Food and Social Justice

Action Research Lab (Fjar lab)

In 2022, we began strategic planning for a new Food and Social Justice Action Research Lab (FJAR Lab), housed in the Food Studies Program at The New School. The Lab builds on Kristin’s long-standing work with action research and collaborations with community-based food and social justice organizations.

The vision for the FJAR Lab is to contribute to racial and economic justice in the food system through critical and participatory action research –  in New York City and State, nationally and internationally. 

Projects as of August 2023  are listed below. We are in the process of updating the website with additional information. Read about our team here and please check back or get in touch here!

Examining the Social Equity Implications of the USDA Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production's County Office and Granting Program through a Racial Equity Lens: A Pilot Study. (2023-24)

This study seeks to address informational gaps about the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP) and additional 2018 Farm Bill urban agriculture provisions, as they relate to racial equity. The project is supported by funds from the Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Policy Research Center at Alcorn State University, Lorman, MS.

Confronting Ethno-racial Discrimination in Agricultural Work in France. (2022-25)

This project investigates ethno-racial inequities and discrimination in agricultural work in France — with particular focus on foreign and/or racialized workers in the South of France — through racial justice lenses more common in the United States. The scientific aim is to document possible inequities, understand their social and spatial dimensions, and identify social and policy innovations to promote fairer working conditions. It is funded by the Transatlantic Research Partnership, a program of FACE Foundation and the French Embassy.

 

The Understanding Global Food and Environmental Justice through Music Initiative (2022 - ongoing)

with Mike Harrington

Music can be used to understand and communicate about social justice as it relates to food, agriculture, and the environment. Communicating through music can strengthen and uplift food and environmental justice practice that is diverse in terms of epistemology, representation, and mode. Music can offer references that may speak to specific and diverse audiences, and open the door for deeper understandings of inequity and justice in ways that step away from Eurocentric insistence on linear and written communication to teach, exchange knowledge, or debate.

Building on public programs that we have organized through our roles in the Food Studies Program and The Tishman Environment and Design Center beginning in 2022, and now joined by the Food and Social Justice Action Research Lab, this initiative at The New School explores music as a way to understand structural and historical inequities in the food system, and as a source of strength and power among those fighting against oppression.

The Understanding Global Food and Environmental Justice through Music Initiative gathers inspiration from, among others, the concept of ‘DJ Scholarship,’ coined by DJ Lynnée Denise (2019).* Including, but extending beyond DJ practice to apply to music in its many forms, the Initiative underscores the importance of music in liberatory praxis in food and environmental systems -  historically, in the present, and into the future.

* Denise (2019) The Afterlife of Aretha Franklin's “Rock Steady:” A Case Study in DJ Scholarship, The Black Scholar, 49:3, 62-72, DOI: 10.1080/00064246.2019.1619122

Events and speaking engagements to-date:

 

Strategic Planning for the FJAR Lab. (2022-24)

In order to ground the Lab in community needs, we are conferring with trusted leaders in the New York City food and social justice community about action research in which the FJAR Lab may engage to support their work in the short, medium, and long term. This process has been supported in part by a Faculty grant from the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School.

 

Resources:

During the FJAR Lab strategic planning process, we heard that providing lists of potential funders for food and social justice work could be helpful. While the FJAR Lab is not a clearing house, nor a foundation, we offer three initial resources here:

  • Community Food Funders

  • Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders

  • A journal article on funding for community-academic collaborations co-authored by Kristin: Block, D. and Reynolds, K. (Equal authorship)(2021) Funding a Peoples’ Praxis, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 111:6, 1705-172. (Please contact Kristin if you need access to this article.)

Photo credit on this page: Mike Harrington