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

肯塔基大学博士生Aeleka Schortman将在Sarah Lyon博士的指导下，对发展中国家食品体系的当代转型进行研究。全世界正在发生的农业转型，其特点是从当地生产转向依赖粮食进口和工业化。因此，粮食供应现在较少依赖小规模和自给自足的生产。Schortman将调查这些变化对个人、家庭和社区动态的影响。这项研究将在洪都拉斯北部的一个城市周边的工业化城镇佩托亚进行。城市周边地区，或大城市中心周围的卫星城，是农业和食物方式变化的关键地点，因为它们是农村和城市混合生计和土地利用模式的家园。尽管如此，在关于食物方式的研究中，城市周边的中心仍然没有得到充分的调查，这些研究往往侧重于农村或城市的食物使用和生产模式。Schortman将收集人们生产、购买和消费哪些食物；它们赋予这些食物和生产系统的意义；食物供应充分性；家庭历史；以及家庭社会经济特征的数据。她将使用混合的人种学研究方法，包括半访谈和非正式访谈、焦点小组、家庭案例研究，以及直接和参与观察。这项研究在将食物变化的社会、象征、政治和经济维度结合在一起方面是独一无二的。它将有助于从实践和理论上理解发展中国家的农业转型、城市化和工业化，以及城市周边地区的食物变化。支持这项研究也支持社会科学家的教育。

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.