Local Capitalism and Civic Engagement: The Potential of Locally Facing Firms

Abstract

interests include food policy and practice, centering on community and state governance of food systems, the policy process, and community engagement. Her current research topics include food policy coalitions, food system planning, healthy food access, and food security. Abstract :The twin forces of globalization and devolution have created administrative circumstances that strain the problem-solving capacity of local governments and increase the importance of nongovernmental processes and institutions. The literature suggests that locally owned firms are more likely to engender higher levels of civic engagement critical to buttressing that problem-solving capacity. This research adds an additional dimension, investigating to whom those firms sell and through which supply channels. Using survey results from hundreds of local firms across five study sites, this research demonstrates that locally facing firms-that is, firms that intentionally interface with community members and other local businesses-are associated with greater levels of civic and political engagement compared with locally owned firms that sell their products to customers elsewhere. Findings suggest that local governments should look beyond the local/nonlocal ownership binary to consider how private firms can be partners in serving and supporting their communities. Practitioner Points• Local governance efforts to build community engagement might benefit more from specific collaborations with locally owned businesses that intentionally serve local community members rather than locally owned businesses generally. • Owners of local business who are affirmatively motivated by serving the needs of their community have higher levels of civic and political engagement than business owners who are motivated exclusively by conventional economic incentives. • Civic engagement of local business owners may provide a framework for understanding and perhaps even predicting whether some communities are better prepared for the benefits and burdens that come with devolution and privatization of services.

Local Food and Civic Engagement: Do Farmers Who Market Local Food Feel More Responsible for Their Communities?

“…Second, the civic engagement of farmers may be related not just to the depth of a farm's economic entanglements with local food markets, but also to the breadth of social network connections with community members that local food markets may facilitate. This is a point recently highlighted by Clark and Record, who describe local food farms as potential “forums for developing and maintaining ties to place” (2017:878). Through CSAs and farmers markets, for instance, farmers form direct social connections with individual consumers—“strong ties,” in Granovetter's terminology (1973)—and indirect connections to other people—“weak ties”—in consumers' own social networks.…”

“…First, the “enlightened self‐interest” of local capitalism would appear likely to create an even stronger tendency toward civic engagement among farmers dedicated to local markets, as compared with owners of local businesses with a geographically much wider customer base (Clark and Record 2017; Sharp, Imerman, and Peters 2002; Wells and Gradwell 2001; Wells, Gradwell, and Yoder 1999). Farms that derive revenue from local food markets depend on being surrounded by thriving communities where buyers can afford to favor what they grow, and have opportunities to learn about the benefits of “buying local” (Ahearn and Sterns 2013; Jarosz 2008).…”

“…The third approach to examining the relationship between farmers' civic engagement and participation in local food systems is exemplified by perhaps the only empirical study aimed precisely at this topic. Based on a survey of farmers in metropolitan areas, Clark and Record (2017) conclude that marketing local food through either only direct‐to‐consumer channels, or through both direct‐to‐consumer and intermediated channels, is associated with higher levels of civic engagement. Clark and Record's work breaks new methodological ground and represents the strongest validation to date of local capitalism theory as applied to local food systems.…”

“…The first limitation of Clark and Record's study involves their measure for civic engagement, which functions as the dependent variable in their models. According to an important report that Clark and Record cite to explain their own approach (2017:880), key “dimensions” of civic engagement that might be “feasibly measured” include “behaviors, attitudes, social ties, and experiences” (National Research Council 2014:34). For their measure of civic engagement, Clark and Record construct an index for how often farmers engage in organizational and problem‐solving activities, and whether farmers believe they are “making a difference” by doing so.…”

“…First, I draw on local capitalism theory to identify two different mechanisms—depth of economic reliance on local markets, and breadth of social networks related to local food sales—that might spur farmers who market local food to feel more responsible for their communities (Besser 2009; Goldschmidt 1946; Mills and Ulmer 1946; Tolbert, Lyson, and Irwin 1998). Then, I review how civic engagement has been theorized and empirically investigated in the existing literature on local food, paying particular attention to the ways in which the present study builds on a recent examination of farmers' civic behaviors (Clark and Record 2017). Finally, I present the results of regression models designed to evaluate the relationship of farmers' civic values both to how they market local food and to how important marketing local food is to the future of their farm operations.…”