Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Major/Program
Global and Sociocultural Studies
First Advisor's Name
Gail Hollander
First Advisor's Committee Title
Committee Chair
Second Advisor's Name
Kevin Grove
Second Advisor's Committee Title
Committee Member
Third Advisor's Name
Roderick Neumann
Third Advisor's Committee Title
Committee Member
Fourth Advisor's Name
Elizabeth Anderson
Fourth Advisor's Committee Title
Committee Member
Keywords
Resilience, farming communities, food security, adaptation, climate change
Date of Defense
11-10-2021
Abstract
The concept of resilience has been applied to questions surrounding agricultural production and food security in the face of global climate change, gripping the attention of policymakers and scholars alike. In South Florida, the Redland represents a unique, biodiverse farming community of national importance as Florida is second only to California in terms of vegetable production and Miami-Dade is the second highest producing county in the state. With Greater Miami recognized as one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to sea level rise, this vital U.S. agricultural community is placed in doubt. Yet, little research engages directly with Redland farmers to understand their perceptions of sustainability or how they implement adaptive actions on the farm. Drawing from ethnographic, interview, and geospatial data, this dissertation serves as an empirically driven investigation of agricultural resilience that foregrounds the lived experiences of the farmers. The purpose of this study is to uncover how this agricultural community responds to unforeseen changes in ways that promote their own visions of resilience.
In this dissertation, I argue that there is an inherent multiplicity to resilience that is largely unexamined in the literature, in which adaptive actions simultaneously take multiple forms on the ground and result in very different environmental imaginaries for the future. It is through this study that I document the hegemonic discourses of resilience that are promoted by South Florida’s governing institutions along with the juxtaposing, alternative resilience narratives formed by the farmers. Rather than focus on the development of generalizable farming strategies, which dominates current scholarship centered on resilient agriculture, my study pays close attention to the creative capacities of the Redland farmers and how they develop nonconventional forms of resilience (i.e., actually-existing resilience) that contain a true potential for transformation of existing food systems.
Identifier
FIDC010444
Recommended Citation
Bernardo, Melissa, "Actually-Existing Resilience: The Adaptive Actions of Miami’s Redland Farmers and Potential Pathways for Transformation" (2021). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4851.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/4851
Included in
Food Studies Commons, Geographic Information Sciences Commons, Human Geography Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons
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