Bridg’it 2025 in Paris
The “First international workshop in sociology of food” took place ten years ago, in 2015 in Copenhagen. At the time we were fifteen French and Danish sociologists, and we fit in Lotte Holm’s living room for the workshop dinner. Lotte Holm advised us to call it “First international workshop”, and see if others would happen: she was so right!
Now in 2025 we have grown to a group of thirty, we had to turn down some candidate attendants, we come from Copenhagen, Lisbon, Edinburgh, Giessen and Paris, and we have to find larger rooms and restaurants.
This year we met in Paris, at the Institut des systèmes complexes. Séverine Gojard was our local and scientific organiser and thanks to her, logistiscs, science and informal discussions (and food!) were put together in an incredibly smooth way. The program (pdf) was incredibly rich.
Isabelle Darmon presented (with Rachel Carlile and Kirsty Blair) on the inequality/unsustainability nexus. Their point was that, instead of considering that sustainability and equality are two different goals that might not be reconciled, we may safely assume that inequality is at the core of our unsustainable agriculture and food system. Under revision for a special issue in the Review of agrilcultural, food and environmental studies.
Many presentations underscored the emotional labour involved in dealing with food, especially in collective settings: Aël Théry and Anne Lhuissier in Charity restaurants, Carmen Dreysse in collective kitchens, Elodie Leszczak in primary school canteens, but also Amanda Krog Juvik , Emil August Andersen and Kia Ditlevsen who studied how people engaged with new foods or new food recommandations.
Some presentations put links between eating and food production to the fore: Mette Hansen on regenerative agriculture initiatives in Denmark; Wesley Dean on the geographic metaphores of food deserts, food swamps and so on; Isabel Fletcher and Ann Bruce on Scottish places where people do not consume the food produced nearby because it is exported; Ife Abulude on how Nigerian farmers dealt with food losses. Claire Perier reflected on her journey from food science – “how do you build a factory that will mass-produce quiches and how do you make the quiche last for days and days?” – to sociology and systems thinking on food.
Many highlighted gendered engagements with food: Alexandra Stuhlman who surveyed discourses promoting muscular female bodies and protein consumption on TikTok; Alix Pouliguen-Crosato on child participation in foodwork in Elfe Cohort; Calixte Engelberg on French seaweed consumers.
I must confess I missed some parts, so I encourage participants to use the “comment” section to add a few lines on the presentations that I have not mentioned.
The full programme is here: BridgIT2025-Program and abstracts
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Marie Plessz (3 juin 2025). Bridg’it 2025 in Paris. SOLAL. Consulté le 17 octobre 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/141o1
I completely agree; it was an impactful meeting in Paris, filled with meaningful highlights and valuable takeaways. The wine tasting during Stefan Wahlen’s presentation was a unique and engaging touch.
Most importantly, I’m truly grateful for the incredible feedback I received on my research exploring the nexus between farmers’ valuation, farming practices, and food loss. The insights shared have been invaluable.
A heartfelt thank you to the Paris team for hosting such an exceptional event.
Thank you for this post highlighting this exciting workshop, Marie! A few words to add to your summary:
The economic and climate crises were recurring themes in this workshop. Vasco Ramos explored the effects of recession and inflation on dietary habits in Portugal. Mette Schou examined how consumers approach organic food prices depending on their concerns about climate change, and Kia Dittlevsen analysed the consumption of more sustainable food products among different social groups.
We covered all age groups of respondents. Imogen Bevan offered her thoughts on sweeteners, which are widely used in industrial products to reduce sugar content, including in baby food, while Bente Halkier examined the eating habits of older interviewees, drawing on their 50+ years of cooking experience. The cases studied covered a variety of countries – for example, Christine Tichit and Mara Miele comparing several school meal systems in Europe since the 1940s – but also extended beyond the continent: Ren (Eric) Yan presented interviews on the eating habits of urban youth in China.
There were also more general reflections on food studies. Stefan Wahlen discussed the embodied expertise achieved through wine tasting; Anna-Katharina Gehron reflected on commensality in different social settings; and Lotte Holm questioned the relevance of capabilities as a concept for the Social Practice Theory.
Thank you all for your presentations and participation!