The Agri-food Research Network is a leading network of well-known scholars but also activists and practitioners. The research work is interdisciplinary on state-of-the-art agri-food topics concerning the rural sector, agriculture and food. With their 24th international conference titled “Food, Youth and the Future of Farming – Towards a Global North-South Dialogue” the research network spotlighted current agri-food topics in the light of future developments and challenges.  I presented my overall PhD project and the conceptual ideas for the next publication in the session “Making Markets. The Technopolitics of Assembling Agri-food Markets”.

Prior to the conference I attended an early-career workshop with peers from the network. Within the workshop we discussed topics like research ethics and got insights into agri-food topics in practice (excursions to a coffee farm and permaculture farm). With its interactive and experiential learning format the workshop has been an ideal platform for sharing thoughts among peers and enhance individual learning.

It has been very fruitful to present my research within this network – firstly in the ‘hands on’ workshop and also during the conference itself. The network members inspired me with their conceptual thoughts and questions. Especially the workshop was great to discuss burning questions of my research and with collegial advice I had the chance to specify the structure and the conceptual outline for my next paper. In general, I gained great insight into the manifold research projects which was inspiring for my own research. It was highly motivating to meet people from similar conceptual/theoretical backgrounds within agri-food studies.  

The School of Life Sciences and Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), in collaboration with AKATIGA Center for Social Analysis hosted the conference and pre-conference workshop.


Katharina Molitor
PhD student

PhD project (working title): “The role of food price changes for the food and nutrition security”
Institute of Geography

Food price changes, Smallholder Farming and Food and Nutrition Security in the global South (Oral)