East European diverse food systems: Learning from the periphery?

Abstract of the keynote lecture by Petr Jehlička at the conference „Food, Wasted Food and Future" April 28, 2022 at the Faculty of Business and Economics, Mendel University in Brno:

Drawing on recent research on the East European food systems the talk seeks to counter the scripting of East European scholarship as being on the margins of knowledge production. Instead, the talk demonstrates that research in the European East can generate important and novel insights. Looking at how East European informal food practices have been read from the West is instructive for understanding how certain knowledge ‘travels’ and becomes universally accepted knowledge – or theory - or remains a partial knowledge with validity restricted to specific places and circulating within specific subfields. Looking at East European everyday sustainable food practices – production, distribution, consumption and waste reduction - the talk demonstrates a persistent hierarchy of knowledge-generating contexts even in situations where findings from non-Western settings have strong potential to extend knowledge of a particular topic. The paper highlights the obstacles facing efforts to shift Eastern Europe from its position at the bottom of the hierarchy of knowledge-generating spaces. To end up on a more upbeat note, the talk concludes by exploring several strategies for redressing the imbalances within international knowledge circuits.

The powerpoint presentation can be downloaded here.

Official website of the event here.