“I Still Have the Old Tradition”: The co-production of sweetgrass basketry and coastal development

Scholars working around the world have drawn attention to the physical and social changes associated with rural gentrification. Case studies from the United States have focused on how these patterns lead to the cultural displacement and replacement of land-based livelihoods, including non-timber forest product (NTFP) practices. Scholars have also documented the persistence of culturally and economically important NTFP practices in urban and suburban areas. We reconcile these disparate outcomes, displacement on the one hand and persistence on the other, by focusing on the social relationships that co-produce land use and livelihood change. Our case investigates how African American sweetgrass basketmakers in Mount Pleasant South Carolina negotiate the complex terrain of a rapidly urbanizing and gentrifying landscape.Analysis of interviews with basketmakers and participant observation at public meetings suggests that gathering materials and selling baskets occur across spaces not typically considered important for NTFP practices. Access to these sites depends upon continually reinforced and negotiated social relationships between a variety of actors. Findings illustrate that, by themselves, development and gentrification are insufficient for explaining livelihood and land use patterns that emerge in places experiencing intensive development. Using a co-production framework, we acknowledge the wide variety of complex trajectories and local power dynamics shaping land use and livelihoods. Findings also have implications for connecting global research on housing, employment, and demographic transitions associated with rural gentrification, to international NTFP research, which is increasingly turning to rural-urban interfaces for insights on how livelihoods are linked to land development and migration.

► We examine land use and livelihoods as co-produced through social relationships. ► This approach uncovers the complex trajectories of gentrification and development. ► NTFPs rely on renegotiated social networks, situated within local power dynamics. ► Sweetgrass basketry interrupts patterns of gentrification and urbanization. ► Findings speak to global literatures on rural gentrification and NTFP practices.