Sharon Ball

Research student

Surplus food redistribution (SFR) has been positioned as a ‘win-win’ solution for the dual problems of food waste and food insecurity by powerful actors such as the UK government, food industry, and surplus food redistributors. This positioning is contested by academics highlighting state neglect of obligations to meet citizen’s right to food.

Critical perspectives argue that food aid providers operate within a ‘theoretically awkward space’ where provisioning may serve neoliberal goals and enable further dismantling of the welfare state. While charitable SFR provides a vent for an over-productive food industry and may prevent radical transformation towards just and sustainable food futures.

Drawing on ‘in the meantimes’ as an alternative conceptualisation which moves away from analytical binaries of neoliberal co-optation or resistance towards more nuanced readings of contested spaces of food banking informed my inquiry: How are independent food aid providers navigating the contested spaces of charitable SFR in the UK?

Thesis

Sustainability transitions and surplus food in the meantime(s)? A multi-level perspective of the case of surplus food redistribution in the UK (2010-2023) focusing on regime framing strategies and frame adaptation in independent food aid providers.

Key words: Surplus food redistribution (SFR), food in/security, food waste, food aid, institutionalisation, sustainability transitions, just transitions, multi-level perspective (MLP)

Honours and awards

PhD (in progress), De Montfort University, Leicester, 2019-2024 (P/T), (transferred 2024)
MA Global Development Futures, Queen Mary University London, Mile End, London, 2016-2017
Erasmus Socrates Exchange Programme, Athens School of Fine Art, Greece, Semester 2, Jan-May 2004
BA (Honours) Fine Art, Southampton Solent University, 2002-2005