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  4. THE NEW AGRARIANS: FORMING AND FARMING A POST-CAPITALIST LIVELIHOOD ETHIC IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

THE NEW AGRARIANS: FORMING AND FARMING A POST-CAPITALIST LIVELIHOOD ETHIC IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

File(s)
Bailey_cornellgrad_0058F_11269.pdf (895.85 KB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://doi.org/10.7298/r4yb-ty41
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/64897
Collections
Cornell Theses and Dissertations
Author
Bailey, Ian Douglas
Abstract

In contrast to the dominant mode of industrial farming, new agrarians seek a more ecologically- and socially-embedded form of agriculture, where soils are managed through regenerative practices and food is delivered to local or regional populations. In doing so, they challenge the cultural, economic, and political assumptions that have driven agricultural policy in America – mechanization, economies of scale, migrant farm labor, etc. More generally, they reject the accumulation logic of capitalist culture, and in doing so generate alternative means of creating value, meaning, and livelihood through agriculture. Whether the local food movement is a challenge to conventional food systems, it cultivates new agrarian subjects with ethical commitments that run counter to the rigid individualism and self-interest of the neoliberal subject. This dissertation details the formation of this agrarian subjectivity, which I term the livelihood ethic, and community economies as they are formed through agrarian training centers and networks in Northern California.

Date Issued
2018-12-30
Keywords
Post Capitalist
•
American studies
•
Sociology
•
sustainable agriculture
•
Organic Agriculture
•
Agriculture
•
Beginning Farmers
•
Community Economy
•
Local Food
Committee Chair
McMichael, Philip David
Committee Member
Geisler, Charles C.
Wolford, Wendy W.
Galt, Ryan Edward
Degree Discipline
Development Sociology
Degree Name
Ph. D., Development Sociology
Degree Level
Doctor of Philosophy
Type
dissertation or thesis

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