Back to the Roots: Memory, Inequality, and Urban Agriculture [Hardcover]

Across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, urban farmers and gardeners are reclaiming cultural traditions linked to food, farming, and health; challenging systemic racism and injustice in the food system; demanding greater community control of resources in marginalized neighborhoods; and moving towards their visions of more equitable urban futures. As part of this urgent work, urban farmers and gardeners encounter and reckon with both the cultural meanings and material legacies of the past. Drawing on their narratives,Back to the Rootsdemonstrates that urban agriculture is a critical domain for explorations of, and challenges to, the long standing inequalities that shape both the materiality of cities and the bodies of their inhabitants.
 Urban agriculture has become a critical domain for explorations of, and challenges to, the long standing and systemic inequalities that shape cities, neighborhoods, and the lives and life chances of their residents.Back to the Rootsdescribes how urban farmers and gardeners reckon with the cultural meanings and material legacies of the past as they seek to create more just and equitable futures.
 SARA SHOSTAK is an associate professor at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where she teaches in the Department of Sociology and the Health: Science, Society and Policy Program. Introduction
1 Cultivating the Commonwealth
2 The Powers of Food
3 Lineages and Land
4 Stories of the Soil
5 Urban Futures
Conclusion
Epilogue
Appendix A: Into the Field: Data and Methods
Appendix B: Research and Reflexivity
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index