francesca Galli, Sonia Massari
Abstract 162 | PDF Downloads 131

Page 27-43

Novel Foods

Novel Foods: a Technological Pathway to Food System Transformation?

Maria Grazia Quieti, Colin Sage, Rita Salvatore, John Wilkinson, Maria Fonte
Abstract 234 | PDF Downloads 104

Page 45-47

The Innovation Ecosystems of Novel Foods

John Wilkinson
Abstract 264 | PDF Downloads 217

Page 49-65

Food that Acts Like Other Food

Amy Bentley
Abstract 106 | PDF Downloads 120

Page 67-79

Inform, Invest, Incentivise

Kacey LaBonte, Adela Munson, Donald Rose
Abstract 139 | PDF Downloads 106

Page 95-114

Novel Food Case Study in the EU

Marcello Laganaro, Giorgia Zamariola, Esther Garcia Ruiz, Irene Nuin Garciarena, Maria Glymenaki, Alejandra Muñoz González, Vânia Mendes, Gabriela Precup, Ruth Roldán-Torres, Anthony Smith, Ermolaos Ververis, Domagoj Vrbos, Andrea Germini
Abstract 188 | PDF Downloads 123

Page 157-185

Challenging high-tech solutionism in an era of polycrisis

Colin Sage
Abstract 253 | PDF Downloads 194

Page 187-205

Dear all,

I'm pleased to announce that the call for proposals for the next International Forum on Agroecosystem Living Labs is now open!For more information, click here: https://ifall2025.web-events.fr/

Abstract submission deadline is: 15 March 2025

Please feel free to spread the word.

Best,

Allison Loconto

President of the IF-ALL Scientific Committee

 

------------------------------------

Bonjour,

 J'ai le plaisir de vous annoncer que l'appel à propositions pour le prochain Forum international des agro living labs est désormais ouvert !

Toutes les infos à ce lien : https://ifall2025.web-events.fr/

L'écheance pour le dépôt des abstracts est: 15 mars 2015

N'hésitez pas à diffuser autour de vous.

Cordialement,

Allison Loconto

Présidente du Comité Scientifique IF-ALL

Time: 30 June – 02 July 2025 (arrival on 29 June)

Venue : Centre Universitaire de Norvège à Paris – CUNP, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 54, Boulevard Raspail 75006 Paris

Organizers: Hilde Bjørkhaug (NTNU) and Allison Loconto (INRAE)

Senior Mentors [tbc]: Bruce Muirhead (Canada), Nadine Arnold (Switzerland), Sergio Schneider (Brazil), Jess Duncan (The Netherlands), Paul Stock (US), Rachel Bezner-Kerr (US)

Eligibility Requirements: PhD students and post-docs up to three years following the PhD

Topic of the Summer School: Who is Governing the Global Food System?

In an attempt to govern problems that do not have an addressee, institutions, organizations, and networks have evolved that seek to address, negotiate, and find solutions to major societal challenges. Global governance has become a popular term for institutions, organizations, rules, norms, and methods to guide and facilitate action. While ambitions for problem-solving and development may be high, enforcement mechanisms are few.

One example that illustrates many global governance dilemmas is food security: We live in a world with enough food for everyone if production, distribution, and allocation are distributed fairly and justly. Although the international community has worked for global food security for eight decades, the goal seems far off. The crises of recent decades have made us aware of the need for self-sufficiency, shorter value chains, the value of independent suppliers of food to the markets, and the importance of sustaining small food producers. At the same time, we observe that the concentration of power in the system accelerates with support in the same crisis scenario. National policies enable the exploitation of people and resources internationally to gain access to inputs such as feed, or cheap precarious labor for seasonal work and also overlook the extreme concentration of power in supply chains and food trade. Other examples are the governance of oceans, energy sufficiency, and climate change – which are societal challenges that cannot be resolved at the national level only.

Indeed, food systems are inextricably linked to other systems in society that provide the energy, biodiversity, transport and water needed to ensure that food can be eaten. The challenge of this complex situation is that globally, there is little agreement on how the production, distribution and allocation of the resources needed to create food can be governed – or even if it should be governed. Thus, while much research provides statistics and metrics that tell us about food availability and food insecurity, less knowledge is produced or disseminated on how food system governance failures are produced, maintained through different forms of organization, and justified.

This summer school critically engages in how global governance systems influencing food might more efficiently address sustainability pathways that protect social and biophysical environments in the Anthropocene, for the health and wellbeing of the present and future generations. Who is governing global food systems? What levels of organization are emerging? What can we learn from different schools of thought in the social sciences? How can we know that we are on a better track? 

We welcome theoretical, conceptual, and empirical papers that engage in the concepts of food system governance, institutions, collective action, private / public collaboration at different levels of governance, forms of organization, science-policy interfaces, epistemic communities, and knowledge construction.

Applications should include:

  1. CV
  2. Cover letter explaining how this summer school will contribute to your career development
  3. Abstract submitted to the ISA or ESRS Conference
  4. Proof of submission from the ISA/ESRS platforms

Please send applications to: [email protected] and [email protected]

Deadline for application submissions: 19 February 2025

Acceptance decisions announced: 28 February 2025

  

Conditions of participation:

This summer school is being organized in collaboration with the Research Committee for the Sociology of Agriculture and Food (RC40), the Research Committee for Sociology of Organizations (RC17) of the International Sociological Association (ISA) and the European Society for Rural Sociology (ESRS). With financial support from the European Union through its HorizonEurope funded FOODPathS project (under grant agreement No 101059497), the Economics and Social Sciences Department of the French Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) and the Centre Universitaire de Norvège à Paris (CUNP), Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.

The summer school will be held in Paris from 30 June to 2 July 2025, which is the week before the ISA’s 5th Forum of Sociology held in Rabat, Morocco and ESRS’s Conference in Riga, Latvia.

We would like to facilitate the participation of young scholars from around the world in either of these two events. Therefore, one of the key selection criteria for participation in this summer school is the acceptance of an abstract in one of these two conferences.

We are offering financing for staying in Paris during the summer school and will seek support for the onward travel to Rabat or Riga. Please indicate your needs. We ask participants to seek co-funding for their travel to Paris.

*** For those young scholars planning to attend the ISA Forum, please apply for a registration grant through your RC, with the mention: RC40/RC17/ESRS summer school in Paris. ***

Official publication of the Research Committee on Sociology of Agriculture and Food (RC-40)
of the International Sociological Association (ISA)

Editors: Allison Loconto, Katerina Psarikidou and Angga Dwiartama

Volume number: 30 (2024)
Frequency: 2 issues per year

ISSN / E-ISSN: 0798-1759 / 2524-1982