A Space for Sharing Stories of Transformation
Laura Flagg’s 2018 UEP Thesis (“Small-Scale Food Processing’s Role in Farm to Institution: Filling Market Gaps and Moving Toward a Regional Supply Chain”) explores small-scale food processing with a case study of Commonwealth Kitchen and three other processors. Read Laura’s full thesis here. By Laura Flagg Farm-to-institution initiatives are trying to grow the local economyContinue reading Filling the Food Processing Gap Between Local Farms and Institutions
How does community participation influence community development and the residents who engage? How can civic participation be strengthened so that communities gain more control over their destinies? These are the questions that Tufts UEP and Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) will be pursuing over the next two years. The participatory research project is entitled FromContinue reading Tufts UEP and Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative Awarded 2-year Federal Community Action Research Grant
Check out this interview on Labor Vision TV about a new worker-owned cleaning coop in Rhode Island. This coop was incubated by the worker’s center Fuerza Laboral. Healthy Planet Cleaning Co-op is the first worker’s cooperative incorporated in Rhode Island. Tufts UEP alum Janaki Blum helped support the coop’s startup by conducting a feasibility studyContinue reading Rhode Island Cleaning Coop on Labor Vision TV
By Penn Loh and Laura Flagg Despite growing appetites for healthy, sustainable, and local food, workers in the food industry are still among the lowest paid and highly exploited workers in the US. The more than 20 million people (representing 1/6 of the entire US workforce)[i] who are growing, producing, and serving food often workContinue reading Will Work for Food: How Boston is Building a Just Food Economy
In Spring 2018, Alice Maggio, David Morgan, Nicole Huang, and Zoë Ackerman partnered with members of the Urban Farming Institute Community Land Trust to carry out a Tufts Field Project. The Urban Farming Institute (UFI) of Boston’s mission is to promote urban agriculture through education, farmer training, policy initiatives, and farm site access for farmers.Continue reading Preparing Soil, Planting Seeds: Community Land Trusts for Urban Farms
By Zoë Ackerman Teaching Democracy is a train-the-trainers program and web platform for building the capacity of Tufts and community practitioners in popular education and community-based education methods. It was co-created by Tufts Department of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning (UEP) with several of its community partners. These methods arise from community organizing and empowermentContinue reading Teaching Democracy: Popular Education Training 2018
By Allison Curtis Main Street businesses provide access to goods and services and generate jobs and ownership opportunities for local residents. But more than these economic roles, they also enhance vibrant and safe street life. As important as these commercial districts are, residents may not feel much control as businesses move in and out, shiftingContinue reading Owning Main Street: Three Finance Innovations for Community Control of Development
Each summer, two Tufts UEP graduate students work with community partners for a 10-week fellowship through the CoRE (Co-learning/Co-education) partnership. Funded by Tisch College, fellows get hands-on experience in community planning, organizing and development. And the fellows help to deepen collaboration between Tufts and its community partners. In summer 2018, Lydia Collins worked with DudleyContinue reading CORE Fellows Summer 2018
An article that I and Julian Agyeman wrote has just been published online in Geoforum journal. This piece will be part of a forthcoming special issue on Food Sharing. We continue to follow the emerging food solidarity economy in Boston and look at the potentials and challenges to its growth. Check it out at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718518302513Continue reading Article online: Urban food sharing and the emerging Boston food solidarity economy
On Saturday April 28, the Solidarity Economy Initiative hosted “Learning from Jackson: Building a Solidarity Economy in Boston.” Almost 200 came to afternoon workshops and an evening program featuring Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson. This event had many co-sponsors, including from Tufts (Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning, Education, and Consortium of Studies in Race, Colonialism,Continue reading Boston Learns from Jackson MS