Amber Steyaert
Assistant
Department of agricultural economics
INSPIRA
Ghent University
Coupure links 653
Office A1.---
9000 Ghent, Belgium
amber.steyaert@ugent.be
Bio
Amber Steyaert joined the Department of Agricultural Economics in September 2020 after graduating the masters program of International Politics at Ghent University. In August 2022, she also became a teaching assistant at this department. Before starting her PhD, Amber briefly worked for the Food Smart City project of Rikolto on a study about Urban Agriculture.
She is also coordinating a trajectory on food democracy within the Stadsacademie (Urban Academy), a collaboratory for transdisciplinary research and teaching on complex and urgent sustainability issues of the City of Ghent and Ghent University.
As an assistant she is involved with the teaching activities of the courses:
- Scientific Communication on Rural Development
- SDG Lab: Society
- Sustainable Food Systems
- Duurzame Ontwikkeling in productie-en consumptiesystemen
Research
Amberโs doctoral research is titled vernacularizing food democracy. In this research she investigates how the concept of food democracy is shaped and given meaning across various contexts. Her study is divided into three parts.
Firstly, she examines food democracy in the context of trans-local city food networks, with a particular focus on how these networks foster participation In the second part of her research, Amber addresses the dearth of research on food democracy in the Global South by examining the case of vendor participation in food safety governance in Arusha, Tanzania. Finally, the third part investigates how food democracy receives meaning in the context of a university-led community of practice through action research conducted within the city of Ghent.