The sociology of local food and transformational engagement: a case study of the rise of the local food movement

Abstract

This qualitative ethnographic case study of the local food movement in Larimer County, Colorado is an examination of the epistemological nature of how key players like chefs, farmers and local food advocates create and reinforce the local food movement. This thesis examines sociological process, and the micropolitics of the community of local food players, illustrating the progression of civic agriculture. I describe how transformative learning, or the process of changing a frame of reference, is key to understanding the capacity of local food movement actors to address complex systemic issues. The analysis reveals how three waves of new local hands-on projects created informal learning situations, increasing systemic and global knowledge of the food system, and how new social networks settings led to civic engagement. Cycles of accretionary knowledge and transformative learning indicate that the performative nature of civic engagement was key to the rise of the local food movement. This research offers guidance to professionals, academics and associations that represent local and regional food systems, in regards to the important role of learning sites and new social networks and that are necessary for personal transformational change and engagement. This study also lends empirical evidence that civic engagement necessitates systemic level thinking, which can inform future criteria and assessments of food movements. Overall, this research demonstrates a framework to analyze movement capacity via the waves of development, and offers a perspective on the rise of the local food movement that provides a more complete explanation of why and how food activism becomes a salient personal motivator that results in aspects of civic agriculture.