Deadline: 23-May-22
Are you a researcher or a food systems practitioner affiliated with an institution based in Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East or Asia? Do you have a nuanced understanding of some of the debates about what a ‘good future’ for food looks like, and a desire to explore and share the various angles and arguments of a particular debate with a wider audience? If so, TABLE would like to hear from you.
TABLE invites proposals for contributions on issues of particular relevance to your work, your region, and the food systems debates happening there. They will select ~10 proposals and are able to offer compensation for pieces that are taken to completion. Where possible please articulate how and if the debate playing out also has wider, global relevance than the scale you are focusing on.
TABLE is a new platform for reflective, critical thinking and inclusive stakeholder dialogue around the future of food. They aim to set out the evidence, assumptions, and values that people bring to food system debates and seek to facilitate informed discussions about how the food system can become sustainable, resilient, just, and ultimately “good”. TABLE is a collaboration between three universities: the University of Oxford, the Swedish Agricultural University and Wageningen University and Research.
Categories
TABLE is open to hearing about any food contestation related topic you want to focus on. But to provide some suggestions, they have a particular interest in debates that fall into the following broad categories:
- Power in food systems (e.g. what is it, who has it, who ought to, how does it shape conversations and outcomes?)
- Livestock, sustainability and transitions
- Meat, milk and its meanings
- Human / non-human relations
- Technology, culture, tradition and change
- Whose knowledge counts?
- Which metrics matter in discussions about food and its intersection with the environment, health and development?
- Defining tradeoffs and deciding what to do about them
- Food systems narratives and frames
- Language, labels, and labelling: how do these get used to exacerbate or de-escalate debates?
Further Details
- They are looking for pieces of 2000-3000 words in length. They should clear, jargon-free and aimed at a diverse, informed, and global audience.
- Contributions in other formats and media will also be accepted (for example, photo journals, or video essays, podcasts, etc.).
- The TABLE team will work with you to help shape and edit your piece.
- Compensation for each successfully completed piece will be £300.
- Publication dates for pieces in this series will be staggered, starting in the week beginning 28th July 2022. For the earliest pieces in the series, a first draft will be expected by 4pm BST on 30th June and a final draft on 15th July.
- All pieces will be published on their website and widely promoted by their communications team.
Eligibility Criteria
- This call is open to anyone who is affiliated with an organisation based in Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East or Asia.
- To explore some of the most salient and relevant food debates happening in and around food systems across the world, they are looking for writers who are able to lay out the landscape of these food debates as they occur in different geographical locations, the stakeholders involved, and the underpinning evidence, values and assumptions that lie at the heart of these contestations.
For more information, visit https://tabledebates.org/blog/call-proposals