Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Social and Political-Economic Dynamics of Foodways in Peri-Urban Honduras

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University of Kentucky doctoral candidate Aeleka Schortman, under the supervision of Dr. Sarah Lyon, will undertake research on the contemporary transformation of food systems in developing countries. The agrarian transition, which is occurring throughout the world, is characterizied by movement away from local production and towards food-import dependence and industrialization. As a result, food provisioning is now less reliant on small-scale and subsistence production. Schortman will investigate the implications of these changes for individual, household, and community dynamics.The research will be carried out in Petoa, a peri-urban, industrializing town in northern Honduras. Peri-urban areas, or satellite towns surrounding large urban centers, are key sites of agricultural and foodway change, as they are home to mixed rural and urban livelihoods and land use patterns. Nonetheless, peri-urban centers remain under-investigated in studies of foodways, which tend to focus on either rural or urban food use and production patterns. Schortman will collect data on which foods people produce, purchase, and consume; the meanings they attach to these foods and production systems; food provisioning adequacy; household histories; and household socioeconomic characteristics. She will use a mix of ethnographic research methods, including semi-interviews and informal interviews, focus groups, household case studies, and both direct and participant observation. This research is unique in bringing together social, symbolic, political, and economic dimensions of foodways changes. It will contribute to practical and theoretical understandings of the agrarian transition in developing nations, urbanization and industrialization, and foodway change in a peri-urban locale. Supporting this research also supports the education of a social scientist.