Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T14:15:55.368Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS & CASE STUDIES: D-Town Farm: African American Resistance to Food Insecurity and the Transformation of Detroit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2011

Monica M. White
Monica M. White*
Affiliation:
PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan
*
Monica M. White, Department of Sociology, Wayne State University, 2257 Faculty Administration Building, Detroit, MI 48202; (phone) 313-577-2930; (fax) 313-577-2735; (e-mail) mowhite.sociology@gmail.com
Get access

Abstract

This article analyzes community building and political agency through an investigation of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN). By using farming as a strategy of resistance against the structural factors that have left much of Detroit in a condition of food insecurity, DBCFSN not only meets citizens' needs for fresh produce, but also builds community by transforming the social, economic, and physical environment. In so doing, it creates new community spaces on vacant land. DBCFSN uses the farm (a) as a community center, (b) as a means to articulate culturally relevant language about healthy food and healthy lifestyles, and (c) as a tangible model of collective work, self-reliance, and political agency. These farmers adopt a community-based model for increasing access to healthy food for the mostly African American citizens of Detroit. By focusing on improving the daily existence of citizens rather than mobilizing against the power structures, D-Town, a seven-acre model urban farm project of DBCFSN, activists participate in the revival of a city mired in racism and poverty, and all but abandoned by politicians, the automobile industry, and the merchants and supermarkets who once served Detroit's residents.

Environmental Practice 13:406–417 (2011)

Type
Features
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , December 2011 , pp. 406 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © National Association of Environmental Professionals 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bandura, A. 1989. Human Agency in Social Cognitive Theory. American Psychologist 44(9):1175–1180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, K.H. 2003. Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in the United States: Farming from the City Center to the Urban Fringe. Community Food Security Coalition, Portland, OR, 29 pp. Available at http://www.foodsecurity.org/PrimerCFSCUAC.pdf (accessed October 29, 2011).Google Scholar
Butler, J. 1993. Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex.” Routledge, New York, 304 pp.Google Scholar
Butler, J. 1997. The Psychic Life of Power: Theories of Subjection. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 228 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crow, G. 1989. The Use of the Concept of “Strategy” in Recent Sociological Literature. Sociology 23(1):1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darden, J., Hill, R., Thomas, J., and Thomas, R.. 1987. Detroit: Race and Uneven Development. Comparative American Cities. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 317 pp.Google Scholar
Data Driven Detroit. 2010. City Profile: Detroit, Michigan. Data Driven Detroit, Detroit. http://datadrivendetroit.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Detroit-Profile.pdf (accessed March 25, 2010).Google Scholar
Davies, B. 1992. The Concept of Agency: A Feminist Poststructuralist Analysis. Social Analysis 30:42–53.Google Scholar
Detroit Agriculture Network (DAN). 2010. Annual Report.Google Scholar
Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN). 2010. Latest News. DBCFSN, Detroit. http://detroitblackfoodsecurity.org/ (accessed November 18, 2010).Google Scholar
Detroit Food Justice Task Force (DFJTF). 2010. Subscribe to Just Feed Detroit! DFJTF, Detroit. http://www.detroitfoodjustice.org/ (accessed November 20, 2010).Google Scholar
Dietz, T., and Burns, T.R.. 1992. Human Agency and the Evolutionary Dynamics of Culture. Acta Sociologica 35(3):190–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dowie, M. 2009. Urban Farming in Detroit and Big Cities Back to Small Towns and Agriculture. Whiskey and Gunpowder, November 3.Google Scholar
Earthworks Urban Farm. 2010. Food Justice. Capuchin Soup Kitchen, Detroit. http://cskdetroit.org/EWG/markets_programs/food_justice (accessed October 20, 2010).Google Scholar
Emirbayer, M., and Mische, A.. 1998. What Is Agency? American Journal of Sociology 103(4):962–1023.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, M. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977, ed. Gordon, C.. Harvester, London288 pp.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 1983. The Subject and Power. In Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, ed. Dreyfus, H., and Rabinow, P.. University of Chicago Press, Chicago208–226.Google Scholar
Gallagher, M. 2007. Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Detroit. Mari Gallagher Research & Consulting Group, Chicago, 16 pp. Available at http://www.marigallagher.com/projects/2/ (accessed October 29, 2010).Google Scholar
Garden Resource Program (GRP). 2011. Grown in Detroit. GRP, Detroit. Available at Detroit Agriculture Network, http://www.detroitagriculture.org/GRP_Website/Grown_In_Detroit.html (accessed November 21, 2011).Google Scholar
Hamel, G. 1996. Strategy as Revolution. Harvard Business Review 74(4):69–82.Google ScholarPubMed
Hamm, M.W., and Bellows, A.C.. 2003. Community Food Security and Nutrition Educators. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 35(1):37–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iceland, J., Weinberg, D.H., and Steinmetz, E.. 2002. Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation in the United States: 1980–2000. Census Special Report, CENSR-3. US Census Bureau, Washington, DC, 151 pp.Google Scholar
Kaza, G. 2006. Michigan's Single-State Recession: When Local Politicians Attempt to Allocate Capital, Local Economies Suffer. National Review Online, October 18. Available at http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/218992/michigans-single-state-recession-greg-kaza (accessed October 29, 2010).Google Scholar
Logan, J.R., and Stults, B.J.. 2011. The Persistence of Segregation in the Metropolis: New Findings from the 2010 Census. US2010 Project, Brown University, Providence, 25 pp. Available at http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010/Data/Report/report2.pdf (accessed October 29, 2010).Google Scholar
Mahoney, M.A., and Yngvesson, B.. 1992. The Construction of Subjectivity and the Paradox of Resistance: Reintegrating Feminist Anthropology and Psychology. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 18(1):44–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAdam, D. 1986. Recruitment to High-Risk Activism: The Case of Freedom. American Journal of Sociology 92(1):64–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, J.D., and Zald, M.N., eds. 1979. The Dynamics of Social Movements: Resource Mobilization, Social Control, and Tactics. Winthrop, MA, 274 pp.Google Scholar
Mintzberg, H. 2001. Crafting Strategy. Harvard Business Review, July–August, 66–75.Google Scholar
Morris, A. 2004. Reflections on Social Movement Theory: Criticisms and Proposals. In Rethinking Social Movements: Structure, Meaning, and Emotion, Godwin, J. and Jasper, J.M., eds. People, Passions, and Power. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD, 233–246.Google Scholar
Oppenheimer, L., and Valsiner, J.. 1991. The Concept of Action: A Historical Perspective. In The Origins of Action: Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives, Oppenheimer, L. and Valsiner, J., eds. Springer-Verlag, New York, 1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, M. 1996. What Is Strategy? Harvard Business Review 74(6):61–78.Google Scholar
Pothukuchi, K. 2005. Attracting Supermarkets to Inner-City Neighborhoods: Economic Development Outside the Box. Economic Development Quarterly 19(3):232–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, H.W., and Overton, W.F.. 1970. Models of Development and Theories of Development. In Life-span Developmental Psychology: Research and Theory, Goulet, L.R. and Baltes, P.B., eds. Academic Press, New York, 115–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothman, R.L., Housam, R., Weiss, H., Davis, D., Gregory, R., Gebretsadik, T., Shintani, A., and Elasy, T.A.. 2006. Patient Understanding of Food Labels: The Role of Literacy and Numeracy. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 31(5):391–398.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salancik, G.R., and Pfeffer, J.. 1977. Who Gets Power—and How They Hold on to It? A Strategic-Contingency Model of Power. Organizational Dynamics 5(3):3–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, J., and Hurst, N.. 2007. Grocery Closings Hit Detroit Hard: City Shoppers' Choices Dwindle as Last Big Chain Leaves. Detroit News, July 5.Google Scholar
Snow, D.A., and Benford, R.D.. 1992. Alternative Types of Cross-National Diffusion in the Social Movement Arena. In Social Movements in a Globalizing World, Kriesi, H., Porta, D. Della and Rucht, D.R., eds. Macmillan, New York, 23–39.Google Scholar
Stevenson, W.B.S., and Greenberg, D.N.. 2000. Agency and Social Networks: Strategies of Action in a Social Structure of Position, Opposition, and Opportunity. Administrative Science Quarterly 45(4):651–678.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauss, A. 1995. Identity, Biography, History, and Symbolic Representations. Social Psychology Quarterly 58(1):4–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugrue, T. 1996. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. Princeton Studies in American Politics. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 416 pp.Google Scholar
Thompson, H. 2001. Whose Detroit? Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 368 pp.Google Scholar
Tilly, C. 1978. From Mobilization to Revolution. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 349 pp.Google Scholar
US Census Bureau. 2006–2008. American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates. US Census Bureau, Washington, DC. Available at American FactFinder, http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=16000US2622000&-context=adp&-ds_name=ACS_2008_3YR_G00_&-tree_id=3308&-_lang=en&-_caller=geoselect&-format= (accessed June 24, 2010).Google Scholar
US Census Bureau. 2010. U.S. Census Bureau Delivers Michigan's 2010 Census Population Totals, Including First Look at Race and Hispanic Origin Data for Legislative Redistricting. US Census Bureau, Washington, DC. Available at http://2010.census.gov/news/releases/operations/cb11-cn106.html (accessed November 21, 2011).Google Scholar
Wendell, S. 1990. Oppression and Victimization; Choice and Responsibility. Hypatia 5(3):15–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westcott, M.R. 1992. The Discursive Expression of Human Freedom. American Behavioral Scientist 36(1):73–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, M. 2009. Nearly Half of Detroit's Workers Are Unemployed. Detroit News, December 16.Google Scholar
Williams, R.N. 1992. The Human Context of Agency. American Psychologist 47(6):752–760.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yakini, M. 2010. Undoing Racism in the Detroit Food System. Michigan Citizen, November 2. Available at http://michigancitizen.com/undoing-racism-in-the-detroit-food-system-p9163-77.htm (accessed April 1, 2011).Google Scholar
Zenk, S.N., Schulz, A.J., Hollis-Neely, T., Campbell, R.T., Holmes, N., Watkins, G., Nwankwo, R., and Odoms-Young, A.. 2005a. Fruit and Vegetable Intake in African Americans: Income and Store Characteristics. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 29(1):1–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zenk, S.N., Schulz, A.J., Israel, B.A., James, S.A., Bao, S., and Wilson, M.L.. 2005b. Neighborhood Racial Composition, Neighborhood Poverty, and the Spatial Accessibility of Supermarkets in Metropolitan Detroit. American Journal of Public Health 95(4):660–667.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed