Matching Items (2)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Social structure
- Creators: Haglund, LaDawn
Description
The modern food system unsustainably produces both a food surplus and record levels of hunger. Capitalist investment into agriculture disrupted natural cycles and social relations. Marx’s concept of the metabolic rift describes the way capitalist agriculture actively deteriorates the ecology (ecological rift) and disenfranchises people from food (social rift) are traced on the global scale. Then these rifts are deeply explored on the local scale of Maricopa County, Arizona to reveal the ways that even local food systems are enmeshed within the global capitalist agricultural food system. Phoenix, AZ, located in Maricopa County, has made commitments to become equitable and sustainable by 2050 in part to address issues facing the local food system. Efforts to achieve this goal (policies and studies) are analyzed using the frameworks of sustainable development (dominant “green”/ market based sustainability) and just sustainabilities (disruptive/ justice oriented sustainability). These frameworks help determine whether local efforts mend the ecological and social rifts created by capitalist agriculture, or actively deepen them. While a few studies may attempt “sustainable” solutions, they may in fact further entrench local agriculture in an unsustainable globalized food system. The efforts that are able to address both rifts, challenging the logic and structures of capitalist agriculture, are lacking in scale. In order for Phoenix to reach its sustainability goals by 2050, the ecological and social rifts must be addressed together. To do this, residents and policy makers must be able to determine between efforts that toy at the edges of capitalist agriculture and those with transformational potential, as they challenge the structures and logic of capitalism, ultimately mending the metabolic rift. While this is being done on a small scale, much more is needed to achieve a truly just and sustainable food system.
ContributorsLomelin, Marcelo Fabian (Author) / Perkins, Tracy (Thesis advisor) / Haglund, LaDawn (Committee member) / Adamson, Joni (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Tucked peacefully into mountains just north of the City of São Paulo, the largest metropolitan area in South America, sits the Cantareira Reservoir System. This massive water catchment network received worldwide coverage in 2014 and 2015 as one of the worst droughts in a century hit the region, threatening to collapse the system. In the years since the peak of the drought, the media has changed its focus, the reservoirs have begun a slow recovery, but the people of the region have had to live with the consequences of this difficult period. Faced with an uncertain future, the people continue to grapple with the historic struggles of rural life, while being faced by new threats to the social, environmental, and technological order that has for a long time stabilized the region. My thesis explores the narrative imaginaries that individuals have pertaining to their personal future and that of the region. It delves into the identity of the Rural Producer, the battle to conserve and preserve native forest, issues surrounding the governance of common resources, and what actors perceive to be the biggest advantages and threats to the sustainable future of the region. Utilizing a set of twenty expert elicitation interviews, data was collected from a variety of actors representing a number of roles and positions within the system. My analysis connects disparate individual narratives, illuminating how they connect together with the narratives of other respondents, creating a regional narrative that illustrates a set of desired outcomes for the region. This paper does not attempt to operationalize solutions for the issues that face the region, it does however serve to provide a context for the historical and contemporary issues that exist, a means by which to consider how they may be approached, and ultimately as a tool for policy makers to make more informed decisions going forward.
ContributorsStaats, Cody B. (Author) / Parmentier, Mary Jane C. (Thesis advisor) / Haglund, LaDawn (Committee member) / Bennett, Michael G. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019