Allotments and Alternative Food Networks: the Case of Plymouth, UK
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University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk 04 University of Plymouth Research Theses 01 Research Theses Main Collection 2013 Allotments and alternative food networks: the case of Plymouth, UK Miller, Wendy M http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/2874 University of Plymouth All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. Allotments and alternative food networks: the case of Plymouth, UK Wendy M Miller Thesis in partial fulfilment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty of Science and Technology Plymouth University Drake Circus Plymouth PL4 8AA December 2013 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s prior consent. Allotments and alternative food networks: the case of Plymouth, UK Wendy Miller Abstract Alternative food networks (AFNs) are the focus of an ‘explosive growth’ of research in Europe (Goodman 2004), and the term covers a wide range of activities, from food banks, community gardens, and farmers’ markets, to community supported or organic agriculture. However, there is an impasse in differing positions over whether AFNs represent an exclusionary place-based ‘quality turn’ (Ilbery and Kneafsey 2000), or whether they contribute to inclusive local communities, sustainability and food security (Tregear 2011, Kirwan and Maye 2013). This research aimed to clarify these debates, through exploration of UK allotments as a benchmark for AFNs, using the case of Plymouth, SW England. A political ecology perspective of social-ecological systems (Ostrom 2008) was used to investigate the activities, relations and governance involved in allotments and AFNs, organised through the concepts of multidimensional capital assets (Bebbington 1999). This research demonstrates how activities on allotments involve human, social, cultural, natural and political capital assets, encompassing both basic food security and a quality turn towards ‘good food’ (Sage 2003). Taking the long view, it is seen that the relative importance of the different asset dimensions are contingent on wider socio- political settings. Relations on allotments illustrate the building of social capital, which extends to wider communities of interest, practice and place (Harrington et al. 2008), and which involves values of social justice that can be explained as diverse or care economies (Gibson-Graham 2008, Dowler et al. 2010). However, the politics and governance of allotments are largely influenced by neoliberal policies that favour oligopolistic and transnational food systems and restrict urban land allocations for place-based food initiatives. Present-day urban population densities are at levels far higher than envisaged for the original garden cities. Nevertheless, alliances at neighbourhood, city, regional, national and transnational scales are coalescing around the values represented in the original setting up of the UK allotment system: of self- reliance, human-scale settlements and the restorative value of the natural environment. Any realization of the potential contribution of allotments and AFNs to the sustainability and resilience of food supplies for urban populations (Armitage et al. 2008, Folke et al. 2010) ultimately depends on multilevel responses to a large range of challenges. Finally, the thesis contends that, in the present day, evidence is building up around the potential of allotments and many other AFN activities, or place-based food systems, to meet multiple policy objectives through aligned values. i ii Allotments and alternative food networks: the case of Plymouth, UK Wendy Miller, December 2013 Table of Contents Page 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background to this thesis 1 1.2 The wider settings of allotments and AFNs 4 1.3 Conceptualising allotments and AFNs: social-ecological systems of 11 pluriactivity and economies of care 1.4 Gaps in knowledge 14 1.5 The aims and objectives of this research 18 1.6 Thesis structure 21 2 Review of the literature 23 2.1 Structure and overview 23 2.2 Theorizing AFNs and allotments: pragmatic critical realism meets 25 participatory political ecology 2.3 Conceptual groundings for allotments and AFNs: the capital assets 31 framework as a temporal/spatial window 2.4 UK allotments: populist, academic and policy perspectives 36 2.5 Food and non-food production activities on allotments 42 2.6 Allotment relations: non-monetary exchanges (en)counter 51 neoliberal constructs 2.6.1 Introduction 51 2.6.2 Diverse economies and social capital 52 2.6.3 Building social capital through gifting time 56 2.6.4 Gender and family relations on allotments 58 2.6.5 Habitus, cooperation and norms in allotment praxes 59 2.6.6 Moving into the monetary economy 61 2.6.7 Diverse, alternative and conventional food networks 64 2.7 Allotment politics: participation, governance and narratives 64 2.7.1 Introduction 64 2.7.2 Gaining access to an allotment: process and outcomes 65 2.7.3 Participating in site hierarchies and management 67 2.7.4 Levering resources for allotments: city and translocal settings 71 2.7.5 New social groupings and narratives 73 2.7.6 Whose knowledge counts? 76 2.8 Allotments and AFNs: interplays between multilevel 80 social-ecological systems 2.9 The need for this research 90 iii 3 Methodology 93 3.1 Introduction 93 3.2 Epistemology and methodology 94 3.3 The case study approach 96 3.3.1 Case in focus: Plymouth and the South West 100 3.4 Research strategy and design 105 3.5 Participatory action research 109 3.6 Research methods 110 3.6.1 Interviews 113 3.6.2 Participant observation 117 3.6.3 Texts: academic, ‘grey’ literature’, PR, media 119 3.6.4 Statistical sources 122 3.6.5 Visualization and semiotics 124 3.6.6 Recording and analysing findings 126 3.7 Methods ‘in the mix’ to address research aims and objectives 130 3.8 Standpoints, positionality, reflexivity and ethics 134 3.9 Work in progress: situated reflections on the research 137 4 Plymouth and its allotments 141 4.1 Introduction 141 4.2 Plymouth: development and demographies 141 4.3 Plymouth’s land and food 150 4.4 Historical provision of allotments in Plymouth 157 4.5 Present-day provision and management of Plymouth allotments 161 4.6 Demographies of plotholders in Plymouth 169 4.7 Conclusion 174 5 Food and non-food production activities on Plymouth allotments 175 5.1 Introduction 175 5.2 Producing human capital from allotment activities: food security, quality and 177 plant medicine 5.3 Producing wellbeing: outdoor exercise, self-reliance and the natural setting 196 5.4 Producing social groupings: family and community 201 5.5 Producing cultures and natures 203 5.6 Conclusion: fulfilling different needs, producing many assets 210 6 Non-monetised relations on Plymouth allotments: diverse 213 economies, different ethics 6.1 Introduction 213 6.2 Multiple motivations and contingent factors in ‘giving labour’: from individual 215 to social being 6.3 Gender and family food relations on allotments 224 6.4 Flows on and beyond the allotment: broadening social capital 229 6.5 Conventions and communities of practice: norms rules and sanctions on 238 Plymouth allotments iv 6.6 Converting capitals: moving into the monetary economy with new 247 organizational forms and ethics 6.7 Conclusion: new social norms lead to support and incentives? 251 7 Allotment politics in Plymouth: participation, access 255 and narratives 7.1 Introduction 255 7.2 Accessing and sustaining participation in Plymouth allotments: effort, 256 bureaucracies and legitimacy 7.2.1 Accessing and maintaining an allotment plot 257 7.2.2 Site politics and participation 266 7.2.3 Participating in Plymouth allotment management 271 7.3 Access to city resources: linking capital, decision-making and 275 distributed power 7.4 Regional, national and international settings: policies and agreements 287 7.5 Challenging representations and changing governmentalities through 290 social movements 7.6 Liberating rules and storylines: escaping hegemonies with 296 irresistible invitations 7.7 Conclusion: distributed and distributing power and assets, rights and 300 responsibilities 8 Plymouth allotments and alternative food networks 305 8.1 Introduction 305 8.2 Allotments and AFNs: defining place-based social-ecological 307 food systems 8.3 Allotments and AFNs: complementary contributions to resilience 314 and sustainability 8.4 Linking, connecting and participating: building coalitions with many voices 320 for imagined food futures 8.5 Learning, adapting and evolving within allotments and AFNs: manifesting 324 different food futures 8.6 Maintaining the material function of food networks 327 8.7 Fulfilling the psychological function: attachment to the patch in 331 neighbourhoods, city and region 8.8 Fulfilling the social function: cohesion and solidarity 336 8.9 In the real world: scaling up and out with narratives and governmentalities 341 of translocal realities and imaginaries 8.10 Conclusion: social-ecological place-based food systems 345 9 Conclusions 347 9.1 Chapter introduction 347 9.2 Contextualising findings for this