Graduation Year
2013
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.A.
Degree Granting Department
Anthropology
Major Professor
Antoinette T. Jackson
Keywords
alternative food movements, local food, political economy, social capital, sustainable agriculture
Abstract
Building from existing literature on anthropology of food, political economy of food and consumption, and social movement theory, I examine the direct agriculture network of Tampa Bay Florida through a mixed-method ethnography. The research consisted of one year of field-work, with 6 months and over 100 hours of active participant observation, open-ended interviews with eight local producers, and short surveys with 100 market patrons. This thesis is an analysis of the results of this rigorous qualitative and quantitative work and, perhaps more importantly, an account of my own personal struggles in joining the direct agriculture network and my ultimate commitment to the movement. This report documents one student's transition from a researcher to an activist, finally settling in a local place that occupies both worlds in an effort to help increase the accessibility of others who wish to join the movement; an equal access based not only on economic capital, but also social and cultural capital in order to sustain an alternative food social movement.
Scholar Commons Citation
Murray, Elizabeth A., "Fertile Ground for a Social Movement: Social Capital in Direct Agriculture Marketing" (2013). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/4734
