Mobilizing Hope, Fighting for Change

Mobilizing Hope, Fighting for Change analyzes an unusual development in social movement studies and food politics more generally: the formation of an interracial alliance of farmers and farm workers who together demand transformative changes to U.S. agriculture by calling for food sovereignty. Such an alliance, as Anthony R. Pahnke shows, is unusual given how social movement alliances in the United States, particularly those related to agrarian issues, have historically been deeply divided by race and occupation.

Pahnke’s study offers a novel theory for social movement alliance formation, focusing especially on the dynamics of learning. He documents how since the 1980s there have been unprecedented openings for people to work together due to the rise of transnational activist networks, changes in the international political economy, and evolving forms of state authority.

Foregrounding the voices of activists, Mobilizing Hope, Fighting for Change compares the trajectories of four U.S.-based movements over time-the Mvskoke Food Sovereignty Initiative based in Oklahoma, the Family Farm Defenders of Wisconsin, the Farmworker Association of Florida, and the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives-documenting how they have united in demanding food sovereignty while remaining distinct from one another.