Advisor(s)
Tina Kempin Reuter
Committee Member(s)
Lauren Downs
Lisa Gezon
School
College of Arts and Sciences
Document Type
Thesis
Department (new version)
Social & Behavioral Sciences
Date of Award
9-11-2025
Abstract
Although farmers markets have grown significantly across the United States, their role in peacebuilding remains underexplored. Existing literature critiques these spaces as sites of racial and economic exclusion (Slocum, 2006). This case study explores how leadership at a successful, privately owned, urban farmers market in the Southeastern United States attempts to address these disparities. This research employed bright spot ethnography, a strength-based methodology, to identify how the market does things well to significantly impact the surrounding community (Osterhoudt, 2021). A peacebuilding framework contextualized management stakeholders’ actions and intentions in their efforts to foster a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive space. Positive peace principles create and sustain peaceful societies through the promotion of justice, equity, and harmony (Institute for Economics and Peace, 2021). Defined by the presence of stability, social cohesion, and structural equity, these principles are often utilized in conflict resolution and social development efforts. Notably, the market’s initiatives offer emerging strategies for mitigating social inequities and advancing community-led peace-promoting practices—an area largely absent from current literature. These efforts challenge the ramifications of structural violence embedded in policy and planning, offering an example of how a local food space can become a platform for incremental yet impactful social transformation. By bridging access, equity, and shared space, this market serves as an exemplar for food-based approaches to community-based peacebuilding.
ProQuest ID
Recommended Citation
Kiefer, Taylor, "Peacebuilding & Farmers Markets: A Local Case Study" (2025). All ETDs from UAB. 7447.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/7447
