Transforming critical agrarian studies: Solidarity, scholar activism and emancipatory agendas in and from the Global South*
Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Journal of Peasant Studies
Abstract
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the challenges and opportunities faced by
critical agrarian scholars in and from the Global South. We argue
that despite the historical and structural limitations, the critical
juncture of convergence of crises and renewed interest in
agrarian political economies offers an opportunity for fostering a
diverse research agenda that opens space for critical perspectives
about, from and by the Global South, which is mostly absent in
mainstream scholarship dominated by the Global North. We also
propose doing so by enhancing solidarity to transform injustices
within academia and other spaces of knowledge production and
dissemination. To develop the argument, first, we reflect on the
multiplicity of crises in rural areas and the changing character of
social struggles, as well as the interlinkages between
environmental crises and the re-emergence of critical agrarian
studies that are reshaping the agrarian question. Then, we discuss
the implications and conditions of the political agenda carried out
by a scholar-activist movement working on agrarian studies from
the Global South. Drawing on our experience as the Collective of
Agrarian Scholar-Activists from the South (CASAS), we conclude by
proposing three ways forward for enhancing solidarity through
networks of scholar-activists: knowledge accessibility, cooperative
organization, and co-production of knowledge
Description
Research Article
Keywords
scholar-activism, Global South, critical agrarian studies