Kevin Yelvington of the University of South Florida proposes to explore how different producers and other stakeholders in otherwise competitive emerging markets cooperate in "branding" their products. The research is set in the Temecula Valley of Southern California, which is an ideal area to explore these issues as it is being challenged with plans for land use that have potentially large impacts in terms of the economy, ecology, and social development of region. The project seeks to understand landscape transformation and the uses of natural resources, especially water, in this process, as well as the multiple labor processes upon which niche agricultural markets are built. This project employs a number of qualitative methods including participant observation fieldwork, key informant interviews, focus groups, the collection of oral histories, surveys, and archival data research. The research for this 3-year project will be conducted by the Principal Investigator and a team of advanced graduate students in applied anthropology.
Building on economic anthropological explorations into the conditions under which cooperation occurs among market competitors, this project's research design explores how many different stakeholders combine into a single system using the concept of terroir, a term that is used to explain how the land imparts a particular quality to a product. The researcher extends this concept to include other aspects of the land, including the effects on the environment, the interests of the residents and government, and the primary consumers of the products from this region. The methods have the potential to fundamentally transform anthropological and other social scientific approaches to the study of work, by creating a model that could be applied to other landscapes with complex social systems.
The project includes a student training component that will also contribute development of competitive science and technological education. The broader impacts of the proposed research also include providing information on environmental sustainability, tourism, conditions of agricultural employment, and the impacts of food chain processes. These contributions will be achieved by an extensive publication program in academic and popular venues, as well as presentations aimed at professional and popular audiences.
