Trinity and the Changing City – Unhealthy Dublin: Food Sharing and Sustainability within Cities – A panel discussion as part of the Lecture Series.

Unlike Cork, Waterford and Galway, Dublin is not a ‘healthy city'. Why is this? And what makes a city ‘healthy'? What policies and actions are in place? And how can evidence-based research inform such policies and actions? A panel of distinguished experts discusses these and related issues. Contributors include Anna Davies, Professor of Geography, Environment and Society at Trinity College Dublin who will speak about findings from her ERC project SHARECITY in relation to physical/mental wellbeing from food sharing; Denise Cahill, Healthy Cities Coordinator Cork City will discuss her work in Healthy Cities including work with the Cork Food Policy Council; and Professor Richard Layte, Professor of Sociology at Trinity College Dublin who will examine the links between food environment and health. Chaired by Associate Professor Dr Daniel Faas (TCD).

Trinity and the Changing City is organised by the Identities in Transformation research theme, led by Daniel Faas, Department of Sociology, and is supported by the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute.

Trinity College Dublin has been a key witness, over many centuries, to Dublin's development into the cosmopolitan city it is today. This multidisciplinary discussion series will look at the lived experience of Dublin's citizens through the prism of Trinity's Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences research. By drawing on historical, cultural, linguistic, sociological and economic perspectives, it will consider how we can understand a changing Dublin and influence plans for the city's future. Dublin has been transformed by the economic crash, the austerity measures that followed and recent improvements in aspects of the Irish economy, as well as wider issues such as displacement and migration. The city's built environment and economic, demographic and linguistic mix have all developed apace.

But these changes, and their relationship to issues around religion, the environment, poverty, health, housing and governmental policy, have not generally been well represented in the media or in public discourse. There is a representative gap between the city in which Trinity resides, not least in terms of language, race and class, and the images and narratives of that city put forth in the broader culture. Trinity and the Changing City will seek to address and interrogate this gap, bringing internationally recognised scholars in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, from Trinity and further afield, together with key stakeholders and practitioners from across the city.