Toward an urban food commons: Participatory action research on food apartheid and community-based agrifood system governance in Louisville, KY.

This dissertation investigates the structural inequities fueling food apartheid in Louisville, Kentucky’s agrifood system and explores community-based governance as a path toward food justice. Through a participatory action research (PAR) framework, this study combines participatory geographic information systems (PGIS), focus groups, and autoethnography to engage directly with affected community members and collaborate with the Food in Neighborhoods (FIN) coalition. By prioritizing the voices of those most impacted by food insecurity, this research offers contributions to the fields of food justice, participatory governance, and urban food commons. The study situates Louisville’s food access issues within the broader neoliberal global agrifood system, that prioritizes profit over equitable access, contributing to entrenched disparities, especially among low-income, Black, and marginalized communities. Urban agriculture (UA) is examined as a grassroots resistance strategy that promotes food sovereignty and community resilience but remains limited by insecure land tenure, market pressures, and systemic exclusion of local initiatives. Integrating frameworks of food justice, resourcefulness, and the co-cities design principles of urban commons governance, this research analyzes Louisville’s agrifood system and evaluates Louisville’s potential to establish community-controlled agrifood systems. Findings demonstrate that while UA initiatives in Louisville create promising avenues for self-determination and sustenance, achieving food justice requires structural reforms that institutionalize community control over agrifood resources. This dissertation advances scholarship on food justice and the urban food commons, presenting actionable recommendations for policymakers, activists, and scholars committed to building sustainable, equitable food systems that counter neoliberal and racialized injustices.