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

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

Land politics, agrarian movements and scholar-activism

This paper examines the recent changes in global land politics and agrarian movements and the activists and academics that mobilize around and study these issues. There are several arguments, or propositions for discussion, in this paper: (1) Land politics today are more diverse than at other points during the past century; (2) The changing character of land politics has shaped the broadening social movements that mobilize around land issues: some agrarian movements have transformed into environmental and climate justice movements as well as food sovereignty movements --or have moved on towards alliance-building (objective or subjective) with environmental and climate justice as well as food sovereignty movements; (3) During the past three decades, the transnationalization of agrarian movements has been one of the most significant shifts in agrarian politics, (4) The changes in land politics and agrarian movements in light of the changing global context have ushered in a new period and inspired a new generation of agrarian scholar-activists. By scholar-activism, I mean, rigorous academic work that aims to change the world, or committed activist work that is informed by rigorous academic research, which is explicitly and unapologetically connected to political projects or movements. There are three types of scholar-activists in this broad sense: (1) scholar-activists who are primarily located in academic institutions who do activist work and are connected to a political project or movement(s); (2) scholar-activists who are principally based in social movements or a political project and do scholar-activism from within; and (3) scholar-activists who are mainly located in non-academic independent research institutions who do activist work and connect with a political project or movement(s). The changes on the agrarian front have also altered the character and reshaped the agenda of scholar-activism, as well as the style, methods, strategy and tactics of work. It is thus important to have a better understanding of contemporary scholar-activists in general. However we must not see agrarian scholar activists as a stand-alone category, but in relationship to their institutional location and in the context of their interaction with other scholars and activists, to highlight the tensions, synergies, limits, and possibilities for agrarian scholar-activism. I conclude by putting forward a proposition for discussion around the idea of an ‘agrarian scholar-activist research movement.

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

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

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.

¿La ‘soberanía de la tierra’ como alternativa? Hacia un contracercamiento de los pueblos

1. La soberanía de la tierra se refiere al derecho que tienen los pueblos trabajadores al acceso efectivo a la tierra, al uso de ella y a su control, así como a los beneficios de su uso y ocupación, entendiendo la tierra como un recurso, como territorio y como paisaje. 2. La soberanía de la tierra es tanto un llamado a la acción en contra de los renovados esfuerzos corporativos y (trans)nacionales para cercar el patrimonio común como la afirmación de la necesidad de un cercamiento popular de la tierra, que apoye a los pueblos trabajadores y su derecho humano a ejercer control sobre la tierra. ..

A ‘Land Sovereignty’ Alternative? Towards a Peoples’ Counter-Enclosure

1. Land sovereignty is the right of working peoples to have effective access to, use of, and control over land and the benefits of its use and occupation, where land is understood as resource, territory, and landscape. 2. Land sovereignty is both a call to action against a renewed corporate and (trans)national global push to enclose the commons and an assertion of the need for a people’s enclosure of the land; supporting working peoples and their human right to control over land. ..

‘Land grabbing’ e ‘Green grabbing’: Uma leitura da ‘corrida na produção acadêmica’ sobre a apropriação global de terras

A partir de 2008, houve uma extensa produção e publicação de artigos acadêmicos, basicamente em inglês, sobre um fenômeno denominado corrida mundial por terras ou land grabbing (apropriação de terras). Depois de cinco ou seis anos, essa produção se mantém, mas com construções teórico-empíricas mais elaboradas – inclusive com a reformulação de conceitos e criação de outros como green grabbing (apropriação verde) e water grabbing (apropriação da água) –, especialmente porque as primeiras reflexões eram excessivamente centradas em dados quantitativos e escala (quantidade de hectares transacionados), em grandes investimentos estrangeiros em terras agrícolas e voltados para estudos de casos sobre a compra de terras no Continente Africano. O objetivo deste artigo é retomar os termos do debate, relendo argumentos e discutindo formulações teóricas (inclusive o próprio conceito de land grabbing), procurando construir diálogos teóricos e agendas de pesquisas acadêmicas no Brasil, pois o mesmo – além ser um país com históricos problemas agrários como a concentração da terra – é marcado por investimentos externos, mas também incentiva a apropriação privada de terras em outros lugares e países, o que resulta na expansão das fronteiras agrícolas e gera conflitos e disputas territoriais. After 2008, there has been an extensive production and publication of academic articles in English, dealing with a phenomenon called global land rush or land grabbing. After five or six years, such academic production continuous but more elaborated theoretically and with larger empirical evidences, including some conceptual reformulations and creation other concepts like green grabbing and water grabbing. This happened especially because the first studies were overly focused on quantitative data and scale (land deals in hectares), considering large foreign investment in agricultural land and focused on case studies on the purchase of land on the African continent. This article aims to resume the terms of the debate, discussing some arguments and theoretical formulations – including the concept of land grabbing –, looking for reflexions, theoretical dialogue and academic research agenda in Brazil. Besides being a country with historical agrarian problems, like the concentration of landownership, Brazil is has foreign investments, but it also encourages private investments and land deals, resulting in the expansion of the agricultural frontier, generating conflicts and territorial disputes in other countries

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

Agrarian social movements: The absurdly difficult but not impossible agenda of defeating right‐wing populism and explo

Parallels, resemblances, and interconnections between contemporary right‐wing populism and the populism of agrarian movements are examined in this essay. The two are partly linked through their social base in the countryside. This paper explores an agenda for political conversation and research on possible contributions to the twin efforts of splitting the ranks of right‐wing populists while expanding the united front of democratic challengers. The challenge is how to transform the identified interconnections into a left‐wing political project that can erode right‐wing populism. This requires a reclaiming of populism. In exploring this agenda, the paper revisits the ideas and practices of right‐wing populism and agrarian populism and the awkward overlaps and fundamental differences between them. It concludes with a discussion on the challenge of forging a reformulated class‐conscious left‐wing populism as a countercurrent to right‐wing populism, and as a possible political force against capitalism and towards a socialist future