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A Poststructural Feminist and Narrative Analysis of Food and Bodies: Community Organizing for Social Change in a Sustainable Agriculture Initiative

Okamoto, Kristen E.
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9196-5232
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1493133165991556

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Communication Studies (Communication).
This dissertation explores organizing strategies surrounding rural food insecurity. Through ethnographic and interview-based research, I worked alongside Rural Action, a social enterprise that seeks to foster sustainable food systems for the people of Appalachia Ohio. Guided by poststructural feminist and narrative sensibilities I worked with this organization over the course of one year. I volunteered as a clerk at a produce auction, worked in community gardens, and attended planning meetings. Over the course of these activities I collected discourse, including participant observation field notes, semi structured interviews, promotional materials, and participatory sketching. Three research questions guided my research: What mobilizing narratives about food are composed and circulated by Rural Action? How does the communicative labor of Rural Action foster stakeholders’ capacity to act? How does the communicative labor of Rural Action foster social movement outcomes? I present my analysis in chapters four, five, and six. In chapter four I argue that organizational origin stories have the ability to both mobilize for action, as well as moralize bodies. For organizations centered around a food-based mission, this becomes even more complicated. In chapter five, I present discourse that supports how our assessment of risk, in terms of the food we consume, is impacted by how we aesthetically evaluate that food. Finally, in chapter six, I present a theoretical concept that I term narrative resilience. This framework is built upon a pragmatic orientation towards social problems. I demonstrate in this chapter how Rural Action demonstrates such an ethos. I conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications.
Lynn Harter, PhD (Advisor)
Laura Black, PhD (Committee Member)
Michael Butterworth, PhD (Committee Member)
Joseph Bianco, PhD (Committee Member)
217 p.
Communication
Rural Action; Ethnography; Narrative; Poststructural Feminism; Food Insecurity

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Okamoto, K. E. (2017). A Poststructural Feminist and Narrative Analysis of Food and Bodies: Community Organizing for Social Change in a Sustainable Agriculture Initiative [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1493133165991556

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Okamoto, Kristen. A Poststructural Feminist and Narrative Analysis of Food and Bodies: Community Organizing for Social Change in a Sustainable Agriculture Initiative . 2017. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1493133165991556.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Okamoto, Kristen. "A Poststructural Feminist and Narrative Analysis of Food and Bodies: Community Organizing for Social Change in a Sustainable Agriculture Initiative ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1493133165991556

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1493133165991556
349
© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.