Medical anthropologists have long recognized that problems of poverty, hunger, and disease are embedded in social and economic structures that constrain people's everyday lives. Experiencing deprivation or discrimination over a lifetime can "get under the skin" and produce detrimental health effects. With rising rates of chronic illnesses, it is now increasingly important to understand those situations in which people manage to counter these effects, actively modifying their social, cultural, and physical environments in positive ways. Community allotment gardening, a form of urban agriculture popular in the United States since World War II, is one means by which people in cities try to improve their local food environment. Understanding whether, and under what circumstances, community gardening reduces health burdens will help social scientists to better understand the relationship between culture and human biology. The research also has practical applications for urban health providers and for planners concerned with urban agriculture and zoning.
Northwestern University doctoral student, Sarah R. Taylor, with guidance from Dr. William R. Leonard, is carrying out the research in two Chicago neighborhoods characterized by different levels of socioeconomic hardship. Her research explores the social, environmental, and health impacts of community gardening over the course of a full gardening season. She is documenting changes in health and well-being using objective measures, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels, as well as subjective measures, such as perceived stress, lifestyle habits, and quality of life among gardeners and controls. In addition, ethnographic interviews and participant observation will yield in-depth information about how people actually utilize their gardens, their motivations for gardening, and the perceived benefits. By combining in-depth qualitative and quantitative research methods, findings from this research will elucidate the underlying processes by which the practice of community gardening works to shape the health and well-being of urban residents.
