Agrarian change and peasant studies: changes, continuities and challenges

The Journal of Peasant Studies Volume 36 Issue 1

Jun Borras

May 2009

Agrarian change and peasant studies: changes, continuities and challenges

This special issue of Journal of Peasant Studies, edited by Jun Borras, is a collection of articles in “state of the art” format on key perspectives, frameworks and methodologies in agrarian change and peasant studies.

Agrarian transformations within and across countries have been significantly and dynamically altered during the past few decades compared to previous eras, provoking a variety of reactions from rural poor communities worldwide. The recent convergence of various crises - financial, food, energy and environmental - has put the nexus between “rural development” and “development in general” back onto the center stage of theoretical, policy and political agendas in the world today. Confronting these issues will require (re)engaging with critical theories, taking politics seriously, and utilizing rigorous and appropriate research methodologies. These are the common messages and implications of the various contributions to this collection in the context of a scholarship that is critical in two senses: questioning prescriptions from mainstream perspectives and interrogating popular conventions in radical thinking. This JPS special issue is a collection of articles in “state of the art” format on key perspectives, frameworks and methodologies in agrarian change and peasant studies.
The journal can be downloaded from www.informaworld.com

ISBN:

1743-9361 (electronic) 0306-6150 (paper)

Jun Borras

Associate Professor in Rural Development, Environment and Population at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, Netherlands. Jun is also Adjunct Professor, COHD at China Agricultural University, Beijing; a Fellow for Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy in California, Coordinator for Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies (ICAS), and Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Peasant Studies (JPS).

Saturnino 'Jun' M Borras Jr. is a political activist and academic who has been deeply involved in rural social movements in the Philippines and internationally since the early 1980s. Borras was part of the core organising team that established the international peasant movement La Via Campesina and has written extensively on land issues and agrarian movements.