ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the individual meanings brought to subsistence food production in South Chicago. Moving beyond dualistic categories of high and low cultural capital explored by most scholars of sustainable consumption, data suggest that subsistence producers share certain meanings that cut across class. First, data suggest that subsistence food producers experience a sense of alienation brought on by a sense of distrust, risk, and disenchantment of living in a consumer capitalist society. Second, participants report the meaning that food produced through subsistence induces a sense of viscerality, or a physical connection to food and work, and a sense of connection that counters the alienation of modern life. This finding contributes to the exploration of neo-Polanyian theory by providing a more nuanced understanding of the meanings brought to the development of shadow structures.
