Organizing Food, Faith, and Freedom by Ozan Nadir Alakavuklar
On Thursday, January 16th, a diverse audience gathered to celebrate the launch of Organizing Food, Faith, and Freedom: Imagining Alternatives by Ozan Nadir Alakavuklar at A Beautiful Mess Utrecht. Missed it? Read up on the highlights in this report by Nina Litsios.
The event started with an introduction by the author, Dr. Ozan Alakavuklar (Utrecht School of Governance), about the ways in which his book critically examines the economic, symbolic, and political relations of community-level solutions addressing food waste and poverty within a capitalist society through an organizational lens. Ozan also talked about the personal aspect of his book, how it reflects his personal journey working in a free food store in Aotearoa, New Zealand. His talk was followed by a series of interventions from researchers and students active in transforming local food systems.
First, Guusje Weber from Slow Food Youth Network shared some insights on the advantages and challenges of collaborating with companies and organizations with values that might not be aligned with one’s own. Trained as an anthropologist, Guusje connected to the ethnographic approach Ozan took for his book’s research. Then, Giuseppe Feola (Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development) highlighted some particularly innovative contributions from the book. Amongst other things, he noted that Alakavuklar connects the fine dynamics of local food value chains with bigger societal issues to create possibilities for change, combining empirical analysis with theoretical reflections to make his findings accessible to experts and newcomers to the field. Feola praised the book, calling it “a model for early career scholars about how to bridge academia and activism”, before asking Alakavuklar some questions about the dynamics between leadership and community organizing. Finally, two student activists from Young Future Food Movement at Utrecht University reflected upon the ways in which the book personally inspired them. Lena Radt noted that the book motivated them to think about how we can go beyond academic interdisciplinarity to work together towards our collective goal of systemic change and Josh Jacobs shared his personal spiritual journey with the audience, noting that the book provided him with new vocabulary to vocalize issues dear to him.
Alakavuklar closed the panel discussion by emphasizing that we can all play a role in social change by relearning to recognize existing alternatives to the dominant system. The event ended with lively conversations around delicious dips and drinks.
The book launch was jointly organized by the Pathways to Sustainability communities Critical Pathways, Transforming Cities and Future Food Utrecht.
