Informazioni sul corso

Have you ever wondered what soil ethics are? Did you know that ethics play a crucial role in how we produce, distribute, and consume our food? Throughout the course, we will discuss different ethical perceptions and reveal the complex, intertwined, and often conflicting ethical worlds of farmers, consumers, legislators, and policy makers. We will contrast micro and macro ethical perceptions related to soil, production, and consumption, and analyse why there cannot be a unified view of the problems associated with food production and consumption. The course will provide students with coordinates for thinking about sustainable solutions to existing food and agricultural crises, which can only emerge from a dialogue with different ethical views on food, agriculture and consumption.

The curriculum draws on theoretical discussions in rural studies, anthropology of food and ethics, and environmental and economic anthropology, while zooming in practices and case studies from Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Required readings will help us to answer questions such as: What is the ethics of the soil? What are the ethics of production and producers? What are the ethical preferences of consumers? What are the ethical concerns of agricultural policy makers? How do they manifest in everyday life? These questions will open up discussions about the organization of life and systems of production and consumption in the countryside and beyond in contemporary Eastern Europe. Furthermore, the questions will help us to address the existing tensions that arise at the intersection of private and public life and interests, and individual and collective actions in the pursuit of the welfare of agriculture, farmers, and consumers.