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Empowerment Through Consumption: Land Ownership, Land Banks, and Black Food Geographies

Jones, Brittany Darshae
http://orcid.org/0-0000-2929-6594400
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1628166946903064

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, Spatially Integrated Social Science.
Expanding on the “Right to the City” philosophy of Henri Lefebvre, Black food geographies focus on the ways in which African-Americans navigated oppressive food and built environments, historically and presently, while simultaneously trying to build a version of community food security (CFS) unique to that neighborhood. This “Right to the City” is challenged by settler colonialism and racial capitalism, two political and social structures that control spatial behaviors, including a neighborhood’s access to quality food. One way to counteract that is ownership of the land and community-based food production via urban agricultural (UA) enterprises. The following study applies a mixed-methods approach to two Ohio cities—Toledo and Dayton—as case studies to understand the socioeconomic and demographic implications of concentrated municipal-owned vacant parcels, exacerbated by Land Bank and City demolitions, within majority African-American neighborhoods. It justifies how UA is used as a remedy for not only strengthening the local food system and repurposing vacant land, but also, as an empowerment mechanism for said communities, leading to self-sufficiency using Collective Action and Community Resilience (CACR) as a guide. Additionally, it revealed the ways in which Land Banks, and indirectly the city, can be a community-based asset to the growth of UA in the formation of an equitable CFS model that acknowledges the African-American’s version of the “Right to the City.” Using municipal-owned vacant land transfers between 2010 and 2018, and the 2014 & 2018 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) Census, results indicated higher rates of land vacancies are mostly found in majority African-American neighborhoods, with higher household poverty, increased food assistance recipients, greater household unemployment, and low private vehicle ownership. These relationships were statistically significant out of the initial ten variables. Three additional statistically significant variables were found in Toledo—rate of disability and senior population for 2014, and Bachelor’s Degree attainment for 2018. Quantitative results, from 53 virtual interviews between the two cities, established three main concepts towards race and UA intersection: Land Banks as Advocate and Consultant, AgriCULTURE, and Developing Black Urban Agrarianism. These findings support the need and desire for a comprehensive and strategic urban food production system beginning with land access via the Land Bank, with realistic long-term metrics in the form of community land trusts, food hubs in proximity to the urban core, and a “Champion(s)” to lead this effort across both cities.
Sujata Shetty (Committee Chair)
Neil Reid (Committee Co-Chair)
Beth Schlemper (Committee Member)
Daniel Hammel (Committee Member)
Jeanette Eckert (Committee Member)
202 p.
African American Studies; Agriculture; Black Studies; Demographics; Geographic Information Science; Geography; Land Use Planning; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Sociology; Urban Planning
Black food geographies; Black urban agrarianism; food apartheid; land banks; land sovereignty; Legacy Cities; urban agriculture; vacant land

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Jones, B. D. (2021). Empowerment Through Consumption: Land Ownership, Land Banks, and Black Food Geographies [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1628166946903064

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Jones, Brittany. Empowerment Through Consumption: Land Ownership, Land Banks, and Black Food Geographies. 2021. University of Toledo, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1628166946903064.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Jones, Brittany. "Empowerment Through Consumption: Land Ownership, Land Banks, and Black Food Geographies." Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1628166946903064

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1628166946903064
432
© 2021, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.