Such
livelihoods
are
intimately
bound
up
with
nature,
and
the
complex
and
diverse
ecosystems
that
thrive
on
land.
Land
creates
a
sense
of
identity
refracted
through
gender,
race,
class
and
other
axes
of
difference.
Through
diverse
institutions
and
forms
of
authority,
land
connects
citizens
and
states,
corporations
and
capital,
and
is
the
locus
of
accumulation,
extraction
and
control.
Access
to
land
is
thus
contested,
negotiated
and
claimed
through
multiple,
competing
actors,
linked
to
a
myriad
of
struggles.
Land,
in
other
words,
connects
us
all
through
its
politics.
This
is
why
the
newly-published Oxford
Handbook
of
Land
Politics is
so
important.
Across
38
chapters
and
a
mammoth
880
pages,
written
by
a
veritable
who’s
who
of
the
broad
field
of
critical
agrarian
studies,
the
book
offers
an
invaluable
guide
to
these
debates,
with
a
stellar overview
and
introduction from
its
editors,
Jun
Borras
and
Jenny
Franco.
What
follows
are
some
reflections
taken
from
the Foreword that
I
wrote.
At
the
end
of
the
Foreword,
I
ask,
what
are
the
new
axes
of
debate,
transforming
our
understandings
of
agrarian
change
and
politics
of
land
offered
in
the
pages
of
the
Handbook?
There
are
many,
but
I
highlight
just
four.
-
First
is
the
move
from
seeing
land
as
only
a
site
of
production
and
so
accumulation,
but
also
social
reproduction,
and
the
locus
of
highly
gendered
social
and
cultural
relations.
This
suggests
a
much
more
diverse
land
politics
going
beyond
class
to
gender,
race,
identity
and
so
on.
It
in
turn
suggests
a
renewed
focus
on
labour,
with
complex
livelihoods
generated
from
multiple
sources
beyond
the
fixed
plot
of
land,
through
migration,
trade
and
so
on.
The
classic
categories
of
land-based
classes
centred
only
on
production
are
thus
unsettled
as
new
forms
of
livelihood
are
created.
As
a
result,
the
dynamics
of
differentiation
and
accumulation
shifts,
with
land
politics
changing
as
a
wider
appreciation
emerges
of
Henry
Bernstein’s
classic
questions
of
agrarian
political
economy
–
who
owns
what,
who
does
what,
who
gets
what
and
what
they
do
with
it?
-
Second,
the
centring
of
nature,
environment
and
climate
in
relation
to
land
is
a
theme
that
resonates
across
many
chapters.
Humans
and
nature
(and
so
land)
are
inseparable
yet
have
often
become
disconnected
by
the
forces
of
capitalist
modernity.
The
importance
of
reconnecting
is
central,
requiring
a
new
political
ecology/economy
of
land.
This
has
deep
implications
for
how
we
see
land;
again
not
just
as
a
demarcated
plot,
but
as
part
of
a
wider
living
landscape
and
territory,
within
a
broader
planetary
system.
This
in
turn
highlights
the
crucial
connection
between
land
and
the
climate
crisis.
Changing
land
use,
whether
through
deforestation,
intensive
agriculture
and
extraction
of
water
or
minerals
is
a
major
contributor
to
climate
change.
As
the
regimes
of
extraction
evolve
under
new
frontiers
of
capitalism,
land
is
central.
Such
regimes
of
food,
water
and
energy
are
constituted
through
a
contested
politics
and,
as
the
imperative
to
switch
from
fossil
fuel
dependence
and
intensive,
polluting
systems
of
agriculture
accelerates,
new
challenges
emerge.
In
the
rush
to
‘net
zero’,
for
example,
alternative
energy,
climate
adaptation
and
nature-based
‘solutions’
are
offered,
yet
all
these
have
implications
for
who
controls
the
land,
with
land
grabs
increasingly
justified
in
the
name
of
green
and
climate
‘transitions’,
which
in
turn
create
new
land-based
politics
across
the
world.
-
Third,
many
chapters
argue
for
going
beyond
a
narrow,
individualised
approach
to
land
rights,
tenure
security
and
land
governance.
This
managerial,
administrative
and
technocratic
frame
dominates
policy
thinking
but
is
incompatible
with
the
realities
on
the
ground.
As
the
introduction
points
out,
such
efforts
to
provide
‘security’
for
women,
Indigenous
peoples
and
others
can
paradoxically
lead
to
opportunities
for
dispossession,
as
speculation,
appropriation
and
extraction
increase
in
areas
where
‘regularisation’
has
generated
legibility
through
demarcation
and
delimitation.
Instead,
there
is
a
need
to
think
about
land
as
constituted
through
hybrid,
mosaic
forms
of
property
relation,
with
property-making
as
a
continuous,
contested
and
negotiated
process.
Land
is
always
embedded
in
power
relations
and
so
thinking
about
how
authority
over
land
is
generated
–
through
interactions
between
citizens,
states,
corporations
and
other
actors
–
can
help
us
elaborate
more
appropriate
democratic
institutions
for
land
control
and
a
more
innovative,
grounded
approach
to
‘land
governance’.
-
Finally,
the
Handbook
points
to
the
importance
of
understanding
land
as
a
‘regime’,
situated
in
a
wider
historical
political
economy
context.
As
the
introduction
highlights,
a
land
regime
–
just
as
a
food
regime
–
is
stabilised,
perhaps
only
tentatively
and
temporarily,
by
a
set
of
political-economic
forces
that
operate
within
a
particular
phase
of
capitalism.
But
regimes
change
due
to
the
intersection
of
local
struggles
and
wider
political
forces
and
interests.
Today
these
are
influenced
by
new
frontiers
of
extraction
and
accumulation,
linked
to
globalised
economic
relations,
changing
food
systems
and
heightening
climate-environment
imperatives.
Meanwhile,
authoritarian,
populist
regimes
define
the
nation
in
terms
of
the
relationship
between
‘the
people’
and
their
mother/fatherland,
always
in
ways
that
act
to
exclude
some,
while
incorporating
others
in
a
populist
politics
of
land
and
belonging.
Until
we
understand
this
wider
historically
situated,
structural
context,
the
attempts
to
address
the
pressing
challenges
of
land
and
its
use
at
more
local
levels
–
whether
through
moves
to
agroecology
or
food
sovereignty,
for
example
–
will
remain
elusive.
A
great
new
under
2
minute
video
animating
the
one
of
Filipino
artist-activist
Boy
Dominguez’s
now
world-famous
paintings
illustrates
the
themes
well.
The
Handbook
is
a
rich,
diverse
and
deeply
informed
collection,
mixing
theoretical
perspectives
and
grounded
reflections.
By
going
beyond
a
narrow
Marxist
canon
to
encompass
a
wide
array
of
perspectives,
no
particular
line
is
taken.
The
introduction
encourages
readers
to
find
their
own
way,
to
read
across
conceptual
framings
and
reflect
on
different
dimensions
–
in
other
words
to
generate
a
critical
sensibility
to
agrarian
studies
and
land
politics.
For
any
student
of
land,
or
indeed
politics
more
generally,
as
well
as
activists
and
practitioners
grappling
with
the
challenges
of
land
politics,
this
Handbook
is
an
enormously
valuable
and
vital
resource.
These
themes
will
be
central
to
the
discussions
kicking
off
tomorrow
at
the Land,
Life
and
Society
conference
in
Cape
Town.
The
Handbook
will
be
a
great
resource
for
any
attendee
and
many
more.
Get
your
libraries
to
buy
a
copy!
Links:
The Handbook (30%
discount, https://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/academic/pdf/authors/promotion/9780197618646-discount.pdf)
The
Introduction (Borras
and
Franco
–
open
access)
The
full Foreword (Scoones
–
open
access)
Post
published
in:
Agriculture