Agrarian Change Working Group

Mozambique on the move - Tomato Market of Madeia

The IIPPE Agrarian Change Working Group (ACWG) aims to bring together researchers interested in agrarian political economy.  The Working Group is articulated to the group of editors of the Journal of Agrarian Change which promotes the 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.

The ACWG aims:

  • to provide a forum for conversation and joint work to the mutual benefit of all;
  • to develop a range of activities to advance the perspectives of political economy across this field of enquiry; and
  • to extend the work of the ACWG within the wider research community, including in relation to progressive development policy and social movements.

Coordinators

Jens Lerche

Jens is a Professor in Development Studies at SOAS University of London. His research focuses on the political economy of agrarian transformation, and class and caste relations in agrarian transition; the political economy of labour relations, unfree labour and rural labour migration; and struggles, movements and labour organisations; and the role of the ILO. He is editor of the Journal of Agrarian Change. His present research is on inequality and poverty of Dalits and Adivasis in India. Email: jl2@soas.ac.uk

Leandro Vergara-Camus

Professor in Development Studies at l’Université de l’Ontario français in Canada. He is interested in the Latin American left, social movements, peasant agriculture, and the history of land struggles over property rights in Latin America. His fields of expertise include theories of development and historical sociology of state and class formation. His current research is on the impact of the internationalisation of the Brazilian sugarcane ethanol industry. 

Other Members

Jonathan Pattenden, Helena Pérez-Niño and Shreya Sinha

We encourage presenters of past and present IIPPE Agrarian Working Group sessions to join as members: Email: Jens Lerche jl2@soas.ac.uk

Mozambique on the move - The harvest of maize

 

Activities and initiatives:

Agrarian Change Webinars, current series

The Journal of Agrarian Change and SOAS Department of Development Studies have been organizing the Agrarian Change Seminar Series since 2008. Since 2020 the sessions are hybrid or fully online. These webinars are open to the public across the world. Registration links for each webinar are available a week before each event via Zoom and Youtube. 

Selected past sessions   2022 Agroecology and the agrarian question in the twenty-first century: The ties that bind? – Haroon Akram-Lodhi (Trent University)   2021      Peasant movements and agrarian change in 21st century Pakistan – Noaman G Ali (Lahore University of Management Sciences)   2020 Corporations and development: Lessons from Indonesia’s plantation zone – Tania Li (University of Toronto) All recordings are available

Click here to see older seminar series.

Agrarian Questions, companion website

Agrarian Questions is the companion website of the Journal of Agrarian Change. It provides a space for discussion and debate among researchers, activists, and students of the political economy of agrarian change. Check the website for: current and past contributions to the Journal; announcements about events organised by the working group; our blog and series of short videos on agrarian change. We are always looking for new contributions!

Sign up here to the mailing list; or subscribe to the calendar of events

Agrarian Questions, YouTube channel

A compilation of interviews, seminars, workshops on a wide-ranging array of themes in agrarian political economy.

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The Journal of Agrarian Change

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.