News and Events

CALL FOR PAPERS

International Academic Conference on

‘Global Land Grabbing’

6 - 8 April 2011

Co-organized and hosted by the Future Agricultures Consortium Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
 
The Journal of Peasant Studies, in collaboration with the Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) is organizing an international academic workshop on ‘Global Land Grabbing’ to be held on 6-8 April 2011 at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.

The focus of the conference will be on the politics of global land grabbing and agrarian change. Papers are expected to address some of the most urgent and strategic questions around global land grab.

Download the details about submissions here.

The deadline for Call for Papers is 31 October 2010

Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol. 36, Issue No. 1 Special Issue: Critical Perspectives in Agrarian Change and Peasant Studies 
 
The entire special issue available online FREE for a limited period: 

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g911010938

 
About the Collection
Agrarian transformations within and across countries have been significantly and dynamically altered during the past few decades compared to previous eras, provoking a variety of reactions from rural poor communities worldwide. The recent convergence of various crises – financial, food, energy and environmental – has put the nexus between ‘rural development’ and ‘development in general’ back onto the center stage of theoretical, policy and political agendas in the world today. Confronting these issues will require (re)engaging with critical theories, taking politics seriously, and utilizing rigorous and appropriate research methodologies. These are the common messages and implications of the various contributions to this collection in the context of a scholarship that is critical in two senses: questioning prescriptions from mainstream perspectives and interrogating popular conventions in radical thinking. This JPS special issue is a collection of articles in ‘state of the art’ format on key perspectives, frameworks and methodologies in agrarian change and peasant studies.
 
Table of Contents
Agrarian Change and Peasant Studies: Changes, Continuities and Challenges – an Introduction Saturnino M. Borras Jr. 2. The Landlord Class, Peasant Differentiation, Class Struggle and the Transition to Capitalism: England, France and Prussia Compared Terence J. Byres 3. V. I. Lenin and A. V. Chayanov: Looking Back, Looking Forward Henry Bernstein 4. Chayanov’s Treble Death and Tenuous Resurrection Teodor Shanin 5. Development Strategies and Rural Development: Exploring Synergies, Eradicating Poverty Cristóbal Kay 6. A Food Regime Genealogy Philip McMichael 7. Livelihoods Perspectives and Rural Development Ian Scoones 8. Engendering the Political Economy of Agrarian Change Shahra Razavi 9. Everyday Politics in Peasant Societies (and Ours) Benedict Kerkvliet 10. Synergies and Tensions between Rural Social Movements and Professional Researchers Marc Edelman
 
Via Campesina and agrarian movements FREE articles, Journal of Peasant Studies vol 37, no. 1, Jnauary 2010
 
La Via Campesina: the birth and evolution of a transnational social movement By Maria Elena Martinez-Torres and Peter Rosset
 
The origin and evolution of the transnational peasant movement La Va Campesina is analysed through five evolutionary stages. In the 1980s the withdrawal of the state from rural areas simultaneously weakened corporativist and clientelist control over rural organisations, even as conditions worsened in the countryside. This gave rise to a new generation of more autonomous peasant organisations, who saw the origins of their similar problems as largely coming from beyond the national borders of weakened nation-states. A transnational social movement defending peasant life, La Va Campesina emerged out of these autonomous organisations, first in Latin America, and then at a global scale, during the 1980s and early 1990s (phase 1). Subsequent stages saw leaders of peasant organisations take their place at the table in international debates (1992-1999, phase 2), muscling aside other actors who sought to speak on their behalf; take on a leadership role in global struggles (2000-2003, phase 3); and engage in internal strengthening (2004-2008, phase 4). More recently (late 2008-present, phase 5) the movement has taken on gender issues more squarely and defined itself more clearly in opposition to transnational corporations. Particular emphasis is given to La Va Campesina's fight to gain legitimacy for the food sovereignty paradigm, to its internal structure, and to the ways in which the (re)construction of a shared peasant identity is a key glue that holds the struggle together despite widely different internal cultures, creating a true peasant internationalism.
 
To access the article, click: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a918802179