The Unresolved Land Reform Debate: Beyond State-Led or Market-Led Models

Land Reform; Debate; State-Led; Market-Led; Model

Towards Understanding the Politics of Flex Crops and Commodities: Implications for Research and Policy Advocacy

This discussion paper offers a preliminary exploration of the concept and phenomenon of “flex crops and commodities”, building on an earlier and initial analysis and abbreviated idea put forward by some of the authors of this paper. We discuss the dual concepts of the “multiple-ness” and “flexible-ness” of crops and commodities as two distinct but intertwined dimensions of some key crops and commodities. These key crops and commodities are shaped by the changing global context that is itself (re)moulded in large part by the convergence of multiple crises and the various responses to those crises. Building on these dual concepts, we will identify and explain the minimum requirements for crop and commodity flexing. We will also try to typologize the various types of crop and commodity flexing, namely, “real flexing”, “anticipated/speculated flexing”, and “imagined flexing”—to allow for a deeper examination of these interrelated processes. The boundaries between these categories (multiple/flexible, real, anticipated and imagined) are not always clearly demarcated, requiring us to examine the issue of flex crops and commodities in a more interlinked manner. We will focus our initial exploration on the political dynamics of such interactions and intersections, looking into the factors that encourage or discourage, facilitate or hinder maximization of the “multiple-ness” and/or “flexible-ness” of particular crops and commodities. Finally, and as a way of closing, we will outline the implications of these dynamics for how we think of engaged research, public actions and policy advocacy, including a brief discussion of what we call “flex policy narratives” by governments and corporations.

O Debate não Resolvido da Reforma Agrária: Para além de Modelos Comandados pelo Estado ou pelo Mercado

O Debate não Resolvido da Reforma Agrária: Para além de Modelos Comandados pelo Estado ou pelo Mercado

Scholar-activism in agrarian and development studies and practice

Scholar-activism is a tradition in knowledge politics that takes the side of the exploited and the oppressed when talking about development. It is necessarily embedded in the wideranging knowledge political coalitions – for social justice or corporate profit-making – that include actors from academia, grassroots social movements, small autonomous research institutions, as well as states, corporations and philanthropies. We critically examine questions as to who gets to talk about development, from which platform and how, whose voices count, and the conditions under which various actors talk about development.</p

Plantationocene and Contemporary Agrarian Struggles

Wolford’s (2021) article on the Plantationocene compels us to reexamine the state of agrarian struggles today in relation to struggles within and against capitalism. Although contemporary agrarian movements are relatively vibrant overall, their movement organizations and alliances tend to be sectoral and localized, and plantation workers remain weakly organized. This commentary argues that agrarian struggles can become more relevant if they are better embedded within broader anticapitalist struggles; conversely, broad anticapitalist struggles are better grounded if they are linked to contemporary agrarian struggles. The Plantationocene scholarship validates this point; moreover, scholarship on the Plantationocene can beenriched by engagement with studies on agrarian struggles

The politics of biofuels, land and agrarian change: editors' introduction

This introduction frames key questions on biofuels, land and agrarian change within agrarian political economy, political sociology and political ecology. It identifies and explains big questions that provide the starting point for the contributions to this collection. We lay out some of the emerging themes which define the politics of biofuels, land and agrarian change revolving around global (re)configurations; agro-ecological visions; conflicts, resistances and diverse outcomes; state, capital and society relations; mobilising opposition, creating alternatives; and change and continuity. An engaged agrarian political economy combined with global political economy, international relations and social movement theory provides an important framework for analysis and critique of the conditions, dynamics, contradictions, impacts and possibilities of the emerging global biofuels complex. Our hope is that this collection demonstrates the significance of a political economy of biofuels in capturing the complexity of the ‘biofuels revolution’ and at the same time opening up questions about its sustainability in social and environmental terms that provide pathways towards alternatives.ESR

The Unresolved Land Reform Debate: Beyond State-Led or Market-Led Models

In response to the problem of inequalities in the distribution of land, this Policy Research Brief points toward a land reform model that could both satisfy legitimate and urgent demands for social justice and develop an agrarian system that is economically viable. It draws primarily on a UNDP-ISS supported set of country studies and analytical papers

Grey areas in green grabbing : subtle and indirect interconnections between climate change politics and land grabs and their implications for research

Climate change and green grabbing/resource grabbing together call for nuanced understanding of governance imperatives, and for constructing a knowledge base appropriate to political intervention. This paper offers preliminary ways in which interconnections can be seen and understood, and their implications for research and politics explored. It concludes by way of a preliminary discussion of the notion of ‘agrarian climate justice’ as a possible framework for formal governance or political activism relevant to tackling grey area interconnections. “Green grabbing” is resource grabbing in the name of the environment; the paper recognizes politics of climate change as analytically distinct from ‘climate change.’Dutch NWOUK DFIDBRICS Initiatives for Critical Agrarian Studies (BICAS)Ford Foundation Beijing OfficeMyanmar Programme of the Transnational Institute (TNI

The politics of evidence: A response to Rulli and D'Odorico

ESR

Scholar-activism and land struggles

¿Cómo se complementan la investigación activista y las luchas por la tierra para promover la justicia social? La investigación activista es una forma de trabajo que trata de cambiar la sociedad al combinar las mejores características de las tradiciones académicas radicales y del activismo político, pese a las múltiples contradicciones y retos que ello conlleva. Este libro no es ni una exaltación de los logros de la in- vestigación activista ni un conjunto de propuestas prescriptivas sobre cómo «ejecutarla»; en todo caso se trata de explorar las discrepancias y los desafíos a los que se enfrenta. Adicionalmente, se abordan aspec- tos polémicos, muchos de los cuales rara vez se discuten y cuando no se puede evitar se examinan con cautela y torpeza. Las reflexiones de este pequeño y accesible libro se basan en las experiencias de los au- tores que trabajan en los tres lugares principales de los circuitos mun- diales del conocimiento: las instituciones académicas, las instituciones de investigación independientes orientadas a la política práctica y los movimientos agrarios de izquierda