2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Digital Ethnographic Mapping of Neighborhood Foodscapes in Shanghai and Tokyo
| Project/Area Number |
16K04099
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| Research Institution | Sophia University |
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Principal Investigator |
Farrer James 上智大学, 国際教養学部, 教授 (40317508)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | foodways / food studies / community / digital ethnography |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Ethnographic research was conducted in Tokyo on neighborhood foodways. Because of travel restrictions due to COVID-19, it was impossible to gather new data in Shanghai, but publications were possible based upon previous data from Shanghai. The project this year has focused on how the local culinary community has coped with COVID-19. Significant resources include social capital within the community but also substantial aid from the government. The website for the digital ethnography project was upgraded with an index and maps. New data in English and Japanese was input and made public, for use both by scholars and community members. Several new academic articles were published using the data set.
The impact of COVID-19 is global and has led to collaborations across borders and disciplines. This is reflected in the broad range of academic publications from the project this year. The major outputs of the project focused on comparisons between restaurant scenes in Tokyo and London and Tokyo and Shanghai. We have also participated in several broader multinational conferences on COVID-19. Beyond the COVID-19 issue I have focused on a deeper historical and economic analysis of the stresses on independent restaurant communities in Tokyo and Shanghai. Urban renewal, population aging, corporate consolidation, tight labor markets, and changing consumer preferences have impacted these restaurant scenes and their underlying social organization. Tokyo independent restaurants are more resilient than those in Shanghai but also under great pressure.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
4: Progress in research has been delayed.
Reason
The project was delayed because travel to Shanghai was impossible. The research was thus substantially reoriented towards the Tokyo side of the project. COVID-19 also slowed down gathering data in Tokyo, but some data collection was still possible.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
This is a long-term ethnographic project with no plans to end data gathering. Rather the project has evolved into a study of community resilience. I am looking at how the local independent restaurant scenes can survive crises, with a special focus on the COVID-19 epidemic. I plan a series of publications on this issue.
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| Causes of Carryover |
In the past year fieldwork went slowly because of limits on face-to-face interviewing due to COVID-19. In 2021 I will be using this final funding to pay research assistants to help with ethnographic case studies.
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| Remarks |
This is the primary portal for the digital ethnography project on community foodways.
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