Forging Links Between Food Chain Labor Activists and Academics

Abstract

Interest in food movements has been growing dramatically, but until recently there has been limited engagement with the challenges facing workers across the food system. Of the studies that do exist, there is little focus on the processes and relationships that lead to solutions. This article explores ways that community-engaged teaching and research partnerships can help to build meaningful justice with food workers. involved a range of academic scholars and community-based activists. We present these insights through a discussion of key perspectives on collaborative research and teaching and learning as food-labor scholar-activists. We argue that despite significant gaps in the way that food movements are addressing labor issues, community-campus collaborations present an opportunity for building alliances to foster food justice. Building on our collective analysis and reflection, we point to five recommendations for fostering collaboration: connecting to personal experience; building trust; developing common strategies; building on previous community efforts; and, appreciating power differences and reciprocating accordingly. We conclude with some final thoughts on future research directions.

Graduate Students Bringing Emotional Rigor to the Heart of Community-University Relations in Food Dignity

“…Despite these calls to pull emotions out from under the rug and recognize their potential value in research, which includes but goes beyond accounting for our subjectivities, there are very few emotions mentioned in specific research contexts and even fewer examples of how researchers used these emotional experiences to gain new insights that advanced their research and social justice agendas. Furthermore, amidst calls for deeper, longer-term collaboration between academics and activists and increasing transparency about collaborative processes (Levkoe et al, 2016;Reynolds & Cohen, 2016), there is little acknowledgement of the importance of emotions.…”

Community-Campus Collaborations for Food Justice: Strategy, Successes and Challenges at a Teaching-Focused College

“…While historically service-learning practices focus on student learning (Kiely, 2005), some use critical theory and pedagogy (Freire, 1970) to ask who is served and who decides about these initiatives (Bortolin, 2011;Stoecker & Tryon, 2009). Increasingly, scholars and practitioners recommend that service-learning projects adopt explicit social justice goals, genuine relationships, commitment to redistribute power, reciprocity, activism, and other goals of broader social and institutional change (Levkoe et al, 2016;Marullo & Edwards, 2000;Mitchell, 2008;Swords & Kiely, 2010).…”

“…With the spread of food justice initiatives, institutions of higher education are increasingly partnering with food justice organizations for civic engagement teaching and research (Allen, 2008;Galt, Parr, Van Soelen Kim, Beckett, Lickter, & Ballard, 2013;Gray, Johnson, Latham, Tang, & Thomas, 2012;Holt-Gimenez, 2010;Levkoe et al, 2016;Meek & Tarlau, 2015;Sbicca, 2015). While the food justice movement focuses on changing policies and systems surrounding food, environment and health, in many cases, universities offer gardens, technical assistance, produce local foods, or otherwise address short-term community needs and goals (Burns & Miller, 2012;Gray et al, 2012).…”

“…4 Gray et al (2012) advocate for orientation programs for students to develop sensitivity to issues of power and respect before interacting with community members. Best practices include reciprocity, building trust, connecting to personal experiences, finding common strategies (Levkoe et al, 2016), reflection, active listening, and openness to addressing whiteness, privilege, and racial inequality (Sbicca, 2015). In some cases, students and community partners collaboratively establish long-term project goals and outcomes, which can include changing college and university curriculum (Niewolny et al, 2017).…”

Cultivating Equitable Ground: Community-based Participatory Research To Connect Food Movements with Migrant Farmworkers

“…Community-based research partnerships offer benefits to both researchers and community partners (Levkoe et al, 2016). From the perspective of Sustain Ontario, this partnership has offered increased capacity to conduct relevant and applicable research on an often underresourced and controversial subject area.…”