Everyday Ecologies of Care: Women, Food Justice and Ethical Consumption in Contemporary Italy

Abstract Book of the 11th International Conference on Modern Approaches in Humanities and Social Sciences

Year: 2026

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Everyday Ecologies of Care: Women, Food Justice and Ethical Consumption in Contemporary Italy

Dr. Barbara Bugliosi

ABSTRACT:

Rooted in feminist anthropology and environmental humanities, this study examines how caregiving women in Italy negotiate household food provisioning as an ethical and ecological practice within uneven urban and rural contexts. The research began in 2025 with a comparative ethnographic framework based on 60 semi-structured interviews conducted in Rome and Gubbio, selected to counterbalance the realities of a large metropolitan area and a small urban center. The fieldwork was subsequently expanded to include additional contexts in Siena and rural Umbria, bringing the dataset to 75 interviews, complemented by observational field notes. The findings reveal significant disparities in access to ethical, sustainable, and high-quality food. Participants in smaller towns and rural areas benefit from closer relationships with local producers and informal trust networks, while metropolitan participants experience higher costs, time scarcity, and logistical barriers that channel consumption toward supermarkets, often limiting ethical consumption practices. Despite these structural constraints, caregivers actively adopt strategies such as reducing industrial meat consumption and minimizing waste in order to align domestic health with broader forms of multispecies care. The paper argues that these practices configure “everyday ecologies of care” capable of challenging intensive consumerist logics, while also highlighting the need for policy support and place-based infrastructures to make ethical food access materially sustainable.

Keywords: Ethics of care; Food justice; Gender; Sustainability; Non-Human Animal Rights