The local food movement and urban redevelopment in Oklahoma City: territory, power, and possibility

This dissertation examines the relationship between alternative food initiatives and urban processes through a case study of the statewide local food movement in Oklahoma and its cultural, political, and economic linkages with urban redevelopment in Oklahoma City. Building on literature in geography, urban studies, and food studies, the work deploys ethnographic, participatory, and archival field research to trace the development of the local food movement and redevelopment. The state’s local food movement has grown rapidly, with a number of firms demonstrating diverse operating models and relations of production, which seek to balance economic, ecological, and social goals in varying ways and to varying degrees. The movement has also benefited from increasing support from state agencies and other organizations, and from the redevelopment strategies of Oklahoma City, which focus on quality of life initiatives aimed at attracting large companies and the well-educated labor force they require. However, the study finds that benefits to local food enterprises generated by the growth of the city’s ‘creative class’ have been uneven, due in part to increased corporate interest in specialty food markets. At the same time, local and other specialty foods have played an important role in revalorizing the urban core, from which less affluent and racial minority residents of some areas have been displaced by gentrification, raising questions about the social significance of both redevelopment and the local food movement. While these questions remain open, the study concludes by demonstrating how current efforts to create a local food hub in Oklahoma City suggest that the potential for more just and sustainable food systems and modes of urban redevelopment remains substantial.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Eric Sarmient