Assessing Modernization in Honduran Landscapes Using Repeat Photography

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2013

Department

Geography and Geology

School

Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences

Abstract

In 1999, Honduran historian Mario Argueta wrote,”Enpocasdecadaspasamos del pacienteburro….a la communication electronica, en susdistintasmodalidadesquenosconecta con el mundo. … Las distancias se acortaron, la genteinteractuo con masfrecuencia.” (“In a few decades we have passed from the patient burro… to electronic communication, in its various forms that connects us to the world. … Distances are shorter, people interact more frequently”—Argueta 1999, 15). By chronicling the development of transportation in the country, Argueta offered a look at the changes in accessibility that come with the expansion of modern transportation and communication technologies. Rapid transformations are, of course, taking place across the world. Places and people that have long had very localized existences and traditions of community are suddenly being connected in vastly new ways to places and people the world over. Watching people in still isolated rural areas read and send text messages from horseback reminds one vividly of the swiftness of such transformations.

This article uses repeat photography to assess changes in transportation infrastructure and accessibility in the country of Honduras. Expansion of these infrastructures and the multiple expansions of accessibility they provide have clearly taken place over the past half‐century throughout the study area in Honduras. However, these changes appear to have taken place with increasing effect during the past decade and are identifiable through repeat photographic analysis, illustrating the value of the method for assessing changes, particularly with regard to their velocity (Foote 1985).

Publication Title

Geographical Review

Volume

103

Issue

3

First Page

431

Last Page

443

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