I have been a pretty non-existent blogger, haven't I? Well, it's because I haven't actually begun collecting data yet. But, I have been working on what I've come to realize may be the most important factor of a research project and it's success-- planning.
Of course, I had to submit a proposal outlining my research question and methodology and why I wanted to do this project before I even got approved/funded, but even that is vague in comparison to the extreme detail needed for a good project, not to mention IRB approval. Right away I realized that the scope of my research question was far too broad for me to handle on my own. I needed to get specific and think about the core purpose of researching food access. What did I want to know about it? The connection between low-income and food access is already pretty clear and has been researched quite a bit. Obviously, if a family has less money, less time, and less knowledge about healthy food and where to get it, their nutrition and access to fresh fruits and vegetables (which is how I'm choosing to define healthy food) becomes severely limited. So I didn't want to find out what everyone already knows. I want my project to be useful in some way, to actually be leading to some physical change that can address the problem. And since I am working at HOPE Gardens this summer, I am part of a community space full of produce and enthusiastic students and volunteers interested in helping and learning about food justice.
But there are very few people from the homeless and low-income communities HOPE tries to serve that actually participate in the regular activities of the garden. So I realized I wanted to redirect the focus of my project somewhat. My question now is not, Why do you not have access to healthy food (although that is still something I am looking into), but How would you change it? Or, more specifically, What are the main barriers to getting fresh fruits and vegetables and what would induce people from the community to participate in a community garden to improve their access?
I had a great conversation with a friend who had also done a community-based research project in Chapel Hill, last summer, about the idea of "community space." It's a term that's often tossed around in well-meaning student organizations, but it always seemed really vague to me. What is it? What does it do? The name suggests that it belongs to the "community," but who really is that? I thought about really successful collectives I had read about, food co-ops or community gardens or group living arrangements, and wondered what set them apart. It seemed to me that the issue of ownership was a constant factor in a collective's success or failure.
In America, we have private property. Most see it as one of our fundamental rights. We own houses and cars and businesses, and everything runs smoothly because we are each individually responsible for what's ours and how it's used. We've all probably heard about the Tragedy of the Commons, where a lack of distinct private ownership leads to selfishness of all parties and eventual destruction of whatever existed in the Commons, such as a pond for fishing or a field for grazing livestock. Yet in community gardens and similar spaces, this rigid line between owners and outsiders is blurred, purposefully. Ideally, a community garden belongs to everyone, and benefits everyone, should they choose to take advantage of it. It seems hard, however, to accommodate everyone's needs or desires and run a successful garden at the same time. How do community gardens deal with the potential clashes of culture, varying levels of knowledge, and differences of opinion? And how do they cultivate a sense of ownership among members of the community to begin with, so that everyone feels comfortable participating?
HOPE Gardens in it's early stages
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