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MOLLY
Professor of Environmental Anthropology at the University of Illinois Chicago
Researcher of Immigrant and Refugee Community Gardens
00:00 / 01:38
"My work looks at the relationship between people and their environments and how those environmental relationships become aspects of political and economic action through alternative social movements."
Molly Doane's current research concerns the connections between people, plants, and wellbeing in Chicago Community Gardens with a focus on refugees. Her past research has focused on environmental politics, the anthropocene, climate refugees, alternative markets and commodities, and social movements in Mexico and the United States. She has also studied the consolidation of markets in food, and the effects of market concentration on livelihoods, politics, and the environment. Molly is currently collaborating on a project called “Cultivating Wellbeing: The Cultural and Ecological Significance of Urban Gardening in Chicago.” Their work has been featured as a part of the Field Museum's Urban Wellness Initiative.
"The logic of capitalism is monopoly. This idea in agriculture of get big or get out is real and it's not natural. It's because of how capitalism is organized and regulated or not regulated."
Molly talks about the economics of farming.
"I moved into a highrise. I really couldn't figure out how to live without a garden so I started working at a community garden... and I was like, wow, there's more to this garden than some story of gentrification."
Molly talks about how she got involved in community gardens.
"Gentrification is caused by the commodification of real estate. It is not caused by the positive social action that people take when they live in real estate. So for a lot of the gardeners, the fact that the garden is a non-commodified space is transformative."
00:00 / 03:27
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