Community Food Initiatives in London by Shumaisa S. Khan
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Food Sovereignty Praxis beyond the Peasant and Small Farmer Movement: Community Food Initiatives in London by Shumaisa S. Khan A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Natural Resources and Environment) in the University of Michigan 2011 Doctoral Committee: Professor Dorceta E. Taylor, Chair Associate Professor Larissa S. Larsen Associate Professor Gavin M. Shatkin Adjunct Professor Gloria E. Helfand © Shumaisa S. Khan 2011 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are so many people who have made this endeavor possible. I am very grateful to my advisor, Dorceta Taylor, for providing guidance and support from even before I stepped foot on campus. You have been a wonderful advisor, mentor, and friend, and have given me invaluable advice throughout my studies. Thank you also to Gloria Helfand, Larissa Larsen, and Gavin Shatkin for helping me to find a focus amidst the multiple dimensions in this study. I am also grateful to Rackham for funding my education and for support after a family emergency in the last few months; the Center for the Education for Women for a research grant and support in the last few months; and grants from the School of Natural Resources and Environment. Danielle Gwynne and Giselle Kolenic from CSCAR-thank you for your help with GIS. Jennifer Taylor, Diana Woodworth, and Kimberly LeClair in OAP- thank you for all of your assistance over the years. Knowledge Navigation Center folks- you are indispensable in getting the correct formatting. Of course, I am immensely grateful for all of the participants who took the time to share their perspectives with me and to contributors to Open Street Map and open source work generally for making knowledge and knowledge creation more accessible. Ashley- thank you so much for your support, especially during the last stretch. I will miss our times in the MELDI lab, chocolate therapy, film nights, pep talks, and social movement discussions. Latonia, you have been a great companion and have kindly put up with the Ashley-Shumaisa dissertation chaos in the MELDI lab. Sarah, June, Kevin, and Claudia- thank you for sharing your experiences with me and giving me ii helpful advice. Talia and Yasser, thank you so much for feeding me your wonderful Kashmiri food, and of course, thank you Talia for years of friendship and love, and all the help at the end. Megan, thank you so much for your friendship, stimulating discussions, advice, and hospitality; you are one of the kindest people I know. Sabahat, Lubna, Maie, Ozgen, Fatima-you‘ve all helped me in numerous ways and have been wonderful friends. In England, thank you to Uzma Baji, Cath, Michael, Femi, Paul, Wasi and the Danijous, Mike, Rona, Ben, Kirat, Howard, Anne, Iyadh, Nisar, Nausheena, Elizabeth, and Aziem for your support, friendship, generosity, and for helping me adjust to life across the pond. Thank you to my parents-it‘s only through your sacrifices and support that I have come to this point, and to Onaisa-I am so lucky and blessed to have you as a sister-you‘ve been a huge help this past year and of course, throughout my life. Muzammal-thank you for bearing with this for the first years of our marriage, for putting up with my characterizations of ‗your country‘ in my cranky moments, for being patient as I spent months away in Michigan during my final year, and for your unwavering support, which I am deeply grateful for. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. ii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ xii LIST OF IMAGES ......................................................................................................... xiv LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................... xvi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................... xvii CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 1 Food System Problems ....................................................................................................... 3 Emergence of Alternatives .................................................................................................. 9 From Organic to Local .................................................................................................. 11 Limits of Localization Practices ................................................................................... 13 Race, Class, and Alternative Food Spaces .................................................................... 14 Beyond Organic and Local ........................................................................................... 20 Outline of Dissertation ...................................................................................................... 34 CHAPTER 2 - THEORETICAL APPROACH ........................................................... 37 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 37 Social Movement Theory .................................................................................................. 38 iv Grievance/Strain ........................................................................................................... 38 Resource mobilization .................................................................................................. 38 Political Process ............................................................................................................ 39 Theories of Mobilization .............................................................................................. 40 Place, Identity, and Food .................................................................................................. 45 CHAPTER 3 - RESEARCH DESIGN .......................................................................... 47 Case Studies .................................................................................................................. 48 Survey ........................................................................................................................... 49 Research Sites ................................................................................................................... 50 Data Collection ................................................................................................................. 55 Data Analysis .................................................................................................................... 59 Data Quality ...................................................................................................................... 61 Delimitations and Limitations ........................................................................................... 61 Reflexivity and Positionality............................................................................................. 62 CHAPTER 4 - ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND DISCOURSE OF CFIS ACROSS LONDON .............................................................................................. 69 History of London CFIs .................................................................................................... 69 Political Processes ......................................................................................................... 71 Means of Initiation ........................................................................................................ 79 Projects of Existing Organizations ............................................................................... 80 Projects Started Informally ........................................................................................... 84 v Resource Mobilization ...................................................................................................... 86 Space ............................................................................................................................. 86 Volunteer Labor ............................................................................................................ 87 Funding ......................................................................................................................... 87 CFI-CFI Support ........................................................................................................... 89 Structures and Decision-making ....................................................................................... 96 Food – Sustainability, Affordability and Range of Produce ............................................. 99 Scaling Up ....................................................................................................................... 106 CFI Perspectives ............................................................................................................. 111 CFI Discourse ................................................................................................................. 112 Framing ........................................................................................................................... 116 CFE ............................................................................................................................