FOOD, RACE, AND JUSTICE: A QUALITATIVE EXAMINATION OF THE CULTURAL ROOTS OF (IN)EQUALITY IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA’S URBAN ALTERNATIVE FOOD MOVEMENT By HEATHER K. COVINGTON A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 © 2018 Heather Covington To Those Who Dream, Seek, and Serve ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would have been impossible without the help of a number of people. First and foremost, I would like to thank the Birminghamians who participated in this research project, generously donating their time and energy to build knowledge about the communities they inhabit. Additionally, Charles W. Peek, my mentor and dissertation committee chair, worked tirelessly to hone my shifting methodological design and help focus my theoretical wanderings within an overwhelming sea of data. I would like to equally thank Barbara Zsembik who provided me with the much-needed support, academic as well as emotional, throughout my years as a graduate student. Christine Overdevest helped to nurture my research skills, serving as my first mentor during my MA years, and Mary Ellen Young’s expertise in visual qualitative methods contributed to my methodological approach with which I accumulated data great in depth as well as breadth. In addition to these core committee members, I would also like to thank every other professor in UF’s Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law who helped me grow along the way, including but not limited to Sophia Acord, who encouraged me to think boldly and lead fearlessly, as well as Monika Ardelt and Kendal Broad, both of whom taught me to appreciate qualitative approaches for the demanding yet worthwhile processes I discovered them to be. I am also grateful to my family members and friends without whom I could have never completed this marathon. My mother, Julie Saunders, father, Chris Covington, step-parents, Gordon Saunders and Jamie Covington, and all five of my sisters played critical supportive roles throughout my educational career. My close friends were equally important, and I will never forget the encouraging words of my officemate and forever friend, Jennifer Jarret, as well as Jackie Koopman, Michelle Cumming, John 4 Blasing, Kristen Benedini, Ron Floridia, and many others. My oldest friend, Stacy Oliver, housed me during data collection for this work and has provided the most sincere and compassionate moral support for what has now been over half my life, and Natalie Sargent cared for my fur baby when I had nowhere else to turn during my travels between Gainesville and Birmingham. Ryan Willoughby, who cooked many dinners and cleaned many dishes while I was too distracted with writing and editing to keep up, deserves a thousand thank yous. I have had so much support over the last five years that I cannot possibly name all of the people who have played key roles in my path toward dissertation completion, but I extend my deepest gratitude toward each and every individual within and outside of the UF community who supported, encouraged, and pushed me beyond my known limits. Finally, I would like to thank Cuy, the sweetest angel of a dog I have ever known, for her countless kisses and cuddles. Without her, I would not have made it through a single year. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................ 9 LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ 10 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................... 11 ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ 12 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 14 Overview ..................................................................................................................... 14 A Brief Reflexive History ............................................................................................. 17 Summary of Dissertation ............................................................................................ 20 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................................. 24 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 24 The Production of Inequality ....................................................................................... 29 Cultural Processes ............................................................................................... 31 Identification ................................................................................................... 35 Rationalization ............................................................................................... 38 Deconstructing Inequality ........................................................................................... 40 Identification ......................................................................................................... 41 Rationalization ...................................................................................................... 43 A Brief Review of the Sociological Research of the AFM .......................................... 46 The Salience of Cultural Processes to Racial Inequality in Birmingham’s AFM ....... 49 Production of Inequality in the AFM ..................................................................... 49 Deconstructing Inequality through the AFM ........................................................ 53 Transformative Processes in the AFM ................................................................ 55 Conclusion................................................................................................................... 59 3 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................ 61 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 61 Epistemological Approach ................................................................................... 62 Ethical Approach .................................................................................................. 62 Data Collection ............................................................................................................ 63 Study Site ............................................................................................................. 64 Ethnography ......................................................................................................... 66 Windshield test and pre-immersion ............................................................... 66 6 Immersion: interviews and fieldwork ............................................................. 68 Sampling Strategies ............................................................................................. 69 Data Analysis .............................................................................................................. 70 Ethnographic Data Analysis ................................................................................. 70 Validity/Reliability ................................................................................................. 75 Ethics and Political Considerations Statement.................................................... 77 4 CULTURAL PROCESSES AND INEQUALITY ......................................................... 78 Executive Summary .................................................................................................... 78 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 80 Identification Processes and the Production of Inequality ......................................... 81 History of Identification ......................................................................................... 81 Identification and Ongoing Assumptions ............................................................. 89 Identification and Exclusion ................................................................................. 95 Identification, Distinction, and the Importance of Class in Inequality ................. 98 Identification and the Burden of Inequality ........................................................106 Rationalization and the Production of Inequality ......................................................107 History of Rationalization ...................................................................................108 Evaluation and Inequality ...................................................................................110 White Evaluations of the AFM ...........................................................................111 Black Evaluations of the AFM ............................................................................118 Evaluation and Inequality ...................................................................................125 Whites evaluation of the black community..................................................125