Shaw, Amanda
(2017)
Divergent economies of agriculture in Hawaiʻi:
intersecting inequalities and the social relations of
agrifood Work.
PhD thesis, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
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Identification Number: 10.21953/lse.8yzi4wbj56gn
Abstract
This thesis
analyses agrifood work in Hawaiʻi from an intersectional, gendered
perspective. It examines the intersecting social relations of
production, investigating how different agrifood practices address, if
at all, intersecting social inequalities. It asks, how do agroecological
‘alternatives’ address intersecting inequalities, if at all, in their
work? Do forms of ʻalternative agriculture’ offer more
‘gender-inclusive’ forms of work when intersecting inequalities are
considered? The research sought to address these questions by analysing
three case studies which can be said to represent ‘outliers’ compared to
the majority of Hawaiʻi’s agrifood production. It examines particular
cases of small and collective agroecological growing practices, as well
as examples of transnational seed production. The thesis utilised
methods of participant observation, interviews and document analysis in
order to understand how different how agrifood work is organised and how
different participants in these practices make meaning of their work.
It drew on analytical frameworks from agrifood studies of labour and
justice and intersectional feminist and anti-imperialist political
economic and ecological theorising.
The research found that within the cases, agrifood practices are
characterised by their diversity, and sought to draw out what I argue
are nevertheless important tendencies within them. This entailed
analysing the tensions, contradictions and possibilities these cases
presented for addressing intersecting inequalities in their work. I
showed that, in some ways, agroindustrial seed production offers more
formal ʻgender-inclusive’ benefits but that agroecological practices
create spaces to challenge gendered-norms on an individual and
collective basis. At the same time, I suggested that projects for the
recognition and inclusion of women and women’s work are highly limited
when they fail to account for the ways gendered inequalities intersect
with other differences of class and race, for example. At the same time,
I argued that efforts to address intersecting gendered inequalities
within agrifood work must attend to these contradictions, failures and
possibilities and that doing so is not only revealing of some of the
wider logics shaping agrarian ideals and agrifood practices, but
potentially of how gendered colonialities operate.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
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Additional Information: | © 2017 Amanda Friend Shaw |
Library of Congress subject classification: | H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform |
Sets: | Departments > Gender Institute |
Supervisor: | Perrons, Diane |
URI: | http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/3733 |