The IIPPE Agrarian Change Working Group (ACWG) aims to bring together researchers interested in agrarian political economy. It is sponsored by the Journal of Agrarian Change, JAC . The Working Group promotes investigation of the social relations and dynamics of production, property and power in agrarian formations and their processes of change, both historical and contemporary. It encourages work within a broad interdisciplinary framework, informed by theory, and serves as a forum for serious comparative analysis and scholarly debate. As with the Journal, contributions are welcomed from political economists, historians, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, heterodox economists, geographers, lawyers, and others committed to the rigorous study and analysis of agrarian structure and change, past and present, across different parts of the world.
In so doing, the ACWG will utilise the aims of IIPPE as its core guiding principles. The Group is particularly interested in bringing together a diverse range of researchers from different disciplines:
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Lecturer in Development Economics in the Economics Department of SOAS and Editor of the Journal of Agrarian Change. She is interested in land reform, agricultural employment and rural poverty – with a particular interest in work that integrates gender concerns with wider political economy interests. Her work has focused on Southern Africa. Email: dj3@soas.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, Development Studies Department, SOAS, and Editor of the Journal of Agrarian Change. He is interested in rural labour and class formation, the informal economy, and social and political struggles of the labouring poor. His work has focussed on India. Email: jl2@soas.ac.uk
Professor of Development Studies and Rural Development at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague and Adjunct Professor in International Development Studies at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is also Editor of the Journal of Agrarian Change His research is on Latin American development theories and policies, comparative agrarian systems, rural povery, agrarian change and land reform. His country expertise is on Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Honduras and Cuba.
Senior Lecturer in Political Economy of Development, Development Studies Dept. at SOAS, and Editor of the Journal of Agrarian Change. He is interested in rural employment and rural poverty, gender, and rural accumulation, with a particular interest in rural entrepreneurs and agrarian class formation. His work has focused on both West and Southern Africa, particularly Senegal and Mozambique. Email: co2@soas.ac.uk
Professor of Development Studies, department of development studies, SOAS, and co-founder as well as former editor of the Journal of Agrarian Change.
Terence J. Byres
Professor emeritus of Political Economy, SOAS, and co-founder as well as former editor of the Journal of Agrarian Change.
Teaching Fellow and Research Student, Department of Economics, SOAS. He is interested in political economy of rural development, labour markets, socio-economic transitions and development aid in Africa and Tanzania in particular. bm11@soas.ac.uk
The Journal of Agrarian Change produces four issues each year, with contributions dedicated to the study of agrarian political economy. Aside from the production of the Journal, the editors have also engaged in initiatives that we hope will lead to new and exciting future publications. In May 2008, we held a workshop and conference entitled ‘Agrarian questions: lineages and prospects’, which brought together a range of scholars representing the gamut of approaches and research in the field of the political economy of agrarian change. The workshop was also a unique occasion to have an open discussion about the Journal’s present and future and to celebrate the outstanding work of Henry Bernstein and Terry Byres, as ‘founding fathers’ of JAC. For more information on the journal, please visit the homepage and also have a look at this sample issue.
Unless stated otherwise, all seminars will take place at SOAS, Room 4421 (4th floor, main building)
15 October, 5.15 pm
The agricultural workers movement, Naxalism and martyrdom in Bihar: the case of Manju devi
22 October, 5.15 pm
Issues in farmer-buyer relationships and trade practices in Uganda - recent empirical findings
background papers:
5 November, 5.15 pm
Labour migration from rural to urban China
26 November, 5.15 pm
Ecology and Accumulation Crisis: Food, Factories, and Fuel in the Making and Unmaking of Neoliberalism, 1973-2015
27-29 November, Historical Materialism conference (exact date, time and place tba)
panel on Agrarian Change in Contemporary Capitalism: Technical Dynamics and Environmental Trajectories
Speakers:
Chair:
3 December, 5.15 pm
In 2008 the Journal started the Agrarian Change seminar series, which we hope to organise every academic year at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, with regular talks by scholars and activists in the field of agrarian studies. The past programme in the academic year 2008-09 was
16 October, 5pm
Land and Water Reform in South Africa
30 October, 5pm
Land, Community and Governance in West Africa
13 November, 5pm
V.I.Lenin and A.V.Chayanov: Looking Back, Looking Forward
27 November, 5pm
Agrarian change and development studies: exploring urban-rural linkages in development strategies
The talk was followed by a book launch and reception: Transnational Agrarian Movements: Confronting Globalization, edited by Saturnino M. Borras Jr, Marc Endelman and Cristobal Kay. Introduction and discussion by Henry Bernstein (SOAS) and Cristobal Kay (ISS).
11 December, 5pm
Migrant Workers in the ILO's 'Global Alliance Against Forced Labour' Report: A Critique
22 January, 5 pm
From ‘Rural Labour’ to ‘Classes of Labour’: Class Fragmentation and Caste at the bottom of the Indian Labour Hierarchy
5 February, 5 pm
Commodity Prices and Producers in Tanzania's Post-liberalisation Coffee and Cotton Sectors
19 February, 5pm
Some Aspects of Rural Household Incomes in India: A Study based on Primary Data from Selected Indian Villages
26 February, 5pm
Class Equations and Accumulation in Rural North Karnataka
5 March, 5pm
The Privatisation Process of Mineral Resources in the Indian State of Orissa: A Political Economy Analysis
19 March, 5pm
Can Marxism Account for the Chiefs? Some Problems of ‘Tribal Authority’ and ‘Communal Landed Property’ in Rural African Political Economy
On November 7th, the Journal of Agrarian Change organised a panel on The World Food ‘Crisis’ at the 2008 Historical Materialism Conference
Speakers:
Chair:
To apply to join IIPPE Agrarian Change Working Group, email iippe@soas.ac.uk