On-farm apprenticeships are gaining momentum as an important strategy for beginning farmer training. They are also a space for identity work and rehearsal of alternative agrifood movement practice (AAMs; MacAuley and Niewolny, 2016; Pilgeram, 2011). AAMs embody and recursively construct values of biophysical sustainability, food quality, egalitarianism, and agrarianism (Constance, Renard, and Rivera-Ferre; 2014). However, AAMs have been critiqued for disproportionately representing upper- to middle-class white cultural norms (Allen, 2004; Guthman, 2008a; Slocum, 2007), for romanticized agrarian ideology (Carlisle, 2013), and for mechanisms reproductive of neoliberalism, which buttresses the dominant agrifood system (Guthman, 2008b). These AAM discourse elements are expressed in on-farm apprenticeships. On-farm apprenticeships are variably understood as beginning farmer training (Hamilton, 2011), as inexpensive farm labor (MacAuley and Niewolny, 2016; Pilgeram, 2011), and as sites of tension between economic and non-economic attributes (Ekers, Levkoe, Walker, and Dale, 2016). I illuminate these dynamics within on-farm apprenticeships through the complementary theoretical lenses of cultural historical activity theory (Engeström, 1999), cognitive praxis (Eyerman and Jamison, 1991), and cultural identity theory (Hall, 1996). I employ critical ethnographic case study methodology to explore issues of power, social reproduction, and equity. I conducted 53 days of participant observation, worked alongside 19 apprentices on six farms for 37 days, conducted interviews (n=25), and completed a document analysis (n=407). I observed white spaces and class-based work values re/produced, mediated by AAM discourse. Furthermore, I observed three distinct objectives within the activity system: beginning farmer training, inexpensive labor for farms, and an authentic farm lifestyle experience. In contrast to the first two, this third objective, the authentic lifestyle, resists market-based logics. Instead, logics that did govern behavior include membership in a movement; an ascetic bent; the valorization of farmers and the authentic farm lifestyle; alignment with clean, healthy, and dirty parts of the job; and communitarianism. These logics point towards the creation of a third type of nonmarket/quasimarket space (Gibson-Graham, Cameron, and Healy, 2013). I describe several considerations for on-farm apprenticeship to lead to greater equity, reproduction of viable small farm labor models, and stabilized and legitimate nonmarket understandings of what makes on-farm apprenticeship function. / Ph. D. / On-farm apprenticeships are gaining momentum as an important strategy for beginning farmer training. They are also a space where people express and craft their identities as members of the alternative agrifood movement. Alternative agrifood movements promote the environment, food quality, egalitarianism, and agrarianism, but may be more culturally relevant for upper- to middle-class white social groups. They also promote romanticized notions of farming and agrarianism, while supporting neoliberal dogmatic approaches to social change. On-farm apprenticeships are treated as beginning farmer training, or cheap/free labor, and as sites of tension between economic and non-economic attributes. I examined this scenario using cultural historical activity theory, cognitive praxis, and cultural identity theory. With critical ethnographic case study methods, I conducted 53 days of participant observation, worked alongside 19 apprentices on six farms for 37 days, conducted 25 interviews, and examined 407 documents. I observed how whiteness and class-based work practices are being mediated by AAM discourses. Furthermore, I observed three distinct objectives for participants’ involvement in on-farm apprenticeships: (1) beginning farmer training, (2) cheap labor for farms, and (3) having an authentic farm lifestyle experience. In contrast to the first two, this third objective, the authentic lifestyle, defies the rules of economics/neoliberalism. Instead, behavior appeared to be governed by: membership in a movement; an ascetic bent; the valorization of farmers and the authentic farm lifestyle; alignment with clean, healthy, and dirty parts of the job; and communitarian values. These rules point towards the creation of a nonmarket/quasimarket space. This study highlights how on-farm apprenticeship can be tweaked to promote greater equity, reproduce viable small farm labor practices, and stabilize and legitimize a nonmarket understanding of the ins and outs of on-farm apprenticeships.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/80966 |
| Date | 04 December 2017 |
| Creators | MacAuley, Lorien Eleanora |
| Contributors | Agricultural and Extension Education, Niewolny, Kimberly L., Harrison, Anthony Kwame, Archibald, Thomas G., Stephenson, Max O. Jr. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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