Making property rights accessible : social movements and legal innovation in the Philippines

Today, many rural poor Filipinos are using state law to try to claim land rights. In spite of the availability of a much heftier set of specialised legal resources than ever before, however, claiming legal land rights remains extremely difficult. Pro-market scholars cite difficult legal problems as a reason to turn away from state-led land reform and toward a market-assisted land reform (MALR) model. Yet, as this paper shows, a closer look at actual dynamics around land reform in the Philippines suggests that political-legal problems associated with implementation of the 1988 agrarian reform law can be overcome under certain conditions. It is argued that rural poor claimants must have access to a support structure for political-legal mobilisation, particularly “rights-advocacy organisation”, and they must adopt an integrated political-legal strategy, in order to effectively push existing constitutional-juridical openings and institutional reforms in favour of land redistribution. An integrated political-legal strategy is one that is capable of activating state agrarian reform law, exploiting independent state actors’ pro-reform initiatives, and resisting the legal and extra-legal manoeuvres of anti-reform elites

Scholar-Activism and Land Struggles:Agrarian Change & Peasant Studies

This book is about scholar-activism and political struggles for land. Scholar-activism is a way of working that tries to change society by combining the best features of radical academic and political activist traditions, despite the many contradictions and challenges that this entails. The role played by scholar-activists in land struggles is important, but is not straightforward. This book unapologetically celebrates the contributions of scholar-activism in land struggles and scholarship, but more than this, it is about exploring the contradictions and challenges facing scholar-activism. It is neither a glorification of the achievements of scholar-activism, nor a set of prescriptive propositions on how to ‘do’ scholar-activism. Rather, it addresses contentious issues in scholar-activism, many of which are rarely discussed, or are discussed only gingerly and awkwardly when they cannot be avoided. It is a book written by two scholar-activists who have focused their individual and collaborative research and activist works on the politics of land and the role played by radical agrarian movements. Insights in this book are drawn on the experiences of the authors working in the three main sites of global knowledge circuits: academic institutions, independent research institutions oriented to practical politics, and left-wing agrarian movements

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.

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

Tendencias políticas en disputa para la gobernanza global del acaparamiento de tierras

La expansión de los ‘cultivos y materias primas flexibles’ en el marco de una transición paulatina en el régimen alimentario global, junto a la emergencia de los países BRICS y MICS (de Renta Media) y el revalorizado papel de los estados nación, conforman un contexto crítico para el acaparamiento de tierras. Estas transformaciones globales que determinan, y son a su vez determinadas por, el actual acaparamiento global de tierras, han resultado en varias interpretaciones en disputa alrededor de su significado, complejizando aún más el ya de por si complejo terreno de la gobernanza. Estamos siendo testigos de una disputa política tripartita sobre el control del carácter, ritmo, parámetros y trayectoria discursiva, así como de los instrumentos sobre, y la práctica de, la gobernanza global del acaparamiento de tierras, como en el caso de las Directrices Voluntarias del Comité de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial de la ONU. Esta contienda gira alrededor de las siguientes tres tendencias: ‘regular para facilitar’, ‘regular para mitigar impactos negativos y maximizar oportunidades’, y ‘regular para detener y revertir’ el acaparamiento de tierras. Las trayectorias futuras del acaparamiento de tierras serán determinadas en buena medida por el balance entre fuerzas sociales y estatales en cada una y entre las tres tendencias políticas. Este artículo plantea un análisis preliminar a partir del mapeo de áreas de indagación sub-exploradas y ofrece más una serie de modos de cuestionamiento inicial, que argumentos firmes basados en material empírico sólido y completo

Southwest Border Violence: Issues in Identifying and Measuring Spillover Violence

[Excerpt] There has been a recent increase in the level of drug trafficking-related violence within and between the drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. This violence has generated concern among U.S. policy makers that the violence in Mexico might spill over into the United States. Currently, U.S. federal officials deny that the recent increase in drug trafficking-related violence in Mexico has resulted in a spillover into the United States, but they acknowledge that the prospect is a serious concern. Currently, no comprehensive, publicly available data exist that can definitively answer the question of whether there has been a significant spillover of drug trafficking-related violence into the United States. Although anecdotal reports have been mixed, U.S. government officials maintain that there has not yet been a significant spillover. In an examination of data that could provide insight into whether there has been a significant spillover in drug trafficking-related violence from Mexico into the United States, CRS analyzed violent crime data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report program. The data, however, do not allow analysts to determine what proportion of the violent crime rate is related to drug trafficking or, even more specifically, what proportion of drug trafficking-related violent crimes can be attributed to spillover violence. In conclusion, because the trends in the overall violent crime rate may not be indicative of trends in drug trafficking-related violent crimes, CRS is unable to draw definitive claims about trends in drug trafficking-related violence spilling over from Mexico into the United States. This report will be updated as circumstances warrant

El Acaparamiento de Tierras en América Latina y el Caribe Visto Desde una Perspectiva Internacional más Amplia

Introducción y mensajes claves Este documento se basa en la investigación empírica que fue encomendada por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO) sobre las condiciones y tendencias del ―acaparamiento de tierras‖ en 17 países de América Latina y el Caribe (véase el Anexo para una lista completa de los estudios, así como el documento síntesis correspondiente; FAO, 2011). Los 17 estudios se concluyeron a mediados de 2011. El marco analítico común de los estudios es amplio, pero a la vez focalizado. Por un lado es amplio porque analiza los procesos generales de las tierras rurales y la concentración de capital en el contexto de la globalización neoliberal. Por el otro, es focalizado porque analiza el fenómeno del ―acaparamiento de tierras‖ basándose estrictamente en tres dimensiones específicas, a saber: i) el gran alcance de las adquisiciones de tierra a gran escala; ii) la participación de los gobiernos extranjeros en estos tratos sobre tierras; y iii) el impacto negativo de dichas inversiones recientes en tierras sobre la seguridad alimentaria del país receptor. Es en gran medida debido a este tipo de marco analítico que la mayoría de los estudios pudieron desentrañar y recopilar gran cantidad de material empírico relacionado con la dinámica de las tierras en la región; sin embargo, dado que el enfoque de su análisis y conclusiones se basó en la definición y la dimensión angostas del acaparamiento de tierras, la conclusión obtenida fue que el ―acaparamiento de tierras‖ se da únicamente en dos países de la región: Argentina y Brasil. ..

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