Abstract
This article considers the qualitative concept of place – what it means, how it feels, how it is expressed, and how it is managed across time and space as (1) the appropriate context within which to study and promote local agriculture and (2) the locus of relationships, both cultural and political, that prefigure a local civic culture. It argues that civic as a description of local food and farming is conceptually and practically shallow in the absence of our ability to understand and to practice “being” in place. Using three vignettes from field research in northern Michigan, the article illustrates this interdependence by focusing on the ways in which place provides opportunities for learning, for play, for engagement, for identity formation, and for explicit political and policy initiatives – as prerequisites for civic awareness and action.
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We have adopted a convention in which the first listed author is the one who drafted the first outline based on ideas discussed during our initial conversations. This outline is the basis for continuing exchanges and conversations that often lead us in significantly different directions from the first outline. Therefore, we prefer to refer to our roles as joint authors rather than as lead, or corresponding author, and second author.
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Delind, L.B., Bingen*, J. Place and civic culture: re-thinking the context for local agriculture. J Agric Environ Ethics 21, 127–151 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-007-9066-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-007-9066-5