Join us at this special public event, organised as part of a weeklong winter school on sustainability at University Gent, and think with us about the future of both food and the ways we let it shape our lives and the world around us. After a lecture by Carolyn Steel, we will engage in a discussion on what ‘Sitopic thinking’ can mean in a Belgian context with Dirk Holemans. Afterwards there will be time for questions from the audience and winter school participants.

About the public talk: Food impacts almost every aspect of our lives. From the way we feel to how we structure our day, and from international politics to the way we design our houses and cities: the centrality of food cannot be overstated. Yet, for many people today, the relationship we have with our foods is profoundly disturbed. Alarmed by the societal and environmental destruction this ensues, London based architect Carolyn Steel calls for a serious reconsideration of the place and value given to food in modern capitalist societies.

Following her reflection on the intricate relationships between food and cities in Hungry city, her most recent book Sitopia dares to envision how we can change our ways of producing and consuming foods, and thus regain the lost art of eating well. Literally meaning ‘foodplace’ (from the Greek sitos, food and topos, place), the notion of Sitopia invites us to once again centralise questions of food to address today’s social and environmental challenges.

The keynote and conversation will be held in English.