Blog
The JAC Blog hosts posts on agrarian and rural issues, both contemporary and historical.
It covers book reviews, photo essays, research essays and field notes. We welcome blog submissions.
Book Review: Ramesh Sunam’s Transnational Labour Migration, Livelihoods and Agrarian Change in Nepal
FRASER SUGDEN One of the defining features of agrarian change amongst the peasantry in the last two decades is the rising importance of labour migration to supplement fragile livelihoods.…
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Book Review: Neeladri Bhattacharya’s The Great Agrarian Conquest
MUHAMMAD ALI JAN Neeladri Bhattacharya’s monograph is a genealogy of the “agrarian” as a colonial project and an account of its transgression through rural agency, all rolled into an…
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AQs Shorts: Gerardo Otero
In this edition of the AQs Shorts series, Gerardo Otero elaborates on the concept of the neoliberal diet as a prism to analyse broader political and economic processes. He discusses…
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Book Review: Rebecca Tarlau’s Occupying Schools, Occupying Land
CLIFF WELCH Rebecca Tarlau’s new book, Occupying Schools, Occupying Land shows how the MST “transformed Brazilian education.” The book, which began as Tarlau’s 2014 University of California doctoral dissertation…
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AQs Shorts: Noaman Ali/Yahya Aftab
Our first AQs Shorts in 2023 features Noaman Ali & Yahya Aftab who discuss broader trends of agrarian development in northern Pakistan (Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). They point out to the…
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Book Review: Liam Campling and Alejandro Colás’ Capitalism and the Sea
MADS BARBESGAARD Capitalism and the Sea takes the reader on a wide-ranging history of capitalist development and argues that ‘the Earth’s separation into land and sea has significant consequences’…
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Review Essay: Contesting total extractivism
THOMAS F. PURCELL Within agrarian political economy, extractivism has emerged as a key concept to grapple with a whole host of politically urgent themes such as ecological destruction, global…
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The Bernstein & Byres Prize 2021
LIAM CAMPLING, CARLA GRAS, JENS LERCHE, BRIDGET O’LAUGHLIN, CARLOS OYA, JONATHAN PATTENDEN & HELENA PÉREZ NIÑO We are pleased to announce that Muchtar Habibi has been awarded the 2021 Bernstein & Byres Prize for…
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AQs Shorts: Leandro-Vergara Camus/Alice Soares Guimarães/Kees Jansen
This AQs Shorts interview draws on our Special Issue on Autonomy in Agrarian Studies, Politics and Movements, edited by Leandro Vergara-Camus and Kees Jansen. The two editors and a contributor…
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Book Review: Andrew Flachs’ Cultivating Knowledge
JOSTEIN JAKOBSEN Few questions have been more contentious to scholars, activists and broader publics concerned with agrarian issues than the rise of biotechnology—genetically modified (GM) seeds in particular. Among…
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AQs Shorts: Kirsten Appendini
Our tenth AQs Shorts features Kirsten Appendini who discusses the impact of the 1992 neoliberal land reforms in Mexico and their impact on agrarian change. She also reflects on the…
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Autonomy in agrarian studies, politics & movements: An inter-paradigm debate
KEES JANSEN & LEANDRO VERGARA-CAMUS Autonomy has been a word that has been rolling off the tongues of leftist activists and academics for decades and has been the subject…
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The Bernstein & Byres Prize in Agrarian Change 2020
LIAM CAMPLING, CARLA GRAS, JENS LERCHE, BRIDGET O’LAUGHLIN, CARLOS OYA, JONATHAN PATTENDEN AND HELENA PÉREZ NIÑO We are pleased to announce that Martín Arboleda has been awarded the 2020 Bernstein & Byres Prize for his…
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Book Review: Mythri Jegathesan’s Tea & Solidarity
JAYASEELAN RAJ Tea and Solidarity is a fascinating monograph by Mythri Jegathesan that examines the lives of tea-plucking women and their families as they seek work outside the Sri…
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AQs Shorts: Shapan Adnan
Our new AQs Shorts features Shapan Adnan. He speaks about the impact of state violence against Rohingyas on the dynamics of agrarian change in Myanmar as well as its implication…
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Contract farming in the developing world: a political economy approach
A new special issue in the Journal of Agrarian Change (Vol. 22, Issue 1) takes stock of critical developments in the political economy of contract farming.
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AQs Shorts: Lyn Ossome
In our new AQs Shorts view, Lyn Ossome discusses the impact of neoliberal globalization on labour relations in the global South, especially in relation to forms of labour organizing.
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‘Finance going farming’: A review essay
In recent years, land has once again received a great deal of attention in critical agrarian studies. The most recent ‘land rush’, which began in 2008, has forced issues surrounding land to centre stage, not only in the Global South but also in the Global North.
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AQs Shorts: Haroon Akram-Lodhi
The seventh part of our AQs Shorts series features Haroon Akram-Lodhi. He discusses the role of culture in shaping agricultural productivity in eastern and southern Africa and how we may approach the intersections between gender and class in agrarian political economy.
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AQs Shorts: Carla Gras
In our new video for the AQs Shorts series, Carla Gras speaks about the challenges of capital accumulation in the Chaco region in Argentina and the strategies used by corporate…
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