Urban Ethnography Reading Group 🏠 Recently, we have read Matthew D. Marr’s 'Better Must Come' (2015) on the experiences of people who used transitional housing programmes in Los Angeles and Tokyo. Read our reflections here in relation to our project here 🔍 foodcharities.eu/urban-ethnog...

Urban Ethnography Reading Group #5 🐦‍⬛ We discussed Colin Jerolmack’s The Global Pigeon, exploring the Object as a Lens in ethnography and the nuances between multi-sited and comparative research. How do we map a field through a single subject? 🗺️ Read more: foodcharities.eu/urban-ethnog...

What have you noticed today? 🔍 This is the question we discussed at the start of each morning during the online @ecpr.bsky.social Research Methods School in Political Ethnography led by Kristin Eggeling. Read Marga's reflections on the school here: foodcharities.eu/what-have-yo...

Call for papers – Track #15 Systematic Event Approaches to Sustainability Transitions: Sequencing Reproduction, Disruption and Change 🌱 We are happy to share that our team is working with other researchers on a panel at the IST conference 2026! 👉 www.transitionsnetwork.org/ist-2026/cal...

This week, we discussed Paolo Boccagni’s Undoing Nothing, our first reading focused on Europe. We explored the "methodology of silence," looking at how boredom and a loss of "relevance" are central to the asylum seeker experience—a powerful parallel to our own urban poverty research

An urban ethnography reading group update! 📚 With the new year, our reading group has started again with much exciting literature ahead. Visit our website to read our reflections 👉 foodcharities.eu/urban-ethnog... Like to know more about our project and stay updated? Follow our page! 💡

We are excited to welcome 3 Research Assistants: Benedetta, Misaki, and Elke! They are already working on coding for Event Sequence Analysis (ESA) in Italy, Japan, & the Netherlands. Their work analyzes how charitable food providers obtain the resources necessary to fulfil their mission.

We are pleased to share that Alejandro @alexciordia.bsky.social gave a presentation, "Reconstructing the emergence of charitable food provision fields through ESA: Goals, challenges and prospects." at the ARS’25 Tenth International Workshop on Social Network Analysis in Naples on 30-31 October 2025.

Last week, our urban ethnography reading group met to discuss influential works 📚 — Sidewalk (Duneier, 1999), Code of the Street (Anderson, 1999), No Shame in My Game (Newman, 1999), and Wacquant’s (2002) review of these studies on urban poverty.

The Food Charities project had a kick-off meeting on Sept 24th at the Maastricht Sustainability Institute! PI Filippo Oncini @pipponcini.bsky.social gave a project overview, & postdoc Alejandro Ciordia @alexciordia.bsky.social presented on Events Sequence Analysis (key method for research module 1).

Some belated professional news: A few months ago I started working as a postdoc at Maastricht University on the exciting ERC project @erc-foodcharities.bsky.social led by @pipponcini.bsky.social Really happy to be part of this international team, based at the Maastricht Sustainability Institute!

Thrilled to welcome 3 new PhD researchers to our Food Charities project! 🎉 Marga (Rotterdam), Shiori (Kyoto), and Simona (Palermo) will conduct comparative urban ethnography in each city, exploring survival strategies through charitable food provision.

We are very excited to share the launch of a special issue in Global Food Security! 👉 Understanding Food Insecurity in High-Income Countries: New Theoretical Approaches, Multidimensional Perspectives, and Innovative Practices and Policy Responses Read more and find the link below🔽

We are now on Bluesky 🎉 Using a comparative and relational approach, the Food Charities project explores how charitable food provision operates in urban spaces in different welfare and civil society contexts: Italy, Japan, and the Netherlands. Follow us for project updates, events, and calls!