/2016/10/27/evangelizing-in-the-garden-conservative-christian-converts-urban-agriculture-us/ Notes and Queries in Anthropology Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:00:10 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.1 /2016/10/27/evangelizing-in-the-garden-conservative-christian-converts-urban-agriculture-us/comment-page-1/#comment-839678 Mon, 14 Nov 2016 03:20:48 +0000 /?p=20604#comment-839678 As someone who has struggled – not only as volunteer, employee, but also ethnographer – among the communities and sites written about here, I understand intimately the issues at stake. I would offer a couple of concerns of mine, or perhaps wishes. First, the analysis sounds to my ear too monological. I want to hear the author’s full interviews, such as this one:
https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/16753/RKsP_Smith_JoshandAlyssa_2014-06-30_Transcript.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
The couple there challenged any simple notion of helping the poor, even calling some paternalistic and colonialist. The stress was more on building relationships, building community.
I’d also like to hear about other community garden initiatives out there and how these differ from that described here. For example, the first lady has been a very strong proponent of community gardens, and has done much to promote them, for example:
http://www.letsmove.gov/community-garden-checklist
From my own experience moving among both evangelicals and liberals offering community services (i.e., meals, gardens), I’d venture to say that a similar notion of personal responsibility that structures PWORA exists, one that causes the very stress and anxiety in those that seek participatory community bonds. The depressive tragedy is those bonds are so fleeting, ephemeral. One quickly becomes locked in the identities and choices imposed upon them.

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