eCommons

 

The Black Agrarian Imaginary: Race, Food, and the Production of Space in Cleveland, Ohio

dc.contributor.authorLindemann, Justine Fuller
dc.contributor.chairMcMichael, Philip David
dc.contributor.committeeMemberBezner Kerr, Rachel Nicole
dc.contributor.committeeMemberMichener, Jamila
dc.date.accessioned2019-10-15T16:48:47Z
dc.date.available2019-10-15T16:48:47Z
dc.date.issued2019-08-30
dc.description.abstractWith approximately 30,000 vacant parcels of land, Cleveland, Ohio is well positioned to embrace alternative land use strategies, especially in neighborhoods that have experienced significant population loss and housing demolition. Many of these neighborhoods are concentrated in the predominantly and historically black east side of the city. This dissertation is a study of the production of space by black farmers and gardeners in the city as they strive to enact an alternative vision for land, food, and black spaces in Cleveland. I develop the black agrarian imaginary, which is a vision, praxis, and epistemology for a different kind of urban space held by many black growers in Cleveland. Through this lens, I examine how valuations of land, development, and economic or entrepreneurial engagement inform the work of black urban growers. I also explore political ecologies of food, race, and urban processes more broadly through an ethnographic study that includes residents, city officials, community development professionals, and real estate developers. While city officials often express their support for alternative land use projects, such as urban agriculture, the dominant logic of neoliberal capitalism places limits and barriers around the possibility for alternative urban forms. These barriers encountered by black growers as they assert alternative ways of living in the city are contextualized by a post-industrial city striving to become globally competitive, and a global movement for food sovereignty, as it struggles for the freedom to choose.
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.7298/z8yp-rk06
dc.identifier.otherLindemann_cornellgrad_0058F_11565
dc.identifier.otherhttp://dissertations.umi.com/cornellgrad:11565
dc.identifier.otherbibid: 11050589
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/67606
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjecturban agriculture
dc.subjectSociology
dc.subjectGeography
dc.subjectblack agrarianism
dc.subjectblack epistemologies
dc.subjectCleveland
dc.subjectOH
dc.subjectvacant land
dc.subjectUrban planning
dc.subjectAfrican American studies
dc.titleThe Black Agrarian Imaginary: Race, Food, and the Production of Space in Cleveland, Ohio
dc.typedissertation or thesis
dcterms.licensehttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/59810
thesis.degree.disciplineDevelopment Sociology
thesis.degree.grantorCornell University
thesis.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy
thesis.degree.namePh.D., Development Sociology

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Lindemann_cornellgrad_0058F_11565.pdf
Size:
1.71 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format