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From civic institution to community place: the meaning of the public market in modern America

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  • Nancy Kurland
  • Linda Aleci

Abstract

This paper examines the discursive transformation of the historic American public market from that of a municipally regulated institution intended to ensure fair trade and equitable food distribution to “a public place” that emphasizes community identity and sociability. Using a semiotic analysis of interviews with 31 market managers of 30 historic and contemporary American public markets, data from historic documents, and multiple site visits, we compare the social construction of the contemporary public market to farmers markets, supermarkets, and the early twentieth century public market. We analyze the meanings managers create in the contemporary public market to understand the administrative rationalities within which the public market operates. Our analysis reveals evidence of competing imaginaries active in the public market, organized around broad notions of “public benefit,” “community culture” and “institutional viability.” We propose that these tensions are embedded in the public market as an institution historically implicated in regimes of food distribution. In the contemporary context, we conclude, public markets largely substitute the spectacle of community and the image of an historic public life for a legally instated commitment to the just governance of food systems. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Nancy Kurland & Linda Aleci, 2015. "From civic institution to community place: the meaning of the public market in modern America," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(3), pages 505-521, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:32:y:2015:i:3:p:505-521
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-014-9579-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Matthew Griffin & Edward Frongillo, 2003. "Experiences and perspectives of farmers from Upstate New York farmers' markets," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 20(2), pages 189-203, June.
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    3. Amy Trauger & Carolyn Sachs & Mary Barbercheck & Kathy Brasier & Nancy Kiernan, 2010. "“Our market is our community”: women farmers and civic agriculture in Pennsylvania, USA," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(1), pages 43-55, March.
    4. Bukenya, James O. & Mukiibi, Michael L. & Molnar, Joseph J. & Siaway, Arthur T., 2007. "Consumer Purchasing Behaviors and Attitudes toward Shopping at Public Markets," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 38(2), pages 1-10, July.
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    6. Laura DeLind, 2011. "Are local food and the local food movement taking us where we want to go? Or are we hitching our wagons to the wrong stars?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(2), pages 273-283, June.
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    3. Taiyang Zhong & Zhenzhong Si & Jonathan Crush & Steffanie Scott & Xianjin Huang, 2019. "Achieving urban food security through a hybrid public-private food provisioning system: the case of Nanjing, China," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(5), pages 1071-1086, October.

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