Making Culture: Social Movements, Culture, and Food Not Bombs

This dissertation combines insights from the production of culture perspective with the multi-institutional politics approach to social movements to investigate cultural challenges produced by social movement actors in the context of Food Not Bombs activism. First, it broadly demonstrates the utility of using the production of culture perspective to investigate various organizational features and shared understandings and how they shape the culture produced by members of Food Not Bombs. Next, it tracks how Food Not Bombs activists\u27 collective understanding of power and domination shapes their political practice as one that is diffuse and rhizomatic. Finally, it traces how participants in Food Not Bombs activism allow their commitment to direct action strategies to shape their engagement with other area collectives, as well as how it influences their strategic use of rights discourse.