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By the early 20th century, in 1920, Black farmers owned 14% of US farmland. Today, in the 21st century, Black farmers own less than 2% of US farmland. The demise of Black farmers and Black farmland in US Agriculture is a direct result of social, political, and racial weaponization against their foodways, culture, and livelihoods. The history concerning the plight of Black farmers goes beyond USDA's historical discrimination but enters a position where racism is embedded and perpetuated within the structure of US agriculture. In effect, Black small-scale farmers have reaped the downfall of this system, enduring racial biases and a complex relationship to the land for future generations. This dissertation examines and investigates the contemporary challenges associated with Mississippi’s small-scale Black farmers and their strategies that resist these challenges to create a self-sufficient agricultural system. Employing a qualitative approach using 31 semi-structured interviews and 4 focus groups discussions, in total of 87 persons, this research studies barriers and resilience strategies by amplifying the voices of small-scale Black farmers across Mississippi. This work draws from previous scholarship in institutional racism, colorblind racism, Black agrarianism, community based organizations, food sovereignty, and Black geographies. Findings indicate that racism still undermines Black farmers in agriculture. Still, they resist and combat these barriers by becoming powerful agents that bring catalyst change in the form of community togetherness and self-sufficiency.

Food insecurity among postsecondary students and especially community colleges is a persistent social problem, but the prevalence continues despite much research. Postsecondary students experience food insecurity slightly differently from the general population and they are held to different rules to qualify for food support such as the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP). In this research I examine the prevalence, frequency, and duration of food insecurity experiences among Mississippi community college students. I begin with a discussion of the literature of food insecurity and policy used to address food insecurity. I draw upon Bourdieu’s theory of social fields, capital, and habitus to frame the experiences community college students navigate in their goal of credentialed human capital. I use an online survey and in-depth interviews to explore the connections between food insecurity, social capital, and cultural capital. I also examine dietary diversity as a predictor of food insecurity. This research found GPA, financial aid, social capital adequacy and adequate dietary diversity, were significant predictors of food insecurity and adequate dietary diversity was a significant predictor of food insecurity frequency. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.

In recent years dating violence has become more and more prevalent on college campuses. Reports of the range of dating violence vary widely, with studies reporting from 20% to 85% of college women experiencing dating violence. However, almost all research has been conducted among urban and/or large colleges and universities, with virtually no attention to what is happening on small and/or rural college and university campuses. When a possible 20% of college women have experienced dating violence on college campuses, there becomes a crucial need for administration at a college to have an accurate assessment of the college’s liability, and of the adequacy of the college’s programs and policies relative to dating violence. This study sought to determine whether administrators and female students on small rural college campuses have the same perceptions of the type and incidence of dating violence on their campus, and of the programs and policies the college has put into place to prevent and respond to dating violence. Two domains of perceptions were addressed, dating violence beliefs and experience, and dating violence policy knowledge. The same question was examined to determine if perceptions of resident and commuter students were the same, and if perceptions of under and upper class students were the same. The investigator surveyed 52 college administrators and 306 female students at a total of four small rural college campuses to determine whether administrator and female student perceptions of dating violence incidence/type and dating violence program/policy knowledge at the college were similar. Results were that administrators tended to have similar perceptions to students as regards dating violence beliefs and experience, although not specific types of dating violence. Students did not exhibit a strong knowledge of dating violence policy. Resident and commuter students displayed similar perceptions to each other, as did under class and upper class students.

Tourism has been increasingly used for, and directly linked with, rural poverty reduction in developing countries. In recent years, it has, however, been criticised by rural developers for its lack of concern for the rural poor and for being too increasingly focused on tourism specifically. Instead, it is argued that these inadequacies can be addressed by the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA), a widely used organising framework for facilitating poverty reduction. But the application, and to an extent the principles, of the SLA may not fully fit the tourism situation, and vice versa. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding about the relationship between the SLA and tourism needs to be explored. This thesis incorporates a review of the literature on rural and tourism development. Gaps between the SLA and tourism are identified. It is suggested that the SLA cannot fully address the issues when tourism is used as a rural livelihood strategy. New knowledge and thinking are needed. Based on the literature review, a Sustainable Livelihoods Framework for Tourism (SLFT) is proposed as a guiding tool in rural development when tourism is a livelihood strategy. For testing the applicability of the SLFT, a mixed methodology and case study research method was adopted. Three mountainous rural villages, respectively at involvement, development and rejuvenation Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) stages, in central China, were examined. Before implementation of the case study, SLFT indicators were firstly developed. Findings show that the SLFT provides an overall organising framework for the consideration of rural development using tourism as a livelihood strategy at all stages of TALC. Revisiting the SLFT, it is argued that an additional attraction capital should be added to the SLFT. Attraction capital includes natural, cultural, and other attractions, and is defined as all resources used to attract tourist arrivals from which local people benefit for better livelihood objectives. Based on the findings, the SLFT and its key elements are revised to offer a more complete insight and understanding of a tourism livelihood system for the purpose of tourism planning and management. Particular attention is drawn to the newly introduced concept of institutional capital, mainly evidenced in community participation practice. Appropriate institutional policies and practices can ensure local people share the benefits from tourism. The implication of a participatory approach is extended to access to tourist markets, benefit sharing, as well as participation in the decision-making. This research indicates that improvement of livelihood assets by tourism enhances local people’s resilience to vulnerability contexts. Institutional arrangements play an important role in mediating this process as well as the impact of vulnerability contexts through the planning portfolio (e.g., planning, policy-making, and legislation). Future research is suggested to evaluate and improve the SLFT’s applicability in multiple development contexts, and to explore ways of further developing SLFT indicators as a means for evaluating the usefulness of the SLFT.

The purpose of the study was to investigate how farmers in Quang Bing Province, Vietnam have been making the transition from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture. This process began in 1986 when the Vietnam economy changed from central planning to a market orientation. The research strategy was based on case study analysis of two communes in each of three agro-ecological zones, defined as coastal, plains and mountains. Within each commune there were six embedded household case studies, i.e 36 in total. Case studies were selected purposively to capture diversity of agro-ecological zones, market access and communications, wealth and income status, and ethnic communities. Households were interviewed twice; first in either late 2006 or early 2007, and again in late 2008. The study was approached using a constructivist paradigm and a lens of livelihood analysis, focusing on resources, institutions, interventions and the dynamics of change. Particular attention was given to the development of markets (inputs, outputs, land, labour and credit) and supply chain factors. Separate measures of commercialisation were constructed based on outputs and inputs, and at the level of both individual activities and the overall household. Investigations were informed by existing theory, but no hypotheses were tested. Instead, the research focused on emergent patterns and insights, and the enrichment and modification of existing theory. A review of literature indicated that the transition from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture in Vietnam was different from other countries on account of the specific combination of low technology agriculture, typical of much of developing Asia, combined with the transformation from a centrally planned economy to a market orientation as occurred in Central and Eastern European countries. At commune level, the key determinants of commercialisation were strong physical connections to markets, with good road access being paramount. Once all weather road access for motorised vehicles was available, then rapid commercialisation occurred. Supply chains typically developed faster for outputs than inputs. New technologies that increased the yield of basic food crops, and facilitated by Government and NGO programs, led to the release of land resources no longer required for meeting food security needs. Households retained their production of food crops that provided food security, and added additional cash earning activities. At the level of individual households, the commercialisation process was led by entrepreneurial families who perceived opportunities relating to profitable activities, and combined this with hard work. Often these opportunities were linked to what they had observed or learnt elsewhere. Once first movers took up a new technology, others observed and followed. There were many enabling factors, such as access to land, access to capital, and access to credit. However, none of these could be considered a determinant, in that the absence of any one factor did not by itself preclude successful commercialisation. Absence of an active male worker was a major constraint to commercialisation, as was lack of necessary crop and livestock skills. There was evidence that income disparities were increasing between the wealthy and the poor. Output commerciality across all households averaged 88 % in 2008 and was higher for wealthy households (95 %) than poor households (83 %). All households still produced their own food crops, but these crops had low market values and hence had a low impact on the output commerciality index. Output commerciality measured in percentage terms obscured that wealthy families had net incomes almost 13 times greater than poor households. A major theoretical insight was that key commercialisation factors are multiple and context dependent. Accordingly, there is a need in any investigation for a holistic approach, based on a livelihood framework that incorporates the complexities associated with the development of markets, as well as giving consideration to the range of interventions and institutional policies that impact on livelihood development.

This research focussed on Fair Trade (FT) coffee supply chains in Papua New Guinea. Three research questions were asked. First, do small holders in the FT chains receive higher returns than the smallholders in the conventional chains? Secondly, if smallholders in the FT coffee chains receive higher returns from their coffee than the smallholders in the conventional chains, what are the sources of these higher returns? Finally, if smallholders in the FT chains don't receive higher returns than in the conventional chains, what are the constraints to smallholders receiving higher returns from the FT coffee chains than the conventional chains? A conceptual framework for agribusiness supply chain was developed that was used to guide the field work. A comparative case study methodology was selcted as an appropriate method for eliciting the required information. Four case study chains were selected. A paired FT and conventional coffee chains from Okapa and another paired FT and conventional chains from Kainantu districts, Eastern Highlands Province were selected for the study. The research found that smallholders in the FT chains and vonventional chains receive very similar prices for their coffee (parchment price equivalent). Hence, there was no evidence that smallholders in the FT chains received higher prices or returns from their coffee production than smallholders in conventional chains. This study also found that there was no evidence of FLO certification improving returns to smallholders in the FT chains over those returns received in the conventional chains, but the community that the FT smallholder producers come from did benefit. The sources of these community benefits lies in the shorter FT chains and the distributions of the margin that would have been otherwise made by processors to producers, exporters and the community. In addition, this study found that constraints associated with value creation are similar in all the four chains studies. However, there are some added hurdles for the FT chains in adhering to FT and organic coffee standards. Moreover, FT co-oeratives lacked capacity to trade and their only functions were to help with FLO certification and distribute the FT premium to the community. The findings of this research support some aspects of the literature, but not others. The research contribution is the finding that in this period of high conventional coffee prices, returns to smallholders from FT chains were no bettter than the returns gained in conventional chains, which leads to oppotunism and lack of loyalty by smallholders in the FT chains. The other contribution of this research is in identifying a particular type of free rider who is not a member of the FT co-operative but has right to the community benefits generated by the FT chain.

Before the creation of Mammoth Cave National Park, this area was home to numerous communities, each with a sense of identity. To prepare for the creation of the National Park, all residents living within these communities were relocated, and many of these communities were lost to the passage of time. Today, public memory of these lost communities is being fostered by the descendents of the pre-park area. Through the use of a Historical Geographic Information System, 1920 Edmonson County manuscript census data, and statistical analysis, the demographic composition of these lost communities was explored. This project not only brought to light a past that is not well known, but also built interest in sustaining public memory of the Mammoth Cave pre-park area through the use of historical GIS and public participation.

In eastern Kentucky, as in much of central Appalachia, current local storylines narrate the frictions and contradictions involved in the structural transition from a post-WWII Fordist industrial economy and a Keynesian welfare state to a Post-Fordist service economy and Neoliberal hollow state, starving for energy to sustain consumer indulgence (Jessop, 1993; Harvey, 2003; 2005). Neoliberalism is the ideological force redefining the “societal infrastructure of language” that legitimates this transition, in part by redefining the key terms of democracy and citizenship, as well as valorizing the market, the individual, and technocratic innovation (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999; Harvey, 2005). This project develops a perspective that understands cancer prevention and control in Appalachiaas part of the structural transition that is realigning community social ties in relation to ideological forces deployed as “commonsense” storylines that “lubricate” frictions that complicates the transition.

Submitted by Johnny Rodrigues (johnnyrodrigues@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-10-19T17:54:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 FRANCISCO DE ASSIS BATISTA - TESE PPGCS 2010..pdf: 2824252 bytes, checksum: f31194af3e5d884c6ed069446af5d428 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-19T17:54:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FRANCISCO DE ASSIS BATISTA - TESE PPGCS 2010..pdf: 2824252 bytes, checksum: f31194af3e5d884c6ed069446af5d428 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / O Cariri da Paraíba, de acordo com os registros de doações de sesmarias, foi sendo ocupado, no início do século XVIII, por pessoas que tinham por objetivo estabelecer fazendas de gado. Mesmo não se atendo, apenas, a fontes documentais que registravam as sesmarias, é possível perceber que a ocupação da região foi se dando, também, por pessoas sem terras, escravos e exescravos que para aquela área se dirigiram, em busca de terras que lhes possibilitassem a subsistência. Essas pessoas em constantes embates com a elite rural da região foram se estabelecendo e deram origem ao campesinato regional. Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar as práticas de resistência cotidiana, exercitadas por este campesinato, frente às práticas de dominação da elite rural, no Cariri Ocidental da Paraíba, no período de 1900 a 1950. Para realizar essa análise, utilizamos como fonte de pesquisa documentos da Igreja Católica, documentos cartoriais, manuscritos de pessoas da região, entrevistas e também publicações literárias de pessoas que trataram de relatar os conflitos que presenciaram na época, tanto entre a elite rural quanto entre essa elite e os camponeses. A análise dessas fontes nos possibilitou perceber pistas e sinais das formas como se davam as relações sociais entre a elite rural e os camponeses, favorecendo, dessa forma, a análise das relações de dominação e de resistência protagonizadas pelos camponeses. As análises realizadas nos permitiram concluir que os camponeses mesmo enfrentando as práticas de dominação da elite rural, desenvolveram, conforme as suas possibilidades, estratégias de resistência cotidiana. / The Cariri of Paraíba, according to the records of donations of land grants, has been busy in the early eighteenth century, by people who aimed to establish cattle ranches. Even not be linked, only the source documents that recorded the allotments, you can see that the occupation of the region was being given, also, for people without land, slaves and former slaves to the area they went in search of land enables them to subsistence. These people in constant clashes with the rural elite of the region were being established and gave rise to regional peasantry. This study aims to analyze the practices of everyday resistance, exercised by the peasantry, against the practices of domination of the rural elite in the West Cariri of Paraíba, in the period 1900 to 1950. For this analysis, we used as a source of research documents of the Catholic Church, registry documents, manuscripts of local people, interviews, and also publications by people who had tried to report the conflicts witnessed at the time, both among the rural elite and among the elite and the peasants. The analysis of these sources has enabled us to see tracks and signs the forms in which they gave the social relations between the rural elite and the peasants, thus benefit the analysis of relations of domination and resistance played out by peasants. The analysis carried out showed that farmers facing the same practices of domination of the rural elite, developed according to their possibilities, everyday strategies of resistance. / Le Cariri de Paraíba, selon les registres de dons de concessions de terres, a été occupé dans le début du XVIIIe siècle, par des gens qui visait à établir des ranchs de bétail. Même pas être liée, seuls les documents source qui a enregistré les attributions excédentaires, vous pouvez voir que l'occupation de la région a été donné, aussi, pour les personnes sans terre, les esclaves et anciens esclaves dans la région ils sont allés en quête de terres leur permet de subsistance. Ces personnes lors d'affrontements constants avec les élites rurales de la région ont été mis en place et a donné lieu à une paysannerie régionale. Cette étude vise à analyser les pratiques quotidiennes de la résistance exercée par la paysannerie, contre les pratiques de domination de l'élite rurale dans l'Ouest Cariri de Paraíba, dans la période de 1900 à 1950. Pour cette analyse, nous avons utilisé comme une source de documents de recherche de l'Église catholique, les documents d'enregistrement, des manuscrits de la population locale, interviews, ainsi que des publications par des gens qui avaient tenté de rapporter le témoin de conflits à l'époque, tant chez l'élite rurale et parmi les d'élite et les paysans. L'analyse de ces sources nous a permis d'observer des traces et des signes les formes dans lesquelles ils ont donné les relations sociales entre les élites rurales et les paysans, ainsi bénéficier de l'analyse des rapports de domination et de résistance joué par les paysans. L'analyse effectuée a montré que les agriculteurs face aux mêmes pratiques de domination de l'élite rurale, développée en fonction de leurs possibilités, les stratégies quotidiennes de résistance.