Law in Bloom: The Roots of Legal Consciousness and Negotiation in Philadelphia Community Gardens
Abstract
This thesis examines how legal consciousness, self-governance, and social networks shape power, participation, and belonging in the Southwark Queen Village Community Garden in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I draw on theories of legal pluralism and network theory to analyze archival documents, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews with garden members and leadership. I show that gardeners navigate overlapping formal rules and informal hierarchies, appearing in the form of bylaws, land trust agreements, social ties, and embodied practices, that together produce a complex web of legal consciousness inside the space. Mechanisms of self-governance, like plot assignments and leadership elections, often reinforce social hierarchies shaped by race, class, and tenure, while personal networks determine whose voices carry weight in decision-making. This thesis sheds light on community gardens as a microcosm of urban governance, where commons-based spaces simultaneously reproduce and challenge broader systems of inequality.