Home Institution
University of Colorado At Boulder
Publication Date
Fall 2013
Abstract
This investigation studies the modernization effects on Loma Bonita and how these changes will ultimately shape the community in the future. By performing of series of 50 interviews and surveys, I used anecdotal and observational research to my make conclusions about the effects of electricity installation, road construction, and foreign influences on the town. Although it is recognized that there are an abundance of factors contributing to modernization, the scope of this paper only focuses on the three components mentioned above.
Daily lives of Loma Bonita residents have already been drastically changed by the electricity, road, and foreigners. The community was originally inhabited by strictly subsistence agriculturalists retrieving all necessary living accommodations from the land. Currently, changes in transportation, technology, and value have transcended the campo from this traditional lifestyle. Now Loma Bonita is faced with the choice of remaining in subsistence agriculture or transitioning into the commercial market.
This article argues that the new lives brought forth by modernizing influences will require an agricultural reformation that encourages produce vending rather than restricting it to family consumption. If this reform is not made, the city could spiral into expanding inequalities between incoming wealthy residents and the already established rural poor. If some improvements are made in the system, however, Loma Bonita could conquer government intervention and establish itself as a successful community that maintains its traditional values while changing with the modernistic times.
Disciplines
Civic and Community Engagement | Community-Based Research | Demography, Population, and Ecology | Family, Life Course, and Society | Growth and Development | Inequality and Stratification | Rural Sociology
Recommended Citation
Halpin, Piper, "Modernization and Its Effects in Loma Bonita: A Leap from Historical Subsistence Agriculture into the Precarious Commercial Market" (2013). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 1736.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/1736
Included in
Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Community-Based Research Commons, Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Growth and Development Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Rural Sociology Commons
Program Name
Panama: Tropical Ecology, Marine Ecosystems, and Biodiversity Conservation