MANCEPT Workshop — The Philosophy and Political Economy of Food

Call for Abstracts: MANCEPT Workshop — The Philosophy and Political Economy of Food

Convenors

Benjamin Ferguson (Warwick), Laura Gelhaus (Warwick), Johanna Jauernig (Tulane) 

Dates

September 3-5, 2025 — Manchester, UK

Overview
This workshop aims to bring together new work on Food from Philosophy, Political Economy, and Food Studies. Many important issues in food, from how it is produced (by controversial agrotechnologies, industrial vs. small-scale agriculture, or organic farming) to how it is consumed (vegetarianism, locavorism, and other alternative food movements) are addressed in different ways by different disciplines. The complexity of food systems warrants a multi- and interdisciplinary approach that connects empirical analysis to normative evaluation. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of current issues related to food and food policy emerges only collectively. 

We invite abstracts that lie firmly within, and also that work across different disciplines related to food. Examples of potential topics could include (but certainly not be limited to) the following: 

·       The political economy of food production

·       Ethical, political, and economic trade-offs in food production such as in high-yield industrial agriculture versus small-scale production 

·       Agricultural policy and rent-seeking: the role of interest groups in the agricultural policy debate

·       Rising food insecurity, responses and prevention

·       Different visions of agricultural trade

·       The ethics and economics of eating animals, animal products, or lab grown meat

·       Ethical issues related to farm labour, as well as questions of farm labour organisation and relevant immigration policies

·       Philosophical, economic, and political questions of (localised) food consumption 

Submission Guidelines 

We invite submissions of abstracts (500 words or less) until May 15th to [email protected]. 

Abstracts should be suitable for a 30–35 minute presentation followed by 20–25 minutes of questions.  session.  Authors will receive a decision notification by the 25th of May. We are unable to provide travel funding for the speakers and speakers must register for the MANCEPT workshops. However, there are limited fee waiver bursaries available (see below for details).

Registration

Registration for the conference opens in April. This year’s fees are:

Academics: £295

PG: £165

Dinner (Academics): £40

Dinner (PG): £25

Bursaries

The deadline for fee-waiver bursary applications will be June 4th and successful applicants will be informed by June 16th. Only people accepted to present on a panel should apply for bursaries.