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Article
Publication date: 8 January 2020

Clement Chipenda and Tom Tom

The purpose of this paper is to provide a contemporary perspective on post land reform Zimbabwe with special focus on the youth. It uses the social reproduction conceptual…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a contemporary perspective on post land reform Zimbabwe with special focus on the youth. It uses the social reproduction conceptual framework to show that two decades after land reform, there are generational questions which are now arising in the new resettlement areas which need deeper, empirical and more nuanced analysis to comprehend. In a context where some countries in Southern Africa are grappling with the best ways of dealing with their land questions, it shows that from a youth perspective, the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) has important lessons.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was largely qualitative and grounded in an interpretive research paradigm. It employed various data gathering instruments and solicited for responses from 151 young people as well as 11 key informants. The study used the social reproduction perspective as a conceptual and evaluative tool to ascertain the outcomes of the FTLRP from a social reproduction perspective with special focus on young people.

Findings

The study showed that there are some young people in the resettlement areas who blame the land reform programme for the challenging socio-economic situation which they are facing. It also shows that for the youth, the FTLRP has had multi-dimensional impact; while some are complaining, others have managed to use their agency to access natural resources and land, which has seen them “accumulating from below”. For some young people, land reform has positively transformed their lives, while others feel that it has limited their opportunities.

Originality/value

The paper provides new and contemporary insights on post land reform Zimbabwe. This is an area which is increasingly gaining traction in scholarship on the FTLRP. In addition, the paper provides a unique perspective of looking at the issue of the youth from a social reproduction perspective; this is a unique academic contribution. Lastly, the paper is useful insofar as it transcends the debates on the FTLRP to proffer a unique analysis on the social reproduction dimensions of the FTLRP.

Details

African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-0705

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 3 December 2014

Douglas H. Constance, William H. Friedland, Marie-Christine Renard and Marta G. Rivera-Ferre

This introduction provides an overview of the discourse on alternative agrifood movements (AAMs) to (1) ascertain the degree of convergence and divergence around a common ethos of…

Abstract

This introduction provides an overview of the discourse on alternative agrifood movements (AAMs) to (1) ascertain the degree of convergence and divergence around a common ethos of alterity and (2) context the chapters of the book. AAMs have increased in recent years in response to the growing legitimation crisis of the conventional agrifood system. Some agrifood researchers argue that AAMs represent the vanguard movement of our time, a formidable counter movement to global capitalism. Other authors note a pattern of blunting of the transformative qualities of AAMs due to conventionalization and mainstreaming in the market. The literature on AAMs is organized following a Four Questions in Agrifood Studies (Constance, 2008) framework. The section for each Question ends with a case study to better illustrate the historical dynamics of an AAM. The literature review ends with a summary of the discourse applied to the research question of the book: Are AAMs the vanguard social movement of our time? The last section of this introduction provides a short description of each contributing chapter of the book, which is divided into five sections: Introduction; Theoretical and Conceptual Framings; Food Sovereignty Movements; Alternative Movements in the Global North; and Conclusions.

Details

Alternative Agrifood Movements: Patterns of Convergence and Divergence
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-089-6

Book part
Publication date: 17 November 2005

Philip McMichael

The corporate food regime is presented here as a vector of the project of global development. As such, it expresses not only the social and ecological contradictions of…

Abstract

The corporate food regime is presented here as a vector of the project of global development. As such, it expresses not only the social and ecological contradictions of capitalism, but also the world-historical conjuncture in which the deployment of price and credit relations are key mechanisms of ‘accumulation through dispossession.’ The global displacement of peasant cultures of provision by dumping, the supermarket revolution, and conversion of land for agro-exports, incubate ‘food sovereignty’ movements expressing alternative relationships to the land, farming and food.

Details

New Directions in the Sociology of Global Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-373-0

Book part
Publication date: 11 April 2012

Philip McMichael

Purpose – This chapter responds to the re-centering of agriculture and food in official forums and public discourse in the current crisis context.Design – It re-examines the…

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter responds to the re-centering of agriculture and food in official forums and public discourse in the current crisis context.

Design – It re-examines the assumptions of the agrarian question through the lens of food regime analysis.

Findings – By examining these developments, particularly the recommendations of the IAASTD report, it is clear there is growing interest in the multifunctional conception of farming that is attentive to ecological and social sustainability.

Research implications – This rethinking is symptomatic of a transformation of the agrarian question: moving away from a concern with the political trajectory of capital in agriculture and the process of depeasantization, towards a concern with ‘peasant’ renewal. This registers an ontological shift towards an agro-ecological paradigm in which an ecologically driven conception of ‘value’ addressing social reproduction rather than capital accumulation is emerging.

Practical implications – New research on “repeasantization” undergirds this claim, and complements the global mobilization of small farmers around the project of food sovereignty. Practically, food sovereignty projects mean growing land rights claims and adoption of diverse forms of biological (rather than chemical) farming.

Social implications – This implies stabilizing rural populations and the possibility of health food and environments.

Value – Intellectually, such developments call for an analytical shift (in food regime and other analyses) towards values other than those of price and productivism in assessing the contribution of agriculture to human survival in a climate-challenged future.

Details

Rethinking Agricultural Policy Regimes: Food Security, Climate Change and the Future Resilience of Global Agriculture
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-349-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 11 November 2015

Rachel Soper

This paper compares the agrarian development of two indigenous communities in the highlands of Ecuador who specialize in nontraditional agricultural exports (NTAE). It brings…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper compares the agrarian development of two indigenous communities in the highlands of Ecuador who specialize in nontraditional agricultural exports (NTAE). It brings together the peasant theory with literature on the environmental impact of globalization.

Methodology/approach

Through a comparative ethnography, based on six months of participant observation and interviewers, I illustrate the differences in production processes and explain the divergent trajectories of agrarian modernization.

Findings

I found that NTAE impacted the two communities differently: one became more ecologically sustainable and the other became more environmentally exploitative. However, neither case fits squarely within the framework of modern/traditional or peasant/capitalist. Instead of traditional environmentalism and individualistic exploitation, we see the reverse: individualistic environmentalism and traditional exploitation. That is, ecological methods are paired with individualistic competition, and environmental exploitation takes place within a system of communal solidarity.

Practical implications

With buyer-driven organic certification standards, global integration does not always lead to ecological degradation. For quinoa growers, traditional production practices persist not as resistance to global capitalism but as a strategy to access high-value export markets. Broccoli farmers, although exploitative of local natural resources and their own health, do so within communal institutions that buffer against individualistic risk-taking.

Originality/value

This comparative case presents an alternative depiction of modernization as complex and nonlinear.

Details

States and Citizens: Accommodation, Facilitation and Resistance to Globalization
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-180-4

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 9 March 2015

Claudia Job Schmitt

The chapter seeks to reflect on the dynamics of the reconstruction of family farming and peasant agriculture in agrarian reform settlements (“assentamentos”) in Brazil, exploring…

Abstract

The chapter seeks to reflect on the dynamics of the reconstruction of family farming and peasant agriculture in agrarian reform settlements (“assentamentos”) in Brazil, exploring the limits and potential of government food purchases from family farming, particularly the Food Acquisition Program (Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos – PAA), in the creation of alternative paths of rural development. The work analyzes the different strategies through which farmers and their organizations mobilize public policy instruments and market connections, expanding their room for maneuver and agency capacity. Research was conducted in the Baixo Sul Territory of the state of Bahia, focusing the heterogeneous web of social organizations involved in the implementation of the Food Acquisition Program in this setting.

Details

Constructing a New Framework for Rural Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-622-5

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 3 December 2014

Annette Aurélie Desmarais, Marta G. Rivera-Ferre and Beatriz Gasco

This chapter examines La Vía Campesina’s strategy of consolidating strategic alliances in its global struggle to build food sovereignty. After discussing some of La Vía…

Abstract

This chapter examines La Vía Campesina’s strategy of consolidating strategic alliances in its global struggle to build food sovereignty. After discussing some of La Vía Campesina’s initial challenges in working with nongovernmental organizations we focus on two case studies: first, La Vía Campesina’s work with Veterinarios Sin Fronteras, based in Spain, and second, the International Planning Committee on Food Sovereignty. In both cases we analyze some of the convergences and divergences experienced by the social actors in efforts to build strategic alliances.

Details

Alternative Agrifood Movements: Patterns of Convergence and Divergence
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-089-6

Book part
Publication date: 11 November 2015

Paul K. Gellert

Placing expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia in the context of the global land grab, this paper analyzes the contemporary extent and early historical periods of…

Abstract

Purpose

Placing expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia in the context of the global land grab, this paper analyzes the contemporary extent and early historical periods of plantation expansion via the theory of accumulation by dispossession (ABD).

Methodology/approach

After reviewing the empirical debate about the land grab, this paper examines the importance of ABD to understand the land grabs in general and for oil palm plantations in Indonesia in particular. Rather than a new phenomenon of the last four decades of neoliberalism, ABD has a history of several centuries.

Findings

Accumulation by dispossession (ABD) is a powerful and appropriate lens by which to understand the land conversion and social displacement occurring in Indonesia. Building on historical understanding of ABD, this paper applies the theory to the Indonesian oil palm case, making the case that the multiple and uncertain sequences of engagement with oil palm expansion are reflective of a broader struggle against dispossession.

Originality/value

ABD is not just a global financial process of corporate-led neoliberalization but also shaped importantly by domestic state and local elites. These elites have shaped ABD differently in colonial, authoritarian, and neoliberal periods.

Details

States and Citizens: Accommodation, Facilitation and Resistance to Globalization
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-180-4

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 11 December 2023

Kristin Plys, Priyansh and Kanishka Goonewardena

In this introduction to the special issue, ‘Marxist Thought in South Asia’, we detail the long history of Marxist politics and theorizing in South Asia and highlight the unique…

Abstract

In this introduction to the special issue, ‘Marxist Thought in South Asia’, we detail the long history of Marxist politics and theorizing in South Asia and highlight the unique contributions and perspectives of South Asian Marxists to global Marxism. Three contributions we find particularly significant are (1) South Asian Marxists' approach to thinking about questions of capitalism, colonialism and imperialism, (2) the treatment of agrarian and feudal continuities in Marxist theories from South Asia and (3) unique South Asian contributions to theorizing caste from a Marxist perspective.

Details

Marxist Thought in South Asia
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-183-1

Keywords

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