Periodic Reporting for period 3 - RRUSHES-5 (Commodity & land rushes and regimes: Reshaping five spheres of global social life)
Période du rapport: 2022-10-01 au 2024-03-31
Recent global commodity rushes have profoundly influenced societies across the globe. At least a quarter of a billion hectares of land have been affected, reshaping livelihoods and social and political relations. Contemporary commodity rushes are more complex and far-reaching than those we have seen before, requiring new thinking and practice in order to respond to such unprecedented challenges. This project aims to explore contemporary commodity rushes, centred on the reconfiguration of land use and ownership, examining the implications for five spheres of global social life. We will ask: How do contemporary global commodity rushes reshape the politics of food, climate, labour and citizenship, as well as geopolitics in different contexts? To answer this, we will look into the possible structural, institutional and political shifts caused by commodity rushes within commodity and land regimes and in the five spheres of global social life. Guided by a multi-disciplinary theoretical framework and grounded empirical work, we will engage in practical policy questions aimed at probing the potential for socially just and ecologically sustainable reforms. These reforms will be anchored in the social justice principles of redistribution, recognition and restitution of wealth and power, and the regeneration and recalibration of human–nature relations. We will study global, regional and national dynamics around commodity rushes and regimes, and the five spheres of global social life in Africa (Ethiopia), Asia (Myanmar), and Latin America (Colombia) as our core couuntry case studies, and four secondary and complementary countries (Mozambique, Cambodia, Philippines and China). This project will change the way we study the recent commodity and land rushes, demonstrating why and how they concern not only the 3.5 billion people who live in rural areas, but the entire world population. Conversely, it will demonstrate why it is not possible to understand what happens in the five spheres of global social life without comprehending how these, separately and together, interact with commodity and land rushes.
We have organized our work into 4 Work Packages (WPs) with corresponding timetable:
WP1 (Year 1): Theoretical and methodological. WP1 would be a continuous task throughout the duration of the project, but during Year 1 the team members, individually and collectively, were to acquire a solid foundation in the multidisciplinary theoretical and methodological requirements of the project. We accomplished the target for WP1 during Years 1 & 2, with the exception of not convening a global workshop of the expanded team members due tot he pandemic. We accomplished digging deep into global databases, constructed tailor-made syllabi and conducted learning activities. We managed to write several publication manuscripts and got published from out of our efforts in WP1.
WP2 (Years 2 & 3): Empirical. WP2 would be dedicated to field research, with PhD researchers spending a total of at least 12 months in the case study countries, with an interim break at the ISS to process their initial data. Together with the post-doctoral researchers (PDRs), I would undertake international-level research (regional and global archives, databases, interviews) and would be involved in fieldwork in the three core sites, plus in the four secondary sites. Despite delays caused by the pandemic and wars, we made significant accomplishments in WP2: Individually and together, we explored global and national databases and official historical statistics and census datasets during the early phase of WP2. From the middle to later part of Year 2 all PhD researchers, to varying extents, started to gain momentum in their actual fieldwork in the 3 core sites, while the postdoctoral researchers and the PI explored, re-examined and analyzed global and national datasets. The PI did fieldwork in 2 of the 4 secondary countries (China, Philippines) just before the pandemic; and also during the pandemic through local partners and with the use of digital technology to interview research participants. In the beginning of Year 3 (early part of 2022), when international travels were again possible, the PI carried out field research in the 3 core sites, and in 2 secondary sites (Mozambique, Cambodia).
WP3: Practical policy engagement (Years 4 & 5). Actions in WP3 are in the forms of working papers, blogs, primers, infographics, and draft book manuscripts are expected to be completed in this phase. We would share, discuss and debate relevant aspects of our findings with relevant governmental, corporate and civil society groups at the national, regional and international levels. Our assumption is that a process-oriented, interactive approach to engagement with academics and practitioners will be a mutually productive and empowering process of knowledge (co)production and use. WP 3 would be carried out in close collaboration with the national partners and with the Transnational Institute (TNI). While WP3 would start only in Year 4, from Year 2 we already started to work on some of its elements: we kickstarted a working paper series (2 papers) and primer series (1), and launched our social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter). We also launched a webinar series (Agrarian Conversations) together with TNI, and conducted 3 well attended episodes (average of 700 participants, each episode held in simultaneous 3 languages; and so far we engaged in English, Arabic, Burmese French, Mandarin and Spanish for broader dissemination and participation). For the purpose of WP3, we also collaborated with partners and co-sponsored the transformation into open access ebooks a 10-volume small book series the themes of which will be an important supplementary material for our WP3 work, in addition to a huge co-edited book open access ebook on authoritarian populism and the rural world with a significant dimension of our core research.
WP4: Capacity-building. A critical component of the project is capacity-building and mentoring. While WP4 work would be done throughout the duration of the project, the work we have done and accomplishments we achieved in Years 1 & 2 and early part of Year 3 are fundamental and crucial. The core ERC budget allows us to recruit 1 postdoctoral and 3 PhD researchers. However, ISS decided to generously give back the amount equivalent to my ERC paid salary (0.7 fte) to allow us to recruit additional researchers (1 postdoctoral and 2 PhD researchers), and forge collaborative research partnerships in the four secondary country cases. To date, we recruited and trained 5 PhD researchers, 4 of whom have defended and passed their dissertation designs and one is to defend his design on 2 June 2022 (delays duet o the pandemic and war in Myanmar). We also recruited 2 postdoctoral researchers. All 5 PhD researchers are jointly supervised by the PI and the two postdoctoral researchers, and took all the required courses at ISS. They were also trained in part through sustained (mostly online) thematic session-discussions led by the PI.
The overall accomplishments achieved in the 4 Work Packages were carried out alongside, and in part because of, the successful establishment of organizational and logistical support infrastructure for the project: recruited national collaborators and set up national reference groups; international reference group; appointed global ethics adviser; ISS appointed project, finance, data protection officer, communications support staff;
The combined work in WPs 1, 2, 3, and 4 allowed us to gain momentum early in writing publication manuscripts, and start to be published, several of which in world-leading journals in our field.
But still, we are behind schedule due to the pandemic and the wars in Myanmar and Ethiopia despite our effort to make adjustments.
WP1 (Year 1): Theoretical and methodological. WP1 would be a continuous task throughout the duration of the project, but during Year 1 the team members, individually and collectively, were to acquire a solid foundation in the multidisciplinary theoretical and methodological requirements of the project. We accomplished the target for WP1 during Years 1 & 2, with the exception of not convening a global workshop of the expanded team members due tot he pandemic. We accomplished digging deep into global databases, constructed tailor-made syllabi and conducted learning activities. We managed to write several publication manuscripts and got published from out of our efforts in WP1.
WP2 (Years 2 & 3): Empirical. WP2 would be dedicated to field research, with PhD researchers spending a total of at least 12 months in the case study countries, with an interim break at the ISS to process their initial data. Together with the post-doctoral researchers (PDRs), I would undertake international-level research (regional and global archives, databases, interviews) and would be involved in fieldwork in the three core sites, plus in the four secondary sites. Despite delays caused by the pandemic and wars, we made significant accomplishments in WP2: Individually and together, we explored global and national databases and official historical statistics and census datasets during the early phase of WP2. From the middle to later part of Year 2 all PhD researchers, to varying extents, started to gain momentum in their actual fieldwork in the 3 core sites, while the postdoctoral researchers and the PI explored, re-examined and analyzed global and national datasets. The PI did fieldwork in 2 of the 4 secondary countries (China, Philippines) just before the pandemic; and also during the pandemic through local partners and with the use of digital technology to interview research participants. In the beginning of Year 3 (early part of 2022), when international travels were again possible, the PI carried out field research in the 3 core sites, and in 2 secondary sites (Mozambique, Cambodia).
WP3: Practical policy engagement (Years 4 & 5). Actions in WP3 are in the forms of working papers, blogs, primers, infographics, and draft book manuscripts are expected to be completed in this phase. We would share, discuss and debate relevant aspects of our findings with relevant governmental, corporate and civil society groups at the national, regional and international levels. Our assumption is that a process-oriented, interactive approach to engagement with academics and practitioners will be a mutually productive and empowering process of knowledge (co)production and use. WP 3 would be carried out in close collaboration with the national partners and with the Transnational Institute (TNI). While WP3 would start only in Year 4, from Year 2 we already started to work on some of its elements: we kickstarted a working paper series (2 papers) and primer series (1), and launched our social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter). We also launched a webinar series (Agrarian Conversations) together with TNI, and conducted 3 well attended episodes (average of 700 participants, each episode held in simultaneous 3 languages; and so far we engaged in English, Arabic, Burmese French, Mandarin and Spanish for broader dissemination and participation). For the purpose of WP3, we also collaborated with partners and co-sponsored the transformation into open access ebooks a 10-volume small book series the themes of which will be an important supplementary material for our WP3 work, in addition to a huge co-edited book open access ebook on authoritarian populism and the rural world with a significant dimension of our core research.
WP4: Capacity-building. A critical component of the project is capacity-building and mentoring. While WP4 work would be done throughout the duration of the project, the work we have done and accomplishments we achieved in Years 1 & 2 and early part of Year 3 are fundamental and crucial. The core ERC budget allows us to recruit 1 postdoctoral and 3 PhD researchers. However, ISS decided to generously give back the amount equivalent to my ERC paid salary (0.7 fte) to allow us to recruit additional researchers (1 postdoctoral and 2 PhD researchers), and forge collaborative research partnerships in the four secondary country cases. To date, we recruited and trained 5 PhD researchers, 4 of whom have defended and passed their dissertation designs and one is to defend his design on 2 June 2022 (delays duet o the pandemic and war in Myanmar). We also recruited 2 postdoctoral researchers. All 5 PhD researchers are jointly supervised by the PI and the two postdoctoral researchers, and took all the required courses at ISS. They were also trained in part through sustained (mostly online) thematic session-discussions led by the PI.
The overall accomplishments achieved in the 4 Work Packages were carried out alongside, and in part because of, the successful establishment of organizational and logistical support infrastructure for the project: recruited national collaborators and set up national reference groups; international reference group; appointed global ethics adviser; ISS appointed project, finance, data protection officer, communications support staff;
The combined work in WPs 1, 2, 3, and 4 allowed us to gain momentum early in writing publication manuscripts, and start to be published, several of which in world-leading journals in our field.
But still, we are behind schedule due to the pandemic and the wars in Myanmar and Ethiopia despite our effort to make adjustments.
Progress so far corresponds to the objectives and expectations of the research project, save for the delay in terms of schedule because of the pandemic. The initial theoretical and methodological work outputs, as well as empirical data gathering are initial and partial, but already represent trail-blazing accomplishments and offer enormous promise for us to accomplish high impact research, in which some of the initial publications to date may prove to be beyond the state of the art and are true path-breakers.
On 12 May 2022, our manuscript was officially accepted at Land Use Policy journal. This paper combines theoretical/abstract/historical components, empirical case studies (previous studies by PI, updated), large global database reexamination, and systematic literature review on global land deals that were cancelled and withdrawn (a key theoretical building block in our research) – allowing us to write a paper that is likely to change the way the global land rush is studied and understood. We feel that this is the greatest accomplishment of the research to date.
Of equal weight in significance is our article in Agriculture and Human Values (2022) that is centrally about the dynamic continuum between land and labour, economic production and social reproduction, rural and urban. It combines theoretical/abstract components with detailed empirical material gathered through the interview of 140 key informants (most migrant workers), and conducted in the middle of the pandemic through collaborative effort with local researchers and the creative but safe use of digital instruments where in-person interviews were not possible or safe. The argument and implications of this study speak to wide-ranging themes, including food sovereignty, agrarian justice and labour justice. It is at the very core of our project.
Our publications on the issue of climate change and land as an emerging body of work are a huge accomplishment. These are articles in World Development, Land Use Policy, Globalizations, and Journal of Peasant Studies. Individually and as an emerging set of scientific work, it speaks directly to and criticizes the general tendency in numerous reports of the IPCC, including its report on ‘climate change and land’ in 2019, and the latest 2021 AR6 report where it suggests that land/nature-based climate change mitigation and adaptation can and should be accomplished by instituting ‘land tenure security’ – but without specifying what they mean by the catch-all phrase. Without specifying what it means, the de facto interpretation is likely to be a market-based individualized property rights system that can be quite problematical in many societies today.
Our studies related to ‘regressive populism, land and environment’ also bring in a lot of scientific weight beyond the state of the art. These are papers published in Annual Review of Environmental and Resources (ARER), Journal of Agrarian Change, and a huge co-edited book, Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World (Scoones, et a;., 2022, Routledge). This set of studies contributes to establishing the new state of the art on this topic.
In short, despite delays caused by the pandemic and wars, our progress has been significant, and several initial publications are beyond the state of the art. We hope to gain greater momentum in the coming time, would request a one-year extension of the project, and are quite confident that we will accomplish what we have intended to accomplish in this research.
On 12 May 2022, our manuscript was officially accepted at Land Use Policy journal. This paper combines theoretical/abstract/historical components, empirical case studies (previous studies by PI, updated), large global database reexamination, and systematic literature review on global land deals that were cancelled and withdrawn (a key theoretical building block in our research) – allowing us to write a paper that is likely to change the way the global land rush is studied and understood. We feel that this is the greatest accomplishment of the research to date.
Of equal weight in significance is our article in Agriculture and Human Values (2022) that is centrally about the dynamic continuum between land and labour, economic production and social reproduction, rural and urban. It combines theoretical/abstract components with detailed empirical material gathered through the interview of 140 key informants (most migrant workers), and conducted in the middle of the pandemic through collaborative effort with local researchers and the creative but safe use of digital instruments where in-person interviews were not possible or safe. The argument and implications of this study speak to wide-ranging themes, including food sovereignty, agrarian justice and labour justice. It is at the very core of our project.
Our publications on the issue of climate change and land as an emerging body of work are a huge accomplishment. These are articles in World Development, Land Use Policy, Globalizations, and Journal of Peasant Studies. Individually and as an emerging set of scientific work, it speaks directly to and criticizes the general tendency in numerous reports of the IPCC, including its report on ‘climate change and land’ in 2019, and the latest 2021 AR6 report where it suggests that land/nature-based climate change mitigation and adaptation can and should be accomplished by instituting ‘land tenure security’ – but without specifying what they mean by the catch-all phrase. Without specifying what it means, the de facto interpretation is likely to be a market-based individualized property rights system that can be quite problematical in many societies today.
Our studies related to ‘regressive populism, land and environment’ also bring in a lot of scientific weight beyond the state of the art. These are papers published in Annual Review of Environmental and Resources (ARER), Journal of Agrarian Change, and a huge co-edited book, Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World (Scoones, et a;., 2022, Routledge). This set of studies contributes to establishing the new state of the art on this topic.
In short, despite delays caused by the pandemic and wars, our progress has been significant, and several initial publications are beyond the state of the art. We hope to gain greater momentum in the coming time, would request a one-year extension of the project, and are quite confident that we will accomplish what we have intended to accomplish in this research.