Plurality in black rural development

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-1-2022

Abstract

Black agrarian movements in the US have variously worked towards gaining equality within broader society and access to resources from dominant institutions as well as separation and independence from dominant systems and the creation of alternative institutions and structures. Often associated with different groups or movements, these differing tactical approaches are at times at odds, creating fissures between groups or movements or tensions among individuals. But they also can be used as complementary tactics towards a long-term vision of developing alternative socio-economic systems. This paper explores how a plurality of rural development tactics manifests within a single organization using the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (Federation) as a case study. More narrowly, this paper examines a specific on-the-ground configuration of organizers and farmers working with the Federation who are using goat farming as a tool for rural development in western Alabama. By focusing on the practices, expressed goals, and interactions of the people involved in one particular effort, this paper shows plurality to be a quality that is tactically useful for (1) navigating between a long-term strategic vision and the pragmatic survival within the current system and (2) building strategic coherence while respecting individual differences. Drawing on ethnographic research, this paper focuses on the practiced and relational ways farmers and organizers work to synthesize the plurality embedded within the Federation’s Black development ideology in order to build sustainable and effective forms of change.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Sustainability Science

Number

502

First Page

1247

Last Page

1261

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