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

June 21, 2023

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.…

Read More

Book Review: Neeladri Bhattacharya’s The Great Agrarian Conquest

June 9, 2023

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…

Read More

AQs Shorts: Gerardo Otero

May 31, 2023

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…

Read More

Book Review: Rebecca Tarlau’s Occupying Schools, Occupying Land

May 25, 2023

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…

Read More

AQs Shorts: Noaman Ali/Yahya Aftab

February 22, 2023

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…

Read More

Book Review: Liam Campling and Alejandro Colás’ Capitalism and the Sea

February 20, 2023

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’…

Read More

Review Essay: Contesting total extractivism

February 16, 2023

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…

Read More

The Bernstein & Byres Prize 2021

February 8, 2023

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…

Read More

AQs Shorts: Leandro-Vergara Camus/Alice Soares Guimarães/Kees Jansen

December 17, 2022

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…

Read More

Book Review: Andrew Flachs’ Cultivating Knowledge

September 19, 2022

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…

Read More

AQs Shorts: Kirsten Appendini

July 30, 2022

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…

Read More

Autonomy in agrarian studies, politics & movements: An inter-paradigm debate

July 4, 2022

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…

Read More

The Bernstein & Byres Prize in Agrarian Change 2020

June 27, 2022

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…

Read More

Book Review: Mythri Jegathesan’s Tea & Solidarity

March 23, 2022

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…

Read More

AQs Shorts: Shapan Adnan

February 24, 2022

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…

Read More

Contract farming in the developing world: a political economy approach

January 10, 2022

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.

Read More

AQs Shorts: Lyn Ossome

November 30, 2021

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.

Read More

‘Finance going farming’: A review essay

October 23, 2021

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.

Read More

AQs Shorts: Haroon Akram-Lodhi

October 1, 2021

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.

Read More

AQs Shorts: Carla Gras

August 29, 2021

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…

Read More