Activities
Guest Editors: Kurswechsel Journal
Issue 1/26: Food Charity: Lebensmittelpolitiken zwischen Mangel und Überfluss
As guest editors of issue 1/26 of the journal Kurswechsel, we invite you to discuss the charitable redistribution of food at the intersection of two pressing contemporary challenges: the fight against poverty and the reduction of food waste. Food banks and social markets operate within a complex tension between food insecurity, social participation, and the commodification of surplus food.
This issue includes insights from our midterm conference in May 2025 and features a range of contributions that explore, among other topics, the ambivalent role of food charity as an instrument of neoliberal practice. It sheds light on the darker side of moralizing charity and examines volunteer work as a socially gendered resource.
The issue is available here (German only)
Team Members: Brigitte Bargetz, Myriam Gaitsch, Jessia Gasior, Markus Griesser
Former Team Member: Fynn Schröder
3rd ZRKG Conference: Transformation of the Public Sphere. Crisis Discourses in the Tension between Openness and Defense
1 – 3 June 2026
Presentation: Political Modes of Subjectivation in Times of Multiple Crises: The Affective Narratives of Food Charity
Brigitte Bargetz (JKU Linz, WU Vienna), Myriam Gaitsch (WU Vienna), and Markus Griesser (WU Vienna)
Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingoldstadt, Eichstätt
Team Member: Brigitte Bargetz
Conference Program
"Ideen-Reichtum": Pre-conference for young poverty research
27 – 29 April 2026
Organization and moderation: Ilker Ataç (HS Fulda), Hannah-Maria Eberle (HS Campus Wien/VHS Wien), Markus Griesser (WU Wien) and Christina Siegert (Uni Bamberg)
Call (Deadline: 16 November 2025)
Center for Education St. Virgil, Salzburg as part of the 15th Poverty Conference (Austrian Anti Poverty Network)
Team Member: Markus Griesser
44th International Labour Process Conference: Labour Process at a Time of Transformation
22 – 24 April 2026
Presentation: So much more than Informal Labour: Volunteering for Food Charity as Ambivalent Affective Labour
Myriam Gaitsch (WU Vienna), Brigitte Bargetz (JKU Linz, WU Vienna) and Markus Griesser (WU Vienna)
Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds
Team Member: Myriam Gaitsch
Infos: https://www.ilpc.org.uk/# & Conference Program
ESPAnet Austria 8. Research Conference Social Policy Analysis
09 – 10 April 2026
Presentation: Beyond Informal Work: Volunteering as Affective Labor in the Restructured Welfare State
Myriam Gaitsch (WU Vienna), Brigitte Bargetz (JKU Linz, WU Vienna) and Markus Griesser (WU Vienna)
Institute for Social Policy, WU Vienna
Team Member: Myriam Gaitsch
Infos: Regular research conferences - ESPANET Austria - Institute for Social Policy & Conference Program
Lecture: Wissensturm Linz
25 November 2025
Lecture: New Charity Economy Instead of Welfare State? Food Banks and Social Markets in Austria
Brigitte Bargetz (JKU Linz, WU Vienna) and Markus Griesser (WU Vienna)
Organization: VHS Linz in Cooperation with the Department of Social Theory and Social Analysis, JKU Linz
Team Members: Brigitte Bargetz and Markus Griesser
Interview: Wissensturm aktuell - Podcast
In the November edition of the “Wissensturm aktuell podcast,” which is also broadcast as a monthly information program on Radio FRO in Upper Austria, Brigitte Bargetz and Markus Griesser talk to editor Hildegard Griebl-Shehata about the lecture "New Charity Economy Instead of Welfare State? Food Banks and Social Markets in Austria"
Info: https://wissensturm.linz.at/podcast.php & https://www.fro.at/sendungen/wissensturm-aktuell/
Team Members: Brigitte Bargetz and Markus Griesser
The Climate of Society: 28th Congress of the Austrian Association for Sociology
30 June – 2 July 2025
Conference Program
Presentation: "'Cause I'm happy…"? Volunteering for Food Banks in Austria in the Context of Recent Transformations of the Welfare State
Brigitte Bargetz and Markus Griesser (WU Vienna)
University of Graz
Team Members: Brigitte Bargetz, Markus Griesser
Midterm-Conference Research Project "New Charity Economy and Affective Statehood"
21 – 23 May 2025
"Food Charity, Welfare State Transformations, and Affective Economies: Critical Engagements"
Organizers: Brigitte Bargetz, Markus Griesser, and Jessica Gasior
Support: Fynn Schröder
WU Campus, Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna
Team Members: Brigitte Bargetz, Jessica Gasior, Markus Griesser
More information: Program
ESPAnet Austria 7. Research Conference Social Policy Analysis
24 – 25 April 2025
Presentation: Freiwilligenarbeit im Kontext von Food Charity-Einrichtungen in Österreich: aktueller Stand und widersprüchliche Verhältnisse
Brigitte Bargetz and Markus Griesser (WU Vienna)
Department of Sociology, University of Innsbruck
Team Members: Brigitte Bargetz, Markus Griesser
Book Presentation and Discussion: Discourses on Poverty and Social Work
14 March 2025
Presentation of the book "Discourses on Poverty. Perspectives from the Media, Politics and Social Work” (Bielefeld 2024)
With the authors and the editors Anja Kerle, Fabian Kessl, and Alban Knecht.
Depot, Vienna
Team Member: Markus Griesser
Conference: Hopeful Attachments on a Ruined Planet
9 – 11 October 2024
Presentation: We will all be disappointed in the end: Rethinking utopia from the affective and temporal politics of ruins
Brigitte Bargetz (WU Vienna) and Sara Minelli (Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin)
Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies "Futures of Sustainability", University of Hamburg
Team Member: Brigitte Bargetz
PhD Course: Critique, Care and Experimentation
6 – 8 May 2024
With Dorthe Staunæs (chair), Brigitte Bargetz, Malou Juelskjær, Nina Lykke, Erin Manning and Sverre Raffnsøe
Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Campus Emdrup
Team Member: Brigitte Bargetz
"Ideen-Reichtum": Pre-conference for young poverty researchers
15 – 16 April 2024
Organization and moderation: Hannah-Maria Eberle, Markus Griesser, Anja Kerle, Alban Knecht
Center for Education St. Virgil, Salzburg as part of the 14th Poverty Conference (Austrian Anti Poverty Network)
Team Member: Markus Griesser
Kick-Off-Workshop Research Project “New Charity Economy Through the Lens of Affective Statehood”
30 November – 1 December 2023
Food Charity in Times of Crisis: Three Perspectives
With Fabian Kessl (University of Wuppertal), Hannah Lambie-Mumford (University of Sheffield) and Tiina Silvasti (University of Jyväskylä)
Moderation: Johanna Hofbauer (WU Vienna)
Public event: 30 November 2023, 16:00 – 18:00 (s.t.)
Room 6, Building AD, Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna
WU Vienna
Team Members: Brigitte Bargetz, Jessica Gasior, Markus Griesser
Workshop: Methoden der empirischen Affektforschung
9 – 10 November 2023
Presentation: Gefühle im Staat finden
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Organization: Manuela Beyer (Dresden) and Christian Helge Peters (Halle)
Team Member: Brigitte Bargetz
Presentations and Discussion: Politik|en der Empathie. Welche Empathie braucht die Politik?
10 May 2023, 18:30 – 21:00
Presentation: Politiken der Empathie – Eine feministische Kritik
Gewölbesaal – Altes Kaufhaus, Florinsmarkt Koblenz (Germany)
Cooperation: ISSO-Institut, Universities Koblenz and Erfurt, Martin-Görlitz-Stiftung and Denkbares
Team Member: Brigitte Bargetz