My research interests focus on change in agri-food systems, and in particular, explore the landscape of alternative food politics that is developing as we work to make agri-food systems more sustainable. Within this broad area, I am particularly interested in exploring the following issues:

Contributions of food-based practices to constructions of place and identity Practices of food production, processing, distribution, retail, consumption and waste are significant factors in constructions of place and identity. I am particularly interested in the constructions of 'local' places that are conceptualized as the locations for more sustainable food systems, and in the role that involvement with sustainable food activism plays in identity politics.
Food networks and rural-urban dynamics Food is central to relationship between urban and rural areas. Many rural areas are undergoing rapid and unsustainable change, often closely linked to the production of food for predominantly urban populations. I am interested in the ways that alternative food networks might provide alternative models for rural-urban relationships mediated through food, and in the differing ways that food production is embedded within rural and urban communities.
Agricultural practices in sustainable urban design While many alternative food networks build on traditional rural farming structures, these models are increasingly being adapted to fit into the design of sustainable urban spaces. Urban agriculture, city farms, suburban community supported agriculture, even guerrilla gardening - these are all evidence of a shift in the type of space occupied by agriculture in the society today. I am interested in exploring the possibilities for positive socio-environmental change through the incorporation of agricultural practices into urban areas.

current projects

I am currently in my first year of the PhD program in Geography at Clark University. While working to develop my PhD dissertation research, I am also involved in the following projects:

I am currently working as a Research Assistant for an NSF-funded project exploring the role of lawn care practices in coupled human-environment systems. The project brings together data from several cities across the US, and contributes to a wider research interest in the processes of suburbanization and constructions of place.
I am also developing a proposal for research exploring different models for community supported agriculture in Massachusetts. This builds on my interest in the relationship between food systems and communities – however they are constructed – that is described above.

recent projects

These are some projects that I have worked on in recent years:

I have co-authored a book chapter exploring the role of knowledge in emergent local food networks on Skye, Scotland. This will be included in a volume entitled "Naming Food after Places: Patterns of food relocalization and knowledge dynamics in rural development" to be published in 2010.
I have contributed entries to a forthcoming SAGE encyclopedia of Green Food.
I have written articles exploring constructions of place and identity in alternative food politics for Geography Compass and Area.
I have developed an online local foods map for a community organization called Greener Leith in Edinburgh.
I designed and implemented a research project exploring an emerging alternative food network in Fife, Scotland while studying for my Masters by Research in Human Geography at the University of Edinburgh (see below).

I also write a blog about local and alternative food politics, at the Local Foods Research wesbite (see right). I developed this website and blog to accompany my research at the University of Edinburgh during 2007-08, and since completing the research, have continued to maintain the blog with regular news and commentary on local food issues. As of January 2010, the blog had received over 37,000 pageviews.

masters research at the university of edinburgh

My masters research at the University of Edinburgh was based on a series of interviews with individuals and organizations involved in alternative food network activities in Fife, Scotland. The aim was to explore the role that localism plays in alternative food politics, and to examine how the 'local' is constructed as a space in which alternatives to the mainstream food system can be enacted successfully.

The research built on existing alternative food networks literature in human geography, rural sociology and agri-food studies, and engaged with calls for a more reflexive local food politics, in light of the potential for local food activism to exhibit defensive, exclusive or parochial tendencies.

The final dissertation also addressed theoretical debates in human geography around the construction of scale and the progressive or regressive nature of place-bound social movements. Drawing on the experiences of local food activists in Fife, I explored recent debate around the use of scale as a category of analysis or as a category of practice, and argued against simplistic readings of a politics of place as progressive or regressive. You can read a more detailed description of the results at the research project website. You can also look at the following resources: