Presentation Type
Three Minute Thesis
Category
Social Sciences/Humanities
Abstract/Artist Statement
Land is central to the history and mythology of the American West, and yet owning and accessing land is increasingly unattainable for most Americans. Changes in who can own land alter material practices of agriculture or conservation as well as ideas and narratives underlying those material practices, i.e., the land’s imaginary. This research employs a mixed-methods approach to 1) geospatially analyze how the regime of land ownership is changing in two agricultural communities in Montana, and 2) explore associated shifts in rural land imaginaries.
Scholars have researched the effects of land ownership changes in rural logging communities and highly-desirable Western towns. Yet to date, there is little research done to understand how Montana’s agricultural communities are contesting or adapting to these new ownership regimes. Key drivers of change in other communities include farmland financialization and amenity migration; I posit that identity creation is an understudied yet significant driver of change. Those buying land do so to craft themselves as a farmer or rancher amidst pervasive Wild West discourses seen in the TV show “Yellowstone” and the idea of “Big Sky Country.” These appeals to identity produce new visions of what land is and should be. The analytic of land imaginaries serves to combine the rhetorical and the tangible of a given landscape, making it particularly useful to study this intersection of ownership and discourse.
Owning land is the litmus test of inequality in America today. Studying the material changes associated with the (in)ability to own land as well as shifts in how residents see the land’s purpose contributes to understanding both the future of agriculture and the impacts of growing inequality. Montana’s landscape is a palimpsest of mythology about what it means to be American; this research explores changes therein.
Mentor Name
Hilary Faxon
Land Imaginaries and Rural Realities in the Mountain West
UC North Ballroom
Land is central to the history and mythology of the American West, and yet owning and accessing land is increasingly unattainable for most Americans. Changes in who can own land alter material practices of agriculture or conservation as well as ideas and narratives underlying those material practices, i.e., the land’s imaginary. This research employs a mixed-methods approach to 1) geospatially analyze how the regime of land ownership is changing in two agricultural communities in Montana, and 2) explore associated shifts in rural land imaginaries.
Scholars have researched the effects of land ownership changes in rural logging communities and highly-desirable Western towns. Yet to date, there is little research done to understand how Montana’s agricultural communities are contesting or adapting to these new ownership regimes. Key drivers of change in other communities include farmland financialization and amenity migration; I posit that identity creation is an understudied yet significant driver of change. Those buying land do so to craft themselves as a farmer or rancher amidst pervasive Wild West discourses seen in the TV show “Yellowstone” and the idea of “Big Sky Country.” These appeals to identity produce new visions of what land is and should be. The analytic of land imaginaries serves to combine the rhetorical and the tangible of a given landscape, making it particularly useful to study this intersection of ownership and discourse.
Owning land is the litmus test of inequality in America today. Studying the material changes associated with the (in)ability to own land as well as shifts in how residents see the land’s purpose contributes to understanding both the future of agriculture and the impacts of growing inequality. Montana’s landscape is a palimpsest of mythology about what it means to be American; this research explores changes therein.