Introduction to the Special Issue. Migration, food and agriculture: Insights into what we eat and how our food is produced at the beginning of the third millennium

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Drawing on interviews with key informants and seasonal workers in Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria and the UK, and on non-participant ethnographies, this paper demonstrates that, despite various limitations associated with work in the agriculture sector, migrants strategically choose the times and destinations of their trips abroad, taking into account a variety of factors, including family commitments, economic goals at the origin, wages and working conditions, health issues and welfare opportunities. The findings illustrate that, depending on their commitments and economic objectives, Romanians who work in agriculture develop different mobility practices. While some work abroad only occasionally, when they need to supplement their home-country income, others engage in circular migration or extend the periods of time they spend abroad. In host countries, most workers try out various jobs and typically get involved in repeated migration once they have found a suitable arrangement. Some workers combine seasonal work in one or more countries of destination, over the course of the same year, with the aim of securing income for longer periods of time, while others opt for long-term migration or move into sectors that offer better opportunities.</abstract>

“I wanted to see how to make money there too”: Mobility strategies of Romanian seasonal workers in the agricultural sector abroad

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The COVID-19 pandemic brought into focus how nationstates manage to shut down borders while maintaining flexible labor recruitment. This challenging situation provoked more public discussion around inequalities within the agricultural and agrifood sector. However, reflections around labor conditions have remained limited. I argue that instead of merely pointing to certain aspects of the current labor conditions and demanding more regulations, a different point of departure is urgently needed. Through a <italic>genealogical approach to recruitment and rotation</italic>, this article aims to further politicize the discussion around the current recruitment infrastructure in the agricultural and agrifood sectors in Europe. I do this with my research on labor migration from Moldova to the European Union and Switzerland, where I consider the hypermobile life trajectories of workers within the agricultural sector. I am interested in the structures, goals and biopolitical implications as well as the involved ideologies that accompany the laws and regulations of the legal framework of such <italic>hypermobility</italic> between “Eastern” and “Western” Europe. I show how the involved citizenship laws and circular migration policies reveal entanglements through time and space that lead to <italic>neocolonial and post-Soviet regimes of labor control</italic> within Europe.</abstract>

Recruitment infrastructure within the agricultural and agrifood sector: Post-Soviet and neocolonial entanglements between “Eastern” and “Western” Europe

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The paper puts the food regime model, as elaborated by scholars such as Harriet Friedmann and Philip McMichael, into articulation with the analysis of migration/border regimes, as proposed by critical migration scholars. If by now it is well established that the policies that regulate the mobility of migrant labour play a crucial role in enabling capitalist accumulation in contemporary global agriculture, few analyses have delved into the actual mechanisms which make this possible, and into their histories. The argument is developed by reference to the Italian case, showing how subsequent waves of substitution of Italian labourers with migrants, that began in the 1980s, have followed different patterns. It argues that these can be understood by reading them against the grain of the changes accruing in the transnational migration regime. Thus, precarisation and segmentation of the labour force in the farming sector are shown to have been actively fostered by policies which have made of undocumented or differentially included labour one of the pillars upon which globally integrated food production has relied for the past three decades. Whilst based on national-scale statistics and secondary literature, the analysis also builds upon a sustained presence and engaged participant research in some of the Italian agroindustrial enclaves that record the highest presence of migrant labour.</abstract>

Ethno-racialisation at the intersection of food and migration regimes: Reading processes of farm-labour substitution against the grain of migration policies in Italy (1980-present)

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The importance of nutrition as a research topic is linked not only to healthy eating and different types of medical conditions, such as obesity, allergies, malnutrition, but also to the relationship between nutrition and physical activity, to state’s and large food companies’ commercial activities, as well as to the sustainability of food production. On that basis, numerous studies have analyzed media content related to food and nutrition, their basic assumption being that (new and old) media have the ability to change the audience’s perceptions, behaviors and attitudes towards various values which are accepted in contemporary societies. This paper presents the results of a comparative study of the way in which Romanian and German media cover the topic of nutrition. The research method used was the content analysis, applied to a sample of articles published on online media from the two countries between 2014 and 2016. Having as research objective the identification of the most relevant aspects regarding the content and shape of nutrition’s coverage in media, this article discusses the similarities and differences recorded in the online press of the two countries on the topic of interest. According to the findings, the similarities are mainly related to some topics and subjects addressed, as well as to the ways of covering them, in particular through analysis articles, while the differences could instead be ascertained regarding the content of the articles, including the ways in which the journalists assume social roles in approaching, informing, debating, and educating concerning issues of public interest.</abstract>

Food sustainability, healthy eating, on-trend diets: media representations of nutrition in Romania and Germany

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Street names are mundane spatial markers that besides providing a sense of orientation inscribe onto the landscape the ideological ethos and political symbols of hegemonic discourses. This review article takes stock of the existing scholarship done on the politics of street naming practices in human (political, cultural, and social) geography and rethinks these insights from sociological perspectives. Drawing on Randall Collins’ taxonomy of sociological theory, the paper interprets urban street nomenclatures along functionalist, conflictualist, constructionist, and utilitarian lines. The analysis is delivered in two installments: Part I addresses urban nomenclatures from functionalist and conflictualist perspectives, while Part II (published in the next issue of this journal) approaches street names as social constructions and examines their utilitarian value. In doing so, the paper advances the argument that urban namescapes in general and street names in particular should make an important object of sociological reflection and empirical analysis. It is one of the key arguments developed in this paper that toponymy encapsulates broader and intersecting issues of power, memory, identity, language, and space which can be rendered visible through sociological analysis.</abstract>

Street Names through Sociological Lenses. Part I: Functionalism and Conflict Theory

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 21 (2023): Issue 1 (December 2023)

Volume 20 (2022): Issue 1 (December 2022)

Volume 19 (2021): Issue 1 (December 2021)

Volume 18 (2020): Issue 1 (December 2020) Special issue: Migration, food and agriculture: Insights into what we eat and how our food is produced at the beginning of the third millennium

Volume 17 (2019): Issue 1 (December 2019)

Volume 16 (2018): Issue 1-2 (December 2018) Special issue: Debating Immigration in a Country of Emigration

Volume 15 (2017): Issue 1-2 (December 2017)

Volume 14 (2016): Issue 2 (December 2016)

Volume 14 (2016): Issue 1 (July 2016)

Volume 13 (2015): Issue 2 (December 2015)

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Volume 12 (2014): Issue 2 (December 2014)

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Volume 11 (2013): Issue 2 (December 2013)

Volume 11 (2013): Issue 1 (July 2013) Risks and Outlooks

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Volume 10 (2012): Issue 1 (June 2012)

Volume 9 (2011): Issue 2 (December 2011)

Volume 9 (2011): Issue 1 (June 2011)

Volume 8 (2010): Issue 2 (December 2010)

Volume 8 (2010): Issue 1 (July 2010)

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 Publishing House and Owner: Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania  Social Change Review was founded in 2003. Between 2003 and 2009 the journal appeared under the name Revista de Sociologie covering a wide range of issues related to sociology, social work and social policy. The journal was relaunched with a new Editorial Board and a new name in 2010. Currently, the accepted manuscripts are published online first, in a continuous process, being then included in an annual volume, at the end of each calendar year.  Why subscribe and read   covers a wide range of issues related to sociology, social work and social policy;  high quality of papers;   Why submit   fair and constructive peer review by experts in the field  provide high-quality editing  indexed in many international databases   Rejection Rate   35-40%   Subjects  Social Sciences, Sociology, Social Policy, Social Work  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 

Volume 18 (2020): Issue 1 (December 2020) - Special issue: Migration, food and agriculture: Insights into what we eat and how our food is produced at the beginning of the third millennium

Special issue: Migration, food and agriculture: Insights into what we eat and how our food is produced at the beginning of the third millennium

Volume 18 (2020): Issue 1 (December 2020)