Farmers’ Markets as Community Gathering Places: Evidence from the Literature

Abstract

In this academic analysis, I provide a dedicated review of farmers’ markets as community gathering spaces, investigating the features, variables, and mechanisms by which farmers’ markets build social capital, strengthen social networks, and function as “third places” (Lasch, 1991; Oldenburg, 1989). I posit that it is by creating physical, curated focal points for public life, rooted in symbolically rich, socially embedded commerce and primed for values embodiment and social interaction, that farmers’ markets become individually and collectively salient community gathering places. Farmers’ markets are more than where food is bought and sold: they are keystone community assets where identities are actively constructed, transactions are based in satisfactions of regard, and “community” is an action. I take three foundational building blocks of the market – the place itself, the people, and the products sold – and examine each in turn, providing evidence from the literature to demonstrate how each component contributes to the “place ballet” of the market environment as a community gathering place (Francis & Griffith, 2011, p. 262; Seamon & Nordin, 1980). Taken together, I argue, it is the curated environment, socially salient atmosphere, and socially embedded commerce that make the farmers’ market a rich site of community gathering and public life.