http://repub.eur.nl/res/col/9744/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39213/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z Nelson, I.L. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38930/ 2012-12-01T00:00:00Z We introduce this special issue by explaining seven characteristics of land grabbing in Latin America. These features are not unique to the region. By highlighting them - arguing, for instance, that a key aspect in Latin America is intra-regional land grabbing driven by (trans)Latina companies - we hope to inspire new cross-regional comparisons to understand the dynamics of "global" land grabbing. Our focus on Latin America challenges some problematic generalisations in the literature, for instance, that land grabs occur mainly in fragile states. We interrogate the relationship between land grabbing and the "foreignisation" narrative, and the need to revisit the broader question of land concentration. Thus we build upon the literature locating land grabs and the land question within the political economy of global capitalism. Borras, S.M. Kay, C. Gómez, S. Wilkinson, J. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39078/ 2012-11-16T00:00:00Z The difficulties with sustaining significant degrees of publically-funded redistribution from the developed to the developing countries in the current aid architecture is examined through an historical lens regarding overseas development assistance (ODA) as a financial flow within the broader context of global financial imbalances in the post-war period. The paper first explains the basic premise that aid effectiveness needs to be understood (and was understood by early aid advocates) as a function of allowing countries to finance development by running trade deficits and, by consequence, net capital inflows (discussed in Fischer 2009, ‘Putting Aid in its Place,’ J. of International Development). For structural reasons, late industrialization and other aspects of development in the post-war era have usually resulted in trade deficits. ODA could prevent such deficits from choking off intensive developmental endeavours. Conversely, this potential of aid is lost if countries run trade surpluses (or if deficits are not the result of developmental productivity-enhancing investments). This proposition is with reference to the balance of payments accounting identity and then with historical data from South Korea, together with some comparisons to other world regions. In the final section of the paper, aid is discussed in the context of two paradigmatic phases of the post-war period. In the first phase, up to the mid-1970s, the US was mostly in current account surplus and exporting net goods, services and finance abroad, thereby supplying and financing the trade deficits of Europe and then developing countries. In this context, aid was one among other forms of net capital outflow from the US supporting industrialization abroad, as best represented by the case of South Korea. In the second phase, which started in late 1970s, the US moved into a position of persistently large and growing current account deficits, therefore absorbing finance from the rest of the world and supported by waves of financial liberalisation in the US and globally. Capital account surpluses were underlain by significant net outflows of US FDI abroad, perpetuating similar FDI outflows in the first phase despite the overall absorption of finance from abroad. The prospects for aid effectiveness in this latter phase have been far from evident given that the dominant trend in global financial flows has been essentially regressive. The paper concludes that the key to creating a truly effective aid system must be found in genuinely redistributive financing mechanisms that enhance rather than undermine national development. Fischer, A.M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39159/ 2012-11-16T00:00:00Z I recall first hearing Africa referred to as ‘The lost continent’ when I was in Tanzania listening to women who had gathered from just a fewof the 54 countries that make up Africa.They were fiercely defending their countries, the diversities of their lives, the histories and futures. They argued for authenticity of their cultures, their histories, their languages in defiance of development policy thatwas bundling theminto one big basket case.They were strong in their rejection of Africa as a requiring a special focus of development policy and strategy. They reminisced on African renaissance and freedom ^ away from the development rhetoric that at that time (inthe early1990s) depicted Africa as an economic development failure. It was a deeply troubling debate one that certainly rocked my own sense of what was the future for these women and their countries. This journal issue on ‘African Strategies for Transformation’, I am glad to say, presents a far more positive story of ‘The Continent’. The articles are reflections of many of the successes in Africa over the recent years highlighting the myriad of innovative activities forAfrican-led economic and social change. Harcourt, W. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39147/ 2012-11-01T00:00:00Z Youth unemployment and underemployment are serious problems in most countries, and often more severe in rural than in urban areas. Small-scale agriculture is the developing world's single biggest source of employment, and with the necessary support it can offer a sustainable and productive alternative to the expansion of large-scale, capital-intensive, labour-displacing corporate farming. This, however, assumes a generation of young rural men and women who want to be small farmers, while mounting evidence suggests that young people are uninterested in farming or in rural futures. The emerging field of youth studies can help us understand young people's turn away from farming, pointing to: the deskilling of rural youth, and the downgrading of farming and rural life; the chronic neglect of small-scale agriculture and rural infrastructure; and the problems that young rural people increasingly have, even if they want to become farmers, in getting access to land while still young. © 2012 The Author. IDS Bulletin White, B.N.F. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39161/ 2012-11-01T00:00:00Z Welcome to Gender & Development’s Views, events, and debates section. We’d like to invite readers to respond to any of the views expressed in this section, to contact us with reports of events, and to suggest debates on issues relevant to the journal’s concern: to inspire and strengthen development initiatives which support the goals of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Francisco, G. Harcourt, W. Farhar, B.C. Osnes, B. Karve, P. To, L.S. Speer, N. Sweetman, C. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39257/ 2012-10-28T00:00:00Z Abstract In this paper five issues will be analyzed. In the first place that no separation is made between providing Chinese aid, developing trade relations with China and starting investment activities in Africa. Secondly, is it true that the Chinese government helps Chinese entrepreneurs to get started in Africa. In the third place it is often suggested that Chinese entrepreneurs start after a Chinese aid project or construction job. Another issue is the presence of Chinese traders: what is the role of Chinese whole sale or retail traders in Africa and why are these entrepreneurs so successful? Finally we will look at employment and environmental issues in which Chinese entrepreneurs are said to be involved. Based on interviews of 42 Chinese enterprises in Uganda evidence is presented concerning what types of enterprises moved into Uganda and for which reason? We will analyze to what extent Chinese enterprises employ Chinese workers and Ugandan managers. What motivates these Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in Uganda and how do they deal with the challenges such as labour and environmental legislation? Which problems do they face? The relations between Uganda and China are influenced by the influx of Chinese enterprises in Uganda and the issues this raises. African countries are sensitive to the issue of Chinese companies competing with African firms. Many African countries question whether Chinese (small) traders are necessary to sell Chinese products in Africa. To what extent are 'wholesale' shops in Uganda in fact involved in retail business and how does Uganda react to this? The analysis challenges some of the generalizations concerning China's presence in Africa. We conclude that Uganda is becoming increasingly proactive in its relationship and tries to increase the contribution of Chinese enterprises to the Ugandan economy, while defining the terms on which Chinese citizens can come to work in Uganda. Dijk, M.P. van Warmerdam, W. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39157/ 2012-09-01T00:00:00Z It seems incredible in these days of economic crisis that over 2,200 women (and some men) found the time and money to fly to Istanbul for a discussion on gender and economic justice at the AWID Forum 2012. Registrations closed a week before the event opened and the majority of the 800 organizations and individuals who answered the call for sessions and papers could not be accommodated. Harcourt, W. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34984/ 2012-08-01T00:00:00Z Huijsmans, R.B.C. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38439/ 2012-07-01T00:00:00Z The contributions to this collection use the tools of agrarian political economy to explore the rapid growth and complex dynamics of large-scale land deals in recent years, with a special focus on the implications of big land deals for property and labour regimes, labour processes and structures of accumulation. The first part of this introductory essay examines the implications of this agrarian political economy perspective. First we explore the continuities and contrasts between historical and contemporary land grabs, before examining the core underlying debate around large- versus small-scale farming futures. Next, we unpack the diverse contexts and causes of land grabbing today, highlighting six overlapping mechanisms. The following section turns to assessing the crisis narratives that frame the justifications for land deals, and the flaws in the argument around there being excess, empty or idle land available. Next the paper turns to an examination of the impacts of land deals, and the processes of inclusion and exclusion at play, before looking at patterns of resistance and constructions of alternatives. The final section introduces the papers in the collection. White, B.N.F. Borras, S.M. Hall, R. Scoones, I. Wolford, W. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38569/ 2012-07-01T00:00:00Z Land grabbing has gained momentum in Latin America and the Caribbean during the past decade. The phenomenon has taken different forms and character as compared to processes that occur in other regions of the world, especially Africa. It puts into question some of the assumptions in the emerging literature on land grabbing, suggesting these are too food-centered/too food crisis-centered, too land-centred, too centred on new global food regime players - China, South Korea, Gulf States and India - and too centred on Africa. There are four key mechanisms through which land grabbing in Latin American and the Caribbean has been carried out: food security initiatives, energy/fuel security ventures, other climate change mitigation strategies, and recent demands for resources from newer hubs of global capital. The hallmark of land grabbing in the region is its intra-regional character: the key investors are (Trans-)Latin American companies, often in alliance with international capital and the central state. Initial evidence suggests that recent land investments have consolidated the earlier trend away from (re)distributive land policies in most countries in the region, and are likely to result in widespread reconcentration of land and capital. Borras, S.M. Franco, J.C. Gómez, S. Kay, C. Spoor, M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39149/ 2012-07-01T00:00:00Z This article explores the gendered experience of monocrop oil-palm expansion in a Hibun Dayak community in Sanggau District, West Kalimantan (Indonesia). It shows how the expanding corporate plantation and contract farming system has undermined the position and livelihood of indigenous women in this already patriarchal community. The shifting of land tenure from the community to the state and the practice of the 'family head' system of smallholder plot registration has eroded women's rights to land, and women are becoming a class of plantation labour. At the same time, as in other cases of expansion of agrarian corporate commodity production, we can discern a familiar pattern of ambivalence between, on the one hand, the attractions of regular cash income and, on the other, the loss of resource tenure and autonomy, which helps to explain the community's gendered experience of coercion, exploitation, intimidation, consent and resistance. White, B.N.F. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39260/ 2012-07-01T00:00:00Z The number of international environmental institutions, goals and agreements has increased greatly since the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. However, the results of this proliferation for environmental protection have been mixed. The upcoming "Rio +20" conference (2012), offers world leaders an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of achieving a sustainability agenda and to revisit their strategies for doing so. To inform this process it is crucial to learn from the ambitions, achievements and shortcomings on goal attainment to date. Drawing on the United Nations Environment Programme's fifth Global Environment Outlook report (GEO-5), this paper presents an evaluation of progress made on globally agreed environmental goals in relation to a series of biophysical trends. The analysis suggests a picture of patchy achievements rather than sustained progress. The most encouraging results have occurred where measurable targets were established on problems with relatively straightforward causes and courses of action. Key obstacles to the achievement of goals include a series of mismatches: between narrow objectives and the need for integrated approaches; between types of problems and types of solutions; between the fragmentation of governance and the need for collective action; between science and policy; between the responsibilities and resources of environmental institutions; and between complex systems and the desire for measurable outcomes. Overcoming these obstacles will require not only learning from past successes and failures but also adapting this knowledge to environmental, political and economic circumstances that have changed considerably over the past 40 years. Jabbour, J. Keita-Ouane, F. Hunsberger, C. Sánchez-Rodríguez, R. Gilruth, P. Patel, N. Singh, A. Levy, M.A. Schwarzer, S. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34796/ 2012-06-01T00:00:00Z Based on fieldwork material from Lao People's Democratic Republic, this paper introduces an analytical framework that transcends compartmentalized approaches towards migration involving young people. The notions of fluid and institutionalized forms of migration illuminate key differences and commonalities in the relational fabric underpinning empirically diverse migration scenarios. Applying this framework to the role of networks in becoming a young migrant, this chapter sheds light on young migrants' differential scope for exercising agency. This redirects concerns about young migrants away from descriptive and static factors towards their relational position in the process of migration, which shapes their agency and vulnerability. Huijsmans, R.B.C. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34819/ 2012-06-01T00:00:00Z Wendy Harcourt interviews three feminist activists who have been engaged in feminist action from the grassroots to transnational levels. They reflect on changes in feminist and women's movement organizing, both in terms of what are the new issues emerging today and what feminist organizing has given to transformational movement building. Harcourt, W. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38438/ 2012-06-01T00:00:00Z Development politics in Ecuador has experienced major changes since the start of Correa's presidency in 2007. Paralleling a regional trend, the state has become a central agent in the economy, particularly in extractive industries. Revenues accruing to the state from intensified usage of non-renewable resources have been central to the implementation of Correa's political agenda. At the same time, constitutional changes introduced in 2008 have granted rights to nature and held the promise of increased participatory engagement between the state and civil society. The emergence and development of the Yasuní-ITT initiative, which is built on the idea of leaving oil underground in exchange for financial contributions from the international community, demonstrates that increased attention to environmental conservation by the state has not resulted in improved participation. Instead, the incipient clash between the state's mission to provide socioeconomic development and to preserve nature has resulted in the state sidelining civil society and opening the possibility of intensified social conflict over the role of nature in Ecuadorian development. Arsel, M. Angel, N.A. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39063/ 2012-05-10T00:00:00Z Wendy Harcourt looks candidly at mainstreaming gender in development and in social movements. She explores the difficulties of bringing gender into development policy and social movements spaces, two areas where she has been actively engaged over the last two decades. The talk will be a critical look at gender 'mainstreaming', but not in the usual sense. It will look at the gender mainstreaming in the area of ‘body politics’ – the bureaucratizing of gender within population and development policy and in global social movement processes. Harcourt, W. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38339/ 2012-05-01T00:00:00Z The world over, neoliberal modes of conservation are hybridising with, or even replacing, other forms of conservation. Under the banner of 'win-win' policies, planners actively work to commoditize natural resources and the social relations that determine the use and conservation of these resources. While these general processes seem to hold sway globally, it is crucial not to lose sight of the context specific ways in which neo-liberalism influences conservation practice and local outcomes. The paper examines how neo-liberalism's global pervasiveness becomes manifest across different levels and scales in South Africa and the Philippines. The conclusion suggests that as a result of these neoliberal pressures, emphasis is shifting from local constructions of 'nature' by communities to what the environment should mean for communities in terms of commodified resources and growing capitalist markets. Büscher, B.E. Dressler, W. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38340/ 2012-04-01T00:00:00Z INTRODUCTION: This editorial aims to introduce the papers of this special dossier and critically reflect on the connection between the ongoing financial crisis and crises in the sphere of environment and development. The environmental crisis relates to the interconnected global crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, forest loss, and so forth (Heynen et al. 2007; CBD 2010). The development crisis is one of global inequality or the further accretion and concentration of wealth in fewer hands while large pockets of poverty remain or become entrenched across the developed and developing world (Edward 2006; Harvey 2010; Saith 2011). Both, we argue, are inherent to contemporary capitalism, but have not received the type of concentrated political and economic investment of capital that we have observed during the financial crisis. Büscher, B.E. Arsel, M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38343/ 2012-04-01T00:00:00Z Over the last decade, Africa's natural resources have seen another rapid rise in political-economic importance. The continent's abundant biodiversity underpins the fast-growing (eco)tourism industry, while its rich energy resources have seen renewed attention from global powers. Obviously, these boom-and-bust cycles of interest in African natural resources have signified the continent's place in the capitalist world order for a long time. Yet, and despite the intense ambiguities and manifold negative consequences of this history, the conservation of Africa's biodiversity riches and the exploitation of its energy resources continue to be promoted in win-win terms: beneficial to the continent and outsiders 'consuming' the resources. The paper reviews this 'boom-and bust' cycle of interest in Africa's resources in the light of the recent 'Great Financial Crisis'. It argues that an initial review of mainstream responses to the crisis shows a global 'reflex' that falls back on and so reinstates Africa's 'natural place' in the global order. © 2012 The Author. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie Büscher, B.E.