[CFP] Conference 2020 – Agrarian Change/Africa Working Groups

International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE)
11^th Annual Conference (Ferrara, Italy, 9 -11 September)

Joint Stream: Agrarian Change in Contemporary Africa

The Africa and Agrarian Change Working Groups invite proposals for individual papers or panels in a joint stream at IIPPE’s 2020 Annual Conference (Ferrara, Italy, 9-11 September). The conference this year focuses on ‘moving beyond neoliberalism and populism’ and on ‘building progressive policies and alliances for our societies and economies’.

The Agrarian Change 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. The Africa working group seeks to organise activities that promote dialogue between Africa-based scholars/ scholars of Africa, and those who share an interest in radical approaches to political economy, acknowledging the power dynamics in capitalism and often with a critical Marxist perspective. In accordance with IIPPE, it seeks to reflect on and address the relationship between political economy and activism, from the importance of understanding the world in order to change it, to more direct forms of engagement with contemporary struggles and alliances.

In bringing together the interests and focus of both groups, we welcome papers and panels that relate to: theoretical and methodological questions concerning agrarian change and land questions in Africa; food regimes, agro-industry and projects of food sovereignty; labour and migration in and from rural settings; social relations of production and reproduction; class dynamics and the political economy of inequality and exploitation, whether by gender, race, ethnicity, region or other social oppressions. We are also particularly interested in analyses of social movements and alliances from an agrarian perspective. These may include analysis of productive and reproductive spheres in today’s mass uprisings and strikes over labour, democracy and climate issues, or of praxis and theorisations for an agro-ecological future. 

Proposals should be submitted online by 15^th March 2020 here: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvbQBjXUW9Yu-U9uiPR9VDSim2ugP-eYugLori7nCOSXbZoQ/viewform

Please tick the Africa or Agrarian Change Working Group when you make the submission and then indicate clearly under the title or abstract tab that you are submitting to this joint call. 

If you are proposing a panel, all papers need to be submitted individually and the relevant working groups should be informed:

Africa Working Group: Hannah Cross (h.cross@westminster.ac.uk) and Elisa Greco (elisa.greco@univ-catholille.fr). 

Agrarian Change Working Group: Leandro Vergara-Camus (lv6@soas.ac.uk) and Jens Lerche (jl2@soas.ac.uk).