Dr Fiorella Picchioni
BSc, MSc, PhD
Expertise
Fiorella's research focuses on the political economy of food and nutrition interventions, intersectional dynamics of food work, and the impact of food production on nutrition and health using social reproduction approach
Current positions
Research Fellow
School of Management - Business School
Contact
Press and media
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Biography
Fiorella Picchioni is a Research Fellow and Proleptic Lecturer at the University of Bristol Business School. As a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, she is dedicated to establishing the interdisciplinary, multi-country Observatory for Research and Practice on Food Systems and Social Reproduction. This initiative aims to address inequalities in food production and enhance resilience to socio-economic and environmental shocks.
Fiorella is an applied development economist whose work is rooted in political and feminist economic theories and methodologies. Her academic practice incorporates mixed-methods approaches and primary data collection.
Previously, Fiorella held positions as a Senior Lecturer at the Natural Resources Institute (NRI), University of Greenwich, and as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Reading's School of Agriculture, Policy and Development. She completed her PhD at SOAS, University of London, with funding from the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health.
Before joining academia, Fiorella worked as a grains market analyst at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. She holds a BSc in Political Science and International Development from the University of Pavia, Italy, and an MSc in Development Economics from the University of Florence, Italy.
Fiorella is an applied development economist whose work is rooted in political and feminist economic theories and methodologies. Her academic practice incorporates mixed-methods approaches and primary data collection.
Previously, Fiorella held positions as a Senior Lecturer at the Natural Resources Institute (NRI), University of Greenwich, and as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Reading's School of Agriculture, Policy and Development. She completed her PhD at SOAS, University of London, with funding from the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health.
Before joining academia, Fiorella worked as a grains market analyst at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. She holds a BSc in Political Science and International Development from the University of Pavia, Italy, and an MSc in Development Economics from the University of Florence, Italy.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Observatory for Research and Practice on Food Systems and Social Reproduction
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Management - Business SchoolDates
16/09/2024 to 15/09/2028
UKRI Futures Leaders Fellowship
Principal Investigator
Description
The future leaders fellowship award will support the creation of the interdisciplinary, multi-country and innovative Observatory for Research and Practice on Food Systems and Social Reproduction with the aim bring…Managing organisational unit
School of Management - Business SchoolDates
01/05/2024 to 01/05/2028
Political Economy Analysis of Food Industry (PEAFI) - Unpacking the influence of the food industry on adolescent consumption of ultra-processed foods in Sub-Saharan Africa
Principal Investigator
Description
The Political Economy Analysis of Food Industry (PEAFI) aims to develop a methodological approach to investigate the influence of the ultra-processed food industry in food systems and nutrition analysis in…Managing organisational unit
School of Management - Business SchoolDates
01/08/2023 to 31/07/2025
Quality Index for Healthy and Sustainable School Feeding Menus (IQCAES²): a multidimensional evaluation platform for Brazil's national school feeding program (British Council)
Principal Investigator
Description
Building on IQCAE (2020), a validated indicator easy access and simple application that evaluates menus’ nutritional parameters defined by the National School Feeding Program (PNAE), IQCAES² aims to provide a…Managing organisational unit
School of Management - Business SchoolDates
01/06/2021 to 01/09/2022
GCRF Equitable Resilience, ‘Depleted by Debt? Focusing a Gendered Lens on Climate, Credit and Nutrition in Translocal Cambodia and South India’
Role
Co-Investigator
Description
Facing growing crises of agricultural productivity and taking primary responsibility for the nutritional wellbeing of their households, women are targeted as credit borrowers globally. Credit provisioning therefore speaks to the…Managing organisational unit
School of Management - Business SchoolDates
01/10/2019 to 30/12/2022
Publications
Recent publications
01/02/2025Sick of Debt
Social Science and Medicine
Depleted by debt: ‘green’ microfinance, over-indebtedness, and social reproduction in climate-vulnerable Cambodia.
Antipode
Food system thinking unpacked: a scoping review on industrial diets among adolescents in Ghana
Food Security
Quantity and quality of physical activity during adolescence: evidence from a mixed-method study in rural Telangana, India.
Journal of Biosocial Science
Towards more comprehensive analyses of the Nutrition Transition among adolescents in the rural South: an empirical contribution.
Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Diets