Against the Grain: radical eco-social work and a global movement for land reform, ‘emancipatory agroecologies’, food sovereignty and climate justice

Abstract

This article highlights the relevance of ‘genuine’ agrarian reform, ‘emancipatory agroecologies’, and food sovereignty to climate justice and radical eco-social work. It explores the connections between capitalism, the climate crisis and global food system and their interconnections with today’s global crises in care and democracy. It analyses the role and exploitation of women and the expropriation of land and resources from racialised ‘others’. The case for UK agrarian reform is discussed in relation to the monarchy and systems of kinship, inheritance and tax. Ongoing struggles for justice, equality and democracy in Peru are highlighted and the relevance of ‘genuine’ agrarian reform. It argues that La Via Campesina movement - an agrarian, trans-environmental movement that promotes global ‘peasant-to-peasant’ knowledge exchange, food sovereignty, ‘emancipatory agroecologies’, and ‘genuine’ agrarian reform – can unite land/social workers and women, globally, to demand climate justice and system change from below. This has implications for radical eco-social work