Stacking functions: identifying motivational frames guiding urban agriculture organizations and businesses in the United States and Canada

Nathan McClintock, Michael Phillip Simpson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

While a growing body of scholarship identifies urban agriculture’s broad suite of benefits and drivers, it remains unclear how motivations to engage in urban agriculture (UA) interrelate or how they differ across cities and types of organizations. In this paper, we draw on survey responses collected from more than 250 UA organizations and businesses from 84 cities across the United States and Canada. Synthesizing the results of our quantitative analysis of responses (including principal components analysis), qualitative analysis of textual data excerpted from open-ended responses, and a review of existing literature, we describe six motivational frames that appear to guide organizations and businesses in their UA practice: Entrepreneurial, Sustainable Development, Educational, Eco-Centric, DIY Secessionist, and Radical. Identifying how practitioners stack functions and frame their work is a first step in helping to differentiate the diverse and often contradictory efforts transforming urban food environments. We demonstrate that a wide range of objectives drive UA and that political orientations and discourses differ by geography, organizational type and size, and funding regime. These six paradigms provide a basic framework for understanding UA that can guide more in-depth studies of the gap between intentions and outcomes, while helping link historically and geographically specific insights to wider social and political economic processes.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)19-39
JournalAgriculture and Human Values
Volume35
Issue number1
Early online date4 Apr 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2018

Keywords

  • Food justice
  • Framing
  • Motiviations
  • Non-profit organizations
  • Survey
  • Urban gardens

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