Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Theoretical Underpinnings of Civic Agriculture
The theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of a more localized agriculture and food sys-
tem were set forth over fifty years ago in two studies published by the U.S. government as
part of a congressional inquiry into the role of small business in the American economy.
Coming out of World War II, big business had become the primary engine for military pro-
duction. The consequences for workers and communities of an economy organized around
large-scale economic enterprises were unknown. At least some members of Congress felt
compelled to hold hearings on this subject. As part of the hearings, two empirical studies
were commissioned to examine the relationship between the concentration of economic
power at the community level and the social and economic well-being of local residents. The
thesis advanced in both of these studies was that communities in which the economic base
was composed of a plethora of relatively small, locally owned firms would manifest higher
levels of social, economic, and political welfare and well-being than communities where the
economic base was dominated by a few large, absentee-owned firms.
The first report, by the sociologist C. Wright Mills and his colleague Melville Ulmer, Small
Business and Civic Welfare, focused on manufacturing-dependent communities. 6 Mills and
Ulmer were interested in understanding the “effects of big and small business on city life.”
Using three matched pairs of American cities in New York, New Hampshire, and Michigan, 7
Mills and Ulmer showed that communities in which the economic base was composed of
many small, locally owned firms manifested higher levels of well-being than communities
where the economic base was dominated by large, absentee-owned firms. In particular, they
found that the small-business communities provided their residents with a considerably more
balanced economic life than did the big-business communities. They also reported that the
general level of economic opportunity was considerably higher in the small-business com-
munities. They attributed the differences in well-being and opportunity to differences in in-
dustrial organization—that is, specifically to the dominance of big business on the one hand
and the prevalence of small business on the other. In the forward to their congressional re-
port, Senator James E. Murray, chairman of the special committee that had commissioned
the study, noted that “… for the first time objective scientific data show that communities
in which small businesses predominate have a higher level of civic welfare than comparable
communities dominated by big business.” 8
To explain differences they had found in social and economic well being, Mills and Ulmer
turned to two interevening variables. First, they contended that the level of civic engagement
in a community was directly related to levels of socioeconomic welfare. According to Mills
and Ulmer, “Civic spirit may be said to exist in a city where there is widespread participation
in civic affairs on the part of those able to benefit a community by voluntary management
of civic enterprises. These enterprises may consist of attempts to improve the parks, obtain
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