Doctoral Dissertation Research: Food Security, Heritage, and Sustainability in Urban Contexts

The research supported by this award investigates the creation and consequences of urban sustainability initiatives that use food heritage as a springboard for development. This project examines how community groups are building divergent visions of what the desired city looks like based on different conceptions of the past. Understanding how to evaluate, articulate, and bring together these visions is essential to pursuing food security, minimizing risk to communities, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of urban places.

In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, the project will engage a broad cross-section of urban community groups engaged in a collaborative development initiative. It will also provide insight into the role heritage plays in informing how different groups negotiate development programs, with significant implications for planners working in urban development.

The research project will be carried out by University of Maryland anthropology doctoral student Ellen Platts, under the supervision of Dr. Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels. At a site in the Southwestern United States where sustainable urban development initiatives based on food and culture are being created, this project explores how the politics of sustainability are negotiated in planning for the future.

The research questions center on what food heritage means for different groups, how its use in development is perceived and pursued, and what different visions for a sustainable city exist. Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and archival research. Findings will contribute to improved theoretical and practical understandings of the processes that underlie the use of heritage in development, by actors such as grassroots community organizations, municipal governments, and private investors.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.