Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
Sociology
Date of Award
12-2017
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Martha Copp
Committee Members
Leslie McCallister, Joseph Baker
Abstract
This study focuses on the identities of family farm operators and the challenges to maintaining viable farm operations in today’s agricultural economy. Employing a grounded qualitative approach, the author conducted 18 in-depth interviews with principal farm operators from Iowa and Tennessee. Using the insights of farmers from geographically different agricultural regions, this study notes how preserving family histories, socialization processes, and farming as a moral career inform operators’ understandings of themselves and the work they do. The analysis also focuses on how family farm operators contend with a globalized agricultural economy and the moral and ethical concerns of managing a farm. Farm operators implement various tactics and framing mechanisms for resolving and, in some cases, circumventing these challenging issues in order to maintain their farms, identities, and family farm legacies.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Arnold, Parker T., "Identities and Persistence of Family Farm Operators" (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3305. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3305