Food Waste as the Fallout of Everyday Practices
Food Waste as the Fallout of Everyday Practices
Mon May 26 11:25:15 CEST 2025
Seminar by Matt Watson on Wednesday 04.06.2025
The Department of Ecological Anthropology invites you to the upcoming seminar talk 'Food Waste as the Fallout of Everyday Practices' by Matt Watson, Professor and Director of Research and Innovation in the School of Geography and Planning at the University of Sheffield, UK. The talk will be in English. Please find the abstract and author biography below
The lecture will take place on Wednesday 04.06.2025 at 14:00 (CET) in the seminar room of the Institute of Ethnology CAS, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1. To attend in person or online, please register.
Abstract: This lecture argues that the startling national statistics about the amount of food that households waste should be understood as the fallout from the organisation and accomplishment of everyday life. Engaging theories of practice and drawing on ethnographic household fieldwork in the UK enables exploration of the relations, routines and rhythms of home life, and the diverse moralities, values, knowledges and practical exigencies, that converge together in moments in which matter which could be food crosses a culturally contingent and situationally defined line to become waste. The challenge that follows is how to move from that complexity to identify interventions to reduce food waste.
Bio: Matt Watson is a Professor and Director of Research and Innovation in the School of Geography and Planning at the University of Sheffield, UK. His research explores the systemic relations between everyday practices, technologies, spaces and institutions to advance understandings of social change in relation to sustainability. Empirically, this work has encompassed biodiversity, energy, food, waste, and personal mobility.
