Two approaches to land grabbing research

Abstract

The first decade of the twenty-first century brought with it multiple crises: food crisis, energy crisis, financial crisis and the crisis caused by climate changes. As one of the responses to this multiple crises, the process of buying/leasing large land areas, predominantly (but not exclusively) in the global South, by Western corporations and funds, as well as by governments of the certain countries whose economic power was on the rise (China, the Gulf states, etc). Given that these large investments in land oftern brought with them certain negative consequences, both for small farmers in the host coutries and for the environment, the process quickly became known as land grabbing. The first reactions came, as usual, from the media, always in search of sensations, and from a number of non-governmental organizations. When scientific circles began to consider the process of land grabbing, there was a division among scientists into two approaches. We call the first of them neoliberal, due to its economic character and insistence on the key role of the market. The second approach, which we call conflictual, dominates the universities; here we find much more complex consideration of the process in question. Both scientific approaches are closely related to the advocacy of certain policies, that is, political responses to land grabbing. The presentation and analysis of two approaches are not goals in themselves, but should help us understand/explain the role and position of Serbia in this global process.