In times characterized by political instability, crisis, and social fragmentation, theory takes on a renewed urgency. It emerges as a form of political engagement: an act that challenges dominant narratives and power relations and opens up the possibility of alternative futures. In this context, our contribution offers an epistemological and methodological reflection on walking as a qualitative research practice, explored in combination with food and consumption practices conceived as everyday, material, and symbolic devices.

Walking with participants through foodscapes is not just a data collection strategy. It constitutes a political gesture that upsets traditional hierarchies of knowledge and promotes a dialogical and situated way of theorizing. At the same time, food—understood as a language of everyday life and means of identity construction—provides access to cultural, individual, and relational dimensions that are often silent. Together, walking and food create an embodied and participatory scene that allows for critical engagement with issues of belonging, exclusion, and recognition.

More than a means of accessing lived experience, this methodological interaction foregrounds food and walking as ordinary but universal practices, bridging the gap between scientific research and everyday life. Highlighting the limitations, ethical and reflective implications of such an approach, we argue that walking through foodscapes can be seen as a practice for making theory but at the same time political, an epistemic practice that resists reduction of complexity, nurtures spaces of justice and equity, and contributes to a psychology “of and for the world”.