Research Lab Research Lab Food, Society and Ecology
Food systems today sit at the intersection of sociology, ecology, and health. The structural determinants of what people eat, who has access to food, and how food is produced and distributed are simultaneously sociopolitical, environmental, and related to health issues. Yet these dimensions are rarely studied in an integrated way. The Food, Society and Ecology Lab at the Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies addresses this gap.
About us
The Food, Society and Ecology Lab emerges from the intellectual and institutional legacy of the collaborative Research Group Food for Justice: Power, Politics and Food Inequalities in a Bioeconomy (FFJ) based at the HCIAS and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research – BMFTR for a period of six years (2019-2025). Over several years, FFJ built a distinctive research programme — combining comparative cross-regional design, multi-method approaches, and a strong commitment to feminist, anti-racist and decolonial perspectives — that produced conceptual development and a long track record of empirical studies.
On this foundation, the Food, Society and Ecology Lab builds a sustainable institutional structure that carries the research agenda forward, integrates new collaborators and case studies, and extends the reach of Heidelberg’s expertise in food studies into new disciplinary and policy domains.
The Food, Society and Ecology Lab is conceived as a knowledge hub that scientists, practitioners, politicians can draw onto. The Lab aims to contribute to scientific debates on socioecological transformations and their impact on unequal food access and on individual, public and global health, with findings that directly inform societal debates and food politics. Particular attention is given to the ways in which food systems are shaped through contested relations between humans, non-humans, environments and territories, as well as to forms of resistance and alternative food practices emerging across diverse local contexts.
Research at the Lab
The Research Lab Food, Society and Ecology is conceptually based on the research conducted in the Research Group Food for Justice: Power, Politics and Food Inequalities in a Bioeconomy (2019-2025) and from this starting point on further develops its own research agenda. The overarching research interest in food inequalities remains in the Research Lab Food, Society and Ecology. Foci on contested human and environmental relations shaping food systems as well as on food-related health issues, such as malnutrition, obesity, but also other illnesses caused by certain dietary patters, are added to the current research programme.
We build our research on the ontological assumption that food is deeply political and relational: practices of producing, distributing, preparing, consuming and wasting food are embedded in power relations and asymmetries. At the same time, the Lab understands food systems as more-than-human assemblages in which human actors, ecologies, infrastructures, non-human species and material environments are co-constitutive.
To find out about those interrelations and -dependencies, we do research on multiple scales and within different world regions – foremost but not only – in Latin America and Europe. Through decolonial and feminist perspectives, the Lab critically engages with questions of territory, epistemic inequality, environmental justice and insurgent foodscapes.
Unique to the Food, Society and Ecology Research Lab is the combination of qualitative and quantitative social science methods rooted in different disciplines - sociology, human geography and global health – in order to create a research design that takes into account societal, environmental, spatial, and health-related challenges surrounding the topic of food. This interdisciplinary and multi-method approach enables the Lab to analyse food systems as sites of inequality and governance.
Research Pillars
Pillar A: Theory & Concepts
Building on the conceptual framwork developed in FFJ, the lab pursues theory development in the sociology of food, food regime analysis, and the politics of socioecological transformation in agrifood systems. This includes engagement with feminist, anti-racist and decolonial perspectives as constitutive elements, not supplementary additions.
Pillar B: Empirical Research
Cross-regional, comparative research on food movements and their forms of political engagement: contentious politics, participatory democratic politics, and prefigurative politics. Special attention to intersectional food inequalities and solidarities as analytically central dimensions.
Pillar C: Food Systems, Health and Human Rights
Research at the intersection of food availability, nutrition insecurity, and structural health determinants. This pillar is the primary site for collanoration with the Institute of Global Health, combining sociological and public health perspectives on food access and its consequences for population well-being.
Pillar D: Knowledge Transfer / Policy / Public Engagement
Translation of research findings into policy-relevant outputs, engagement with NGOs and civil society actors, and public communication. This lab's advisor role is specifically designed to support this bridge between research and societal impact.
Recent Publications
- Penna, C., Carvalho, P.D. de, & Motta, R. (2026). Associações com alimentos e ativismos alimentares em Belo Horizonte. In Niederle, P., Portilho, F., Carneiro, M.S., & Marques, P.E.M. (Eds.). Ativismos alimentares e politização da alimentação. 199-223. Tomo Editorial.
- Schubert, M. N., Portilho, F. & Motta, R. (2026). Ativismos alimentares: diferentes faces e abordagens. In Niederle, P., Portilho, F., Carneiro, M.S., & Marques, P.E.M. (Eds.). Ativismos alimentares e politização da alimentação. 17-38. Tomo Editorial.
- Trombini, M.E., & Motta, R. (2025). Food politics and activist networks in the city: Reaching places food and policies don’t. Cities, 166, Article 106131.
- Peuker, B., Motta, R., Zentgraf, L. L., & Müller, J. (2025). Konflikte um die Zukunft der Landwirtschaft: Proteste konservativer und progressiver Bewegungen in der sozial-ökologischen Transformation. Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen, 38(4), 633–659.
Recent Presentations and Media Contributions
Organization
cooperation@hcias.uni-heidelberg.de
Scholars
Tabelle
Affiliated Scholars |
PhD Students |
Paula Acuña, Fellow DAAD Anid Becas Chile, starting October 2026 |
Visiting Scholars |
Andreia Anschau, PhD student Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul UFRGS, Brazil. October 2026 – April 2027, DAAD Brazil fellowship. |
Saiduh Conteh, Master's student University of the Western Cape, South Africa. September 2026 - February 2027. DAAD South Africa fellowship. |
Prof. Dr. Angela Figueredo, Universidade Federal da Bahía, Brazil. September - October 2026. Visiting Professorship ExStra Heidelberg University. |
Thalita Viana Pontes, CPDA Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. September 2026 - February 2027. CPDA fellowship. |
Join the Lab!
We welcome visiting scholars, short-term fellows, and online-affiliated fellows to collaborate, share insights, and contribute to a growing knowledge hub on the intersecting topics food, society and ecology.
Please feel free to contact Lab Coordinator Judith Müller to explore opportunities for collaboration and dialogue. Scholars collaborating with the Research Lab can contribute to our research e.g. by working on a joint publication, by giving a presentation at HCIAS, or by working on a funding application together. Please note that the HCIAS does not offer any scholarship for visiting researchers but can provide support for your application for scholarships offered by institutions in Germany or your home country.
