Food banks as moral enterprises: Questions & Debate

Questions to and debate with Prof. Dr. Stefan Selke
Professor of Social Change
Research Professor of Transformative & Public Science
Following a public lecture given at Huddersfield University
21 April 2017
Between the lecture and the questions, Prof. Selke showed some videos (in German). They were:
20 Jahre Tafeln sind genug!
• 20 Jahre Tafeln sind g...
Kritisches Aktionsbündnis 20 Jahre Tafeln: Aktionstage vom 26. - 28.04. in Berlin
• Kritisches Aktionsbünd...
Sozialstaat statt Almosen!
• Sozialstaat statt Almo...
Often seen as a necessary consequence of welfare cuts and a retreating state, food banks are increasingly accepted as the new normal. With most UK research focusing on "evidence gaps" and monitoring of referral causes, the wider social and political impacts of a national food charity culture have received little attention.
Stefan Selke is Professor of Sociology and Social Change at the Furtwangen University in Germany where he has published several books on different aspects of the "food bank phenomenon". In this public lecture, Professor Selke reflects on the consequences of an established system of poverty relief in Germany where food banks (‘Tafeln’) more and more appear as moral enterprises that imitate and emulate the prevailing economic rationality on every level from local practices to long-term strategies. The lecture also explains the concept of public sociology using examples drawn from the background of his individual approach to food bank research. It provides a summary of 10 years of food bank research in Germany in combination with 'organic’ public sociology such as public demonstrations or public events together with artists.
Sharing his extensive research experience with a UK audience, this was be a unique opportunity for anyone with an interest in food poverty, charity work or social policy to learn about the impacts of charity-based food provision from a critical perspective. In the following open debate, the audience discussed some of the possible implications in a UK context and what critical social research can achieve together with public action.
There is a JiscMail discussion group on the issues: [e-mail]

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