Indigestion or Thriving Metabolism? People of Color-owned Restaurants Digesting Sustainability

This study explores people of color-owned (POC) restaurants under the governance of Washington, DC (DC) who provide community programming. Since 2009 ‘sustainable’ legislative changes have affecting DC’s food industry, causing a change in operational costs and allowable materials to serve food. DC government’s acknowledgment of racial has informed its urban plan: racial equity is embedded throughout the approach to further develop the city. With documented barriers to success experienced by racial minority business owners and the potential for upcoming legislation to place additional constraints on restaurants, it warrants investigation to see what POC owners are doing in community programming and their experiences concerning recent urban policy which has affected DC’s food industry. A pragmatist approach complemented with Nadler & Tushman’s theory of organizational behavior and McMichael’s theory of contested development informed a content analysis and a case study design; the latter which employed observations and semi-structured interviews to gain insight on participants’ experiences. 19 POC-owned restaurants fit the study’s criteria: 12 displayed community programming within the scope of DC’s sustainability plan; 17 displayed community programming outside of the scope. The case study demonstrates the significance of businesses ownership of POC in DC, reflected contested development theory, and offered insights on how DC’s urban plan is understood by the staff of one restaurant. This work may inform practice to analyze the effects of environmental-focused policy on POC and equity goals, particularly within DC. Recommendations for future research, theory, and practice within equitable urban planning are included.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Community Education and Development

Department dc:contributor.department

Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Young, Carmen D.

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Niewolny, Kimberly L.
• Helms Culhane, Jennifer

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Ellis Reynolds, Keyana

• Sustainability
• DC
• people of color
• restaurant
• contested development

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/100871

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/100871