Journal of Peasant Studies: Special Forum on Myanmar

Myanmar is in a dangerous and uncertain moment following the military coup on 1 February 2021. The articles in this Special Forum provide timely contextual analysis. Written before the coup, the articles delve into the politics of agrarian transformation in the context of (what was then) an ongoing (but fragile) opening up of political space.

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This introduction outlines three themes that connect the articles and now also shed some light on what the future may hold: (1) the limited character of the 2010–2021 ‘democratic transition’; (2) the struggles around land and natural resources amidst a social reproduction crisis and (3) the responses of rural working peoples. The contributions are authored mainly by social movement activists, providing grassroots activist perspectives on key issues in agrarian politics. Most of the articles are free access.

The politics of Myanmar’s agrarian transformation: Introduction [1]

Doi Ra, Sai Sam Kham, Mads Barbesgaard, Jennifer C. Franco & Pietje Vervest

Free access

‘Neither war nor peace’ [2]: failed ceasefires and dispossession in Myanmar’s ethnic borderlands

Tom Kramer

Free access until 31 May 2021

‘Nothing about us, without us’: [3] reflections on the challenges of building Land in Our Hands, a national land network in Myanmar/Burma

Doi Ra & Khu Khu Ju

Free access

Emerging ‘agrarian climate justice’ struggles in Myanmar [4]

Yukari Sekine

Free access

Defending Shan State's customary tenure systems from below through collective action research [5]

Oliver Springate-Baginski & Mi Kamoon

Abstract available

Gender and generation in rural politics in Myanmar [6]: a missed space for (re)negotiation?

Clara Mi Young Park

Free access until 31 May 2021

The political economy of opium reduction in Myanmar [7]: the case for a new ‘alternative development’ paradigm led by and for opium poppy farmers

Sai Lone & Renaud Cachia

Abstract available

Grassroots Voices: A letter from a jail cell [8]

K Za Win

Free access until 31 May 2021

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