2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
The role of informal food practices in convivial post-growth rural lifestyles
| Project/Area Number |
19K15931
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Research Institute for Humanity and Nature |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
Steven McGreevy 総合地球環境学研究所, 研究部, 准教授 (10700172)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
|
| Keywords | Informal food / Social practice / Convivial lifestyles / Sustainability / Rural livelihoods |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The project progressed significantly this year, as members contributed to the conceptual development of post-growth food systems and informal food practices (IFP), as well as took major strides in IFP mapping.
The role of IFP in post-growth food systems was discussed extensively at the 15th International Symposium of the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, entitled “Transitioning Cultures of Everyday Food Consumption and Production: Stories from a Post-Growth Future” and held on January 13-16th, 2021. A session on “Food-alternatives in the present” featured in-depth discussions of IFP as part of sustainable lifestyles and local food distribution. Insights from the symposium are being captured as part of a co-authored publication for Nature-Sustainability. Online discourse analysis and extensive data curation of online sources allowed for the development of a mapping website (minna-no-shoku.org) that shows the location of thousands of informal food practice sites in Japan (foraging sites, children's canteens, unmanned food stalls, direct sales, farmers markets etc.). We are soliciting civic food organizations to provide more details and mark them on the map.
An online survey was also conducted in multiple countries (Japan, Italy, Germany, USA) on the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on food practices and perceptions of food sustainability. Research results are being drafted for an open-access book entitled “Post-growth food for Japan: revaluing informal and wild food practices as provisioning systems“ with Australian National Press.
|
| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Despite complications due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lock-downs, progress has been consistent and we have adapted accordingly. Conducting in-person interviews and fieldwork, a major component of the research plan, has been all but impossible. We have performed data collection through online platforms and surveys as a way to remedy these unavoidable circumstances. We have also used the window of opportunity that COVID-19 has provided to tailor our data collection to focus on the impact of lockdowns on perceptions and behavioral change related to IFPs.
We conducted a four-country (Japan, USA, Germany, Italy), multi-faceted survey to identify changes in food and material consumption, use of dwellings and space, and shifts in mobility induced by the pandemic as well as measured the willingness or desire to adopt more sustainable practices over the long-term. The survey uses social practice theory and identified factors that would help or hinder “locking in” sustainable practices.
We have also made significant progress of the IFP mapping project through the minna-no-shoku.org website. IFPs have been shown to function by different modes: distribution, prosumption, & community orientation. They also connect different discourses, such as quiet sustainability, food democracy, and alternative food networks. Japan’s diversity of food practices speaks to a culture of not stepping outside of social norms or pointing attention towards large disruptions to existing systems, but instead points to how these acts emerge from a sense of individual responsibility and values.
|
| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
We are aiming to finish our book "Post-growth food for Japan: revaluing informal and wild food practices as provisioning systems" with Australia National Press this year and publish it open-access. The book introduces a conceptual framework for IFPs as part of post-growth food systems and illustrates elements of the framework through a collection of case-studies of IFPs in Japan.
We are also working with civic food organizations to connect to and further develop the minna-no-shoku.org webpage with detailed information and more examples. We plan to hold an online event to promote the website and get feedback from such organizations.
We hope to present our research results at major academic conferences such as 2022 XV World Congress of Rural Sociology and Sustainability, Research, and Innovation Congress 2021.
|
| Causes of Carryover |
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, expected fieldwork was not performed. Thus, there is a surplus this year.
We expect to spend the budget on book chapter proofreading and copy editing, open access publication fees, conference participation fees, academic society participation fees, and on-topic books and miscellaneous goods.
|
