2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
The role of informal food practices in convivial post-growth rural lifestyles
| Project/Area Number |
19K15931
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| Research Institution | Research Institute for Humanity and Nature |
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Principal Investigator |
Steven McGreevy 総合地球環境学研究所, 研究部, 准教授 (10700172)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | Informal Food / Social Practice / Convivial Lifestyles / Sustainability / Rural Livelihoods |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Informal food practices play an important role as living evolving practices that compose convivial lifestyles as well as contribute to individual and community well-being and quality of life. This research aims to capture the diversity and meaning behind post-growth convivial lifestyles in Japan and how they contribute to local food security, maintaining food culture, and recapture well-being.
During this first year of research, there were a number of significant achievements. A literature review on informal food practices, including an assessment of various definitions and conceptualizations, provided the conceptual basis for evaluating fieldwork and survey results. Practices could be categorized as "civic", "wild", "informal", "alternative", and "local" depending on the context and with considerable overlap in meaning.
Data was collected through fieldwork in a rural Nagano community with a cluster of in-migrants leading hybridized lifestyles where gardening, gathering wild food, and sharing play a role in their lives.
Online discourse analysis was used to explore the range and breadth of IFPs being practices in Japan. Results are being compiled on a website to map practices across Japan. Through the online assessment, informal food practices were found to be extensive in urban areas in addition to rural communities and these have been included in the study.
Early results from the conceptualizations, fieldwork, and surveys were presented at major conferences and received useful feedback.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Project collaborators have enthusiastically engaged in the research on informal food practices and convivial, post-growth lifestyles. An online platform to map IFP, wild, and civic food practices across Japan is being initiated as a citizen science project and as a way to capture the breadth of practices being performed. Interviews and fieldwork data is being analyzed to understand the practitioner's perceptions of conviviality and "plentitude principles", as well as how they acquired the knowledge needed to successfully enact the practice. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some planned fieldwork had to be cancelled, and we are now strategizing on how to collect data through virtual fora or online surveys.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The COVID-19 outbreak presents a research opportunity as there may be more free-time to engage in informal food practices as many are home-bound during the emergency. As face-to-face interviews will be difficult, there are plans for developing virtual fora or online surveys to collect data. This still requires identifying proper sampling communities. We hope to launch the IFP mapping website this year to further collect data on spatial distribution and diversity of practices performed. Next steps include an assessment of quantitative data on IFP production and distribution to understand local food flows, sharing/gifting, and unattended food stalls, as well as an exploratory policy/planning workshop (virtual) to discuss policies to support IFPs and convivial lifestyles. We are in the midst of negotiating an open access edited volume to cover topics such as social practices, well-being, food culture and security, and lifestyles for a post-growth Japan based on research results.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Fieldwork planned to occur at the end of last year was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, short-term funding was acquired through other sources that led to prioritizing the usage of those budgets.
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we hypothesize that there may be greater interest in informal food practices as people are more home-bound and have a surplus of free-time. This presents a compelling research opportunity. Since face-to-face communication and fieldwork will be difficult this year, virtual fora and online surveys will be used to collect further data on how the COVID-19 outbreak has affected practice deployment and perceptions of well-being and conviviality.
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