Agrarian Issues Research Articles

Questão agrária, migração temporária e superexploração: uma síntese a partir do Vale do Jequitinhonha

Resumo Neste artigo, partindo da apreensão de que a questão agrária e a superexploração da força de trabalho são determinações fundamentais da extração de valor no capitalismo dependente brasileiro, ou seja, substanciam o movimento inerente à lei geral da acumulação de capital no Brasil, traremos o debate do processo de migração temporária de trabalhadores do Vale do Jequitinhonha, Minas Gerais (MG), como uma expressão da dinâmica da acumulação do capital assentada na manutenção do monopólio da terra. Tal dinâmica impõe a expropriação, a violência e a superexploração como meios de extração de valor, numa realidade na qual o subdesenvolvimento é a única forma possível de desenvolvimento. Metodologicamente, buscamos, dialogicamente, articular discussões teóricas elaboradas por autores de referência de modo a construir uma síntese que apresente as determinações mais concretas da migração temporária no Jequitinhonha, apreendida na totalidade das relações sociais que emanam da dependência estrutural brasileira.

Stolypin's Resettlement Policy and the Problem of the Land Issue Softening in European Russia: Assessments of the German-Speaking Russian Studies of the 20th Century

In Germanic studies of Russia, the issue of the resettlement movement to Asian Russia prospects was regarded at the beginning of the twentieth century, which became much more active during the years of the Stolypin reform, to defuse the acuteness of the agrarian issue in the European part of the empire. In this regard, the attention was drawn to the extent of to Siberia and to the categories of migrants. After a long break, the interest to the problem resumed in the German-speaking historiography during the 60-70s of the 20th century. The researchers of Germany, and somewhat later of Austria, paid a close attention to the factor of back migration, the return of migrants to their former place of residence due to unfavorable circumstances, to these very unfavorable circumstances, largely in solidarity with Soviet historians during the explanation of the reasons for re-immigration. And not without the influence of the latter, the possibilities of resettlement to contribute to the mitigation of the agrarian problem in European Russia were usually considered skeptically. However, since the mid-1980s, there has been a clear overcoming of pessimistic assessments and conclusions. The Austrian historian A. Moritsch and the West German researcher D. Landgraf drew attention to the place of origin of the peasants who moved to Siberia and the Far East, analyzed the causes of back migration more closely, stressed that, with all the difficulties of adaptation to life in a new place, the majority of migrants still did not repatriate, which had a positive effect both for the progress of agriculture in Asian Russia, and (with all possible reservations) for the situation with the agrarian issue in the European part of the country.

NEOEXTRATIVISMO LIBERAL-CONSERVADOR: a Política Mineral e a Questão Agrária no Governo Temer

Avaliamos as mudanças ocorridas na política mineral brasileira durante o primeiro ano do governo Temer. Argumentamos que, assim como no período Dilma, este governo teve um posicionamento favorável à expansão mineral. Durante o governo do Partido dos Trabalhadores, associado a um “neoextrativismo progressista”, as ações buscaram aumentar o protagonismo do Estado e a captura da renda mineral destinada, majoritariamente, para políticas de redução da pobreza. Com a mudança de governo, no período “neoextrativismo liberal-conservador”, mantém-se a preocupação com a expansão da mineração, porém o governo deixa que ela ocorra sob as forças de mercado, e a renda mineral capturada pelo Estado é transferida para o setor financeiro. Ao longo do artigo, debatemos as relações entre a mineração e a questão agrária. Defendemos a importância da reflexão crítica sobre este setor extrativo e os impactos na organização do espaço rural brasileiro. Tratamos ainda das estratégias institucionais das mineradoras, avaliamos as iniciativas do governo Temer para abrir novas áreas de mineração e investigamos as mudanças feitas na legislação mineral. Por fim, sublinhamos o que parece ser falsas promessas relativas a tais ações e trazemos também alguns elementos referentes às respostas dos movimentos sociais quanto a essa tentativa de aprofundar o atual modelo mineral do Brasil e os conflitos e disputas territoriais a ele associados.

Estado del arte sobre el desarrollo rural durante el periodo comprendido entre 2004- 2014 en Colombia

In the framework of the signing of the peace agreement in Colombia, this article questions the research that has been carried out on rural development between 2004 and 2014 in Colombia and what its contributions have been in order to accompany the implementation process in the rural sector. Therefore, through a qualitative methodology, the article presents an analysis of the findings of academic research in Colombia that are relevant to rural development in the country and exposes its main thematic approaches, authors and sponsors of the studies. Through the identification of the thematic approaches, a characterization of the rural context, a problematization and the presentation of the theory of the new rurality is made, which was developed by various authors as a proactive response to the agrarian issue in Colombia.

Campesinos maiceros en Tlaxcala: viabilidad, caracterización y respuestas ante el maíz transgénico

Se exponen resultados de investigación sobre los campesinos maiceros de Tlaxcala. El objetivo fue situar las características campesinas de estos productores en el marco de la discusión teórica sobre la nueva cuestión agraria y relacionarlas con los efectos sociales de una posible liberación comercial de maíz transgénico. En Tlaxcala se aprobó en 2011 una ley de protección de los maíces nativos, que prohíbe la siembra comercial de maíz transgénico, promovida por una legisladora, diversos actores sociales y el Grupo Vicente Guerrero (gvg), que ha hecho labor de conservación de los maíces nativos. La ley no se aplica por no estar aprobado el reglamento, pero es un precedente y el gvg, con otros actores sociales, presionan para la aprobación faltante. Se parte de una breve reflexión sobre la vigencia del campesinado, y se exponen hallazgos que fundamentan por qué no favorece a los productores de Tlaxcala la liberación de la siembra comercial de maíz transgénico, en relación con sus características campesinas.

La perspectiva de las mujeres, jóvenes y adultos mayores ante la nueva ruralidad

¿A qué se le atribuye una nueva ruralidad? Existe mucho debate sobre la nueva ruralidad, por un lado se le atribuye como un actual estudio para las cuestiones agrarias, estimulando nuevas investigaciones en las transformaciones rurales o simplemente es un nuevo concepto que ganó popularidad a lo que ya existía. El término se volvió más común y se usó inadecuadamente para fines políticos y para promover la legitimidad de ciertas acciones. Se analiza el concepto de nueva ruralidad y el impacto que ha tenido a través de tres actores sociales, que no eran tan mencionados en estudios de antaño sobre cuestiones del campo: las mujeres, jóvenes y adultos mayores, vistos como nuevos actores o simplemente se encontraban invisibilizados en las tareas del campo.
 

The effect of the agrarian reform on the development of cultural activities in the Republic of Cuba

Cuban socialism’s efforts to resolve the “agrarian issue” determined the strategies currently in force and their immediate goals. As part of this process, we examine six aspects that characterize the Island’s sociopolitical development: the structure of land ownership, land usage, the agrarian organization, the technological model, the agrarian economy, and the development of rural society. Many challenges remain to shaping comprehensive and coherent economic strategies that encourage sustainable economic growth, facilitate Cuba’s international economic integration, and contribute to the efficiency and competitiveness of Cuba’s economy while simultaneously safeguarding the revolution’s gains in social inclusion and equity. The research is supported by knowledge and results from scientific and professional literature, that is, the findings and scientific results of numerous professional authors who have studied the issues of this work in their books and articles.

Висвітлення революційних потрясінь 1917–1921 рр. на сторінках «Українського селянина»

The article attempts to analyze the native historiography, which is devoted to the history of the Ukrainian State and the Directory of the Ukrainian People's Republic on the pages of the scientific journal «Ukrainian Peasant». The studio is based on research and intelligence published in the collection of scientific articles of 2001–2017. «Ukrainian Peasant» is the only specialized publication on peasant-related issues in Ukraine as of 2018. Est. 2001 with the organizational support of the Research Institute of the Peasantry and the Scientific Society of Historians-Agrarians, the collection of scientific works became the platform for scientific discussions of the scientific community on the agrarian issues. The problems of the period of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–19121 took a key place in 19 issues of the scientific journal. In view of the above, the purpose of the published publication is an analysis of the work of modern native researchers of the Ukrainian Revolution, Central Council, Hetmanate period of P. Skoropadsky and the Directory of the Ukrainian People's Republic on the pages of the scientific journal «Ukrainian Peasant». Thus, during 2001– 2017, «Ukrainian peasant» remains a valuable scientific publication, on the pages of which a significant place is given to the consideration of the issues of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1921 and, in particular, its separate periods – Central Council, the Hetmanate period of P. Skoropadsky and the Directorate of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Based on the processed historiographic sources, we can state that the range of scientific research is devoted to the agrarian legislation of national governments during the period 1917–1921, the reaction of the peasantry to the implementation of land reforms. Most of the materials processed substantially complements and specifies the course of revolutionary events in the Ukrainian village of 1917–1921; allows understanding the peasant psychology of that time.

Subjective Component of the Agrarian Issue as One of the Preconditions of the 1917-1921 Ukrainian Revolution

Subjective Component of the Agrarian Issue as One of the Preconditions of the 1917-1921 Ukrainian Revolution

Class Struggle in the 1916-23 Irish Revolution: A Reappraisal

In line with the view generally held by most historians over the past decades, Peter Hart’s The IRA at War, 1916-1923 (2003) tends to play down significantly the importance of the social disputes in the 1916-23 Irish Revolution. Hart justifies his approach by the fact that those disputes did not pave the way for radical social change in the new Irish Free State. However respectable this statement may be, it remains nonetheless disputable given that, in Terence Dooley’s own words, “other than acknowledging some contribution of agrarian issues to the revolution, historians have failed to take up the challenge of exploring them in greater detail or, indeed, to be fully convinced of their existence” (see ‘The Land for the People’: The Land Question in Independent Ireland, Dublin, University College Dublin Press, 2004, p. 17). This observation is also consistent with the fact that such subversive experiments as the 1918-1923 Irish Soviets have hitherto been examined somewhat on the fringe of mainstream academic research. As part of a project devoted to the latter, the present article will therefore seek to reappraise the relevance of Hart’s analysis by assessing the extent to which “class struggle” was an integral part of the Irish Revolution.

The Long Road to Partnership: Conflict Resolution of Register 45 Mesuji Lampung

A known agrarian issue took place in Indonesia, particularly in the area of Register 45 Mesuji Lampung. The granting of natural forest management permit by the government to PT. Silva Inhutani, thus eliminating public access around Register 45 to manage the forest, subsequently lead to conflict in the region. The objectives of this research are, namely: 1) to explain the grounds for partnership in the Register 45 area; and 2) to analyze the partnership program undertaken in Register 45 as an effort of resolving conflict. This research used a descriptive qualitative approach that describes the results of research, assessment and other references reinforced with empirical data through interviews and observations. This study found a number of issues in the partnership agreement formation process, wherein the community was not being involved in the formation process of the partnership provisions, such as the planting process and the profit sharing scheme. The issues found in the implementation stage of the partnership agreement can be observed from an internal factor perspective, which was the unfulfilled expectation to increase acacia planting. Regarding the external factor, there were still many acts of thuggery in the area of Register 45 that interfered with the partnership process. There was also a fundamental problem in the partnership implementation, which was the prevalent lack of aptness in the mapping of community entitled to the partnership, as well as the lack of trust among collaborating parties.

Programa de Pós-Graduação em Serviço Social da UFPA: elementos históricos e temas de pesquisa em 20 anos

Resumo Nos últimos vinte anos, muitos foram os temas de pesquisa das Dissertações de Mestrado em Serviço Social e os desafios do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Serviço Social (PPGSS) da UFPA. Este artigo, situando-se no contexto da pós-graduação do Serviço Social brasileiro, apresenta os dados temáticos de 195 dissertações do PPGSS-UFPA, no período de 1998 a 2016 e aborda a relação entre os temas pesquisados e os debates realizados pela Associação Brasileira de Ensino e Pesquisa em Serviço Social (ABEPSS), conjunto CFESS/CRESS (Conselhos Federal e Regional de Serviço Social) e os Diretórios de pesquisa no CNPq/Área do Serviço Social. O levantamento das dissertações indica o Trabalho como a temática mais recorrente, seguindo-se Formação e Espaço Socioprofissional do Serviço Social, Questão Urbana e Agrária, Política de Seguridade Social, Questões Geracionais e Movimentos Sociais, dentre outros.

A questão agrária na Microrregião de União da Vitória/PR: o latifúndio e seus desdobramentos geográficos

O artigo parte do entendimento de que compreender a questão agrária na microrregião de União da Vitória perpassa pela atualidade do conceito de latifúndio. Para tanto, refutamos a carga ideológica do discurso de desenvolvimento econômico gerador de divisas da monocultura, isso porque a agricultura capitalista tem gerado concentração de terra e renda na região, provocando pobreza e a desagregação de modos de vida. Assim, o texto busca apontar alguns elementos de como se expressa territorialmente a monocultura de árvores, revelada no latifúndio produtivo, na microrregião de União da Vitória, e quais suas implicações para as populações do campo e da cidade. Como suporte teórico a análise e entendimento da questão agrária perpassa pela compreensão do desenvolvimento do capitalismo no campo, que se manifesta territorialmente de modo contraditório e combinado. Com base nessa perspectiva teórica e somada a análise de dados preliminares (apresentados no decorrer do artigo), observamos, que a agricultura capitalista, expressa no latifúndio improdutivo e no latifúndio produtivo (agronegócio), não é sinônimo de desenvolvimento local e regional.

Discursive representations of the agricultural reform policy in Brazilian savanna: The case of directed settlement program of Alto Paranaíba (PADAP)

The debate around the Brazilian agrarian issue was historically marked by the presence of different actors and discourses that, for the majority, assumed opposing positions and practices. Specifically, the agrarian reform policy of the 1960s, one of the main historical milestones of this issue, was also developed in the midst of this discursive plurality, which then became two specific discursive orders: the pro-reform discourse and the agricultural modernization discourse. From this conflict resulted different agrarian policies inserted in a socio-historical and political context, highlighting those directed to the rural exploration of savanna. In this sense, the present study aimed to understand the discursive representations and reveal ideological elements present in textual discourses and uttered by governmental implementers of the expansion policies of the agricultural frontier for the Brazilian savanna and beneficiaries of the Directed Settlement Program of Alto Paranaiba (PADAP). Through the analysis of the representational meaning from Norman Fairclough’s discourse theory, it was possible to identify the representations involved in the formulation and implementation of this policy, highlighting the hegemony of agricultural modernization inculcated in statements that justified a priori agrarian reform.

ANTICOMUNISMO, GOLPISMO E QUESTÃO AGRÁRIA: UMA ANÁLISE SOBRE O PROGRAMA AGRÁRIO DO IPÊS: 1963 - 1966

The article discusses the perception of the Institute of Research and Social Studies (Ipês) in relation to the agrarian issue, between the years 1963 and 1966, aiming at analyzing the worldview of anti-communist groups in the 1960s. As its primary sources, the article deploys publications from the Institute itself, such as Reforma Agrária, Bases e Soluções, Reformas de Base: a posição do Ipês, Ipês Monthly Bulletins, and major newspapers. Ipês was an anti-communist group, formed by civilians and military, founded in 1961, whose members engaged in the articulation of the 1964 military coup. Sectaries of this organization, such as Paulo Assis Ribeiro, were incorporated into the Castello Branco government, participating in the formulation of the Land Statute (ASSIS, 2001; DREIFUSS, 2008). Ipês defended a program of changes for Brazil in opposition to the Base Reforms advocated by the João Goulart government. Carrying on with our mas-ter’s degree dissertation, entitled O discurso anticomunista do Ipês entre 1963-1966 [The anti-communist discourse of Ipês between 1963 and 1966], the article also analyzes the relation between the agrarian reform model defended by Ipês and its perspectives on the rural worker, as well as the connection of these pro-posals with its anti-communist conceptions, its doctrinal principles in defense of the Alliance for Progress and the Mater et Magistra letter, and its connection with the principles of the Escola Superior de Guerra [War College].

Debating Land and Agrarian Issues from a Gender Perspective

Agrarian studies in Africa today is taking place in the context of an aggressive plunder of resources by national and foreign companies and of other processes of primitive accumulation shaped by the global crisis of capital. This article analyses ongoing gender and class struggles over agricultural commercialization in Tanzania. The article is a tribute to Sam Moyo, whose rigorous scholarship and committed activism was an inspiration for this author, as for many other scholar activists involved in agrarian issues. The analysis here is shaped by transformative feminist analysis/action, which uses gender, class and race analysis intersecting with other social relations, such as age, to understand the changing agrarian political economy and to challenge patriarchy and neoliberal globalization.

The Road Through Paris: Climate Change, Carbon, and the Political Dynamics of Convergence

This article tracks the key events that set the stage for the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris, particularly as they relate to politics of convergence. One side of this coming together is an intersection of issues, where new terrestrial and aquatic carbon sequestration programs have blurred the margins of climate change mitigation and resource grabbing. These programs, enclosing forests, farmlands, and oceans, are likewise fused together in what can be described as an emerging ‘carbon complex’ that is part of the wider blue/green economy. On the reverse side, the clear intersection of issues as witnessed by radical, and historically sectoral, agrarian/social justice movements is causing them to intertwine in resistance. The realm of climate change has proven to be an exceptional space of struggle and countermovement building. Political interactions between movements have become increasingly sophisticated—requiring frameworks that address environmental, agrarian, and oceanic issues at once, as the issues have become ever more complex. Agrarian/social justice movements maintain that their agendas for food sovereignty and climate justice hinge upon exposing fault lines in the system and advocate overall system change. COP21 and its parallel side events were together a landmark moment, but part of a much more involved process, ‘the road through Paris’, along which movements had carved out transnational and local spaces of convergence against the backdrop of a global carbon complex.

Civil society organizations for sustainable agriculture: negotiating power relations for pro-poor development in India

ABSTRACTThe promotion of sustainable agriculture is a focal point for many civil society organizations (CSOs) in India, including both development NGOs and grassroots organizations. In this article, I draw on three case studies of CSOs promoting sustainable agriculture in India, in order to evaluate their potential to address contemporary agrarian issues in a pro-poor manner. I argue that, whatever the technical merits of sustainable farming systems may be, CSOs are constrained in their ability to implement these systems in a manner that directly meets the needs of the rural poor. This is largely because, in order to achieve their goals, sustainable agriculture organizations usually must forge relations with at least five separate entities: the state, donor organizations, activist networks, rural elites and the rural poor. Strategic decisions must be made regarding which of these entities are prioritized and, for a variety of reasons, the leaders of sustainable agriculture organizations often prioritize relations with powerful actors rather than the rural poor. This is a major barrier to the development of models of sustainable agriculture that may address the needs of rural communities in the context of the contemporary agrarian crisis.

Benedict Anderson, 1936–2015

I first met Benedict Anderson in 1991 when I was part of a University of the Philippines research team on agrarian issues in Central Luzon. Anderson happened to be in town when we presented our ind...

February of 1917: the Cossacks’ approach to resolving the agrarian issue (based on materials of the Don, the Kuban and the Terek

February of 1917: the Cossacks’ approach to resolving the agrarian issue (based on materials of the Don, the Kuban and the Terek