Exploring the Empirical Relationship Between Civic Agriculture and Community Resilience Beth Joanna Person-Michener University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
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University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 8-2017 Exploring the Empirical Relationship between Civic Agriculture and Community Resilience Beth Joanna Person-Michener University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Community-Based Research Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, and the Food Security Commons Recommended Citation Person-Michener, Beth Joanna, "Exploring the Empirical Relationship between Civic Agriculture and Community Resilience" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 2507. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2507 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Exploring the Empirical Relationship between Civic Agriculture and Community Resilience A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Dynamics by Joanna Person-Michener Ouachita Baptist University Bachelor of Science in Nutrition, 1996 University of Arkansas Master of Science in Counseling, 2012 August 2017 University of Arkansas This dissertation is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council. ___________________________________ Dr. Betsy Garrison Dissertation Director ___________________________________ ____________________________________ Dr. Zola Moon Dr. Curt Rom Committee Member Committee Member Abstract Smaller-scale, qualitative and mixed method studies indicate that civic agriculture generates positive, local-level social change, specifically by increasing social, human and economic capital. These social benefits are also identified as some of the crucial components needed for community resilience to disasters. However, literature directly linking civic agriculture to community resilience is sparse and there is little if any research explicitly examining a relationship between civic agriculture and community resilience. This study lends national scope and an empirical examination of evidence for a positive relationship between civic agriculture and community resilience along the applicable domains of social, human and economic capital using the county unit of analysis. ©2017 by Joanna Person-Michener All Rights Reserved Acknowledgments I especially thank my husband, as well as, my dearest friends and extended family, who encouraged me tirelessly through this process. Without their love and support, I would never have completed this PhD. Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my son, Samual Tao Pollock, who, along with his peers, will face formidable odds and the need to forge a new human culture devoted to the love of community, the preservation of nature, and a collective mind for resilience. Table of Contents Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................................................. 2 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Background and Research Question ...................................................................................... 4 Problem Statement and Purpose ............................................................................................ 5 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................... 7 Literature Review............................................................................................................................ 7 Manifestations of Civic Agriculture ...................................................................................... 9 Community Resilience ......................................................................................................... 13 The Community Capitals Framework.................................................................................. 24 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................................. 37 Data and Methods ......................................................................................................................... 37 Measuring Civic-Agriculture Access................................................................................... 38 Data Preprocessing and Statistical Procedures .................................................................... 44 Hypotheses and Data Analysis ............................................................................................ 45 CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................................................. 49 Results ........................................................................................................................................... 49 National Distribution of Civic-Agriculture Access ............................................................. 51 Pearson’s Correlations between CAA and the Community Capitals .................................. 54 OLS Regression of the Predictive Power of CAA on the Community Capitals.................. 55 CHAPTER 5 ................................................................................................................................. 61 Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 61 Geographic Distribution ...................................................................................................... 62 Forms of Civic Agriculture .................................................................................................. 74 Unit of Analysis Considerations .......................................................................................... 76 Implications and Limitations ............................................................................................... 78 Future Research ................................................................................................................... 80 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 82 References ..................................................................................................................................... 84 List of Tables Table 1 Salient Literature ...............................................................................................................27 Table 2 Data Sets with Sources, Variable Description and Justification .......................................43 Table 3 Central tendency and dispersion of study variables (N = 3107) .......................................50 Table 4 One-Way Analysis of Variance of CAA mean differences between metropolitan counties, rural counties adjacent to metropolitan counties and rural counties not adjacent to metropolitan counties .........................................................................................................54 Table 5 Pearson's Correlations Between CAA and Dependent Variables .....................................54 Table 6 OLS Regression Coefficients with CAA as Independent Variable and Social, Human, and Economic Indicators as Dependent Variables (N = 3107) ..............................................55 Table 7 Spatial Linear Regression Coefficients with CAA as the Independent Variable and Social (Model 1), Human (Model 2), and Economic (Model 3) Capital Indicators as Dependent Variables (N = 3,107) With the Spatial Lag Variable Added to the Model ........58 List of Figures Figure 1. Conceptual basis of the dissertation. ................................................................................6 Figure 2. County civic agriculture access values across the conterminous United States using standard deviations. ................................................................................................................51 Figure 3. Civic agriculture access mean values for the four main U.S. census regions. ...............52 Figure 4. The local indicators of spatial association map shows spatially autocorrelated clusters of high civic agriculture access counties (CAA) surrounded by high CAA counties in red, and low CAA counties in blue surrounded by low CAA counties. Low CAA counties neighboring high CAA counties are in lavender and high CAA counties neighboring low CAA counties are in pink. ..........................................................................53 Figure 5. The top image illustrates the civic agriculture access (CAA) local indicator of spatial association test showing high CAA counties clustered with other high CAA counties in red and low CAA counties with other low CAA counties in blue. Counties low in the phenomena neighboring areas that are high are in lavender. Counties that are high in the phenomena neighboring areas that are low are in pink. The next image is the BRIC Community Capital subindex, then food security, and retail-trade-establishment rates are last. ...........................................................................................................................57