Book reviews

During the past two decades agrarian (‘land and farm’) reforms have been widespread in the transition economies of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA), following earlier ones in Asia (China and Vietnam). However, independent family farms did not become the predominant sector in most of Eastern Europe. A new dual (or bi-modal) agrarian structure emerged, consisting of large farm enterprises (with much less social functions than they had before), and very small peasant farms or subsidiary plots. The paper compares five case studies, looking at agrarian actors, property rights, state influence, and rural poverty. These are Russia, Armenia, Moldova and Uzbekistan in the EECCA region, and China's Xinjiang province in Asia. The paper concludes that state influence is still substantial, property rights regimes are quite diverse and rural poverty remains medium to high. State-led agrarian reform, in particular where a redistributive (or restitution-based) land reform was implemented led in some cases to land-based wealth redistribution, but policies and institutions were lacking to support the individual farm sector. More often the outcome was a rapid transfer of land in the hands of corporate farm enterprises, reversing the initial process of ‘re-peasantization’. It seems that the old ‘Soviet dream’ of mega-farm enterprises in the ‘transition to capitalism’ has regained prominence, with huge agro-holdings ‘calling the shots’, providing an insecure future for agricultural workers, peasants and farmers.     

Redistribution and recognition: land reforms in Kerala and the limits of culturalism

The most important achievements of the Communist governments in Kerala, India were the implementation of the land reforms and the legislation of the Agricultural Workers' Act. Using ethnographic and archival research based on these events and the processes through which they became a reality, this paper will question some of the fundamental assumptions of the influential Subaltern Studies project and postcolonial theory like the positing of governmentality and passive revolution as the general characteristics of ‘Third World’ societies' experience with modernity. It will argue that, more importantly, their culturalist framework, with its gross ignorance of class and material concerns, is hardly adequate to understand the fusing of the aspirations of recognition and redistribution or the material and cultural that characterizes the struggles by the peasantry and agrarian labor, and their synthesis by the Communist Party. Despite their professed aim of inaugurating a democratic project with the peasant as citizen, Subaltern Studies and postcolonial theory, unlike the Communist movement, do not envisage any material transformation of the agrarian classes that will actualize this objective.     

The gender implications of large-scale land deals

This article introduces a discussion of gender dimensions into the growing debate on large-scale land deals. It addresses the current information gap on the differential gender effects of large-scale land deals through (1) an overview of the phases of large-scale land deals and discussion of related effects on rural men and women based on new literature on large-scale land deals and past literature on the gender effects of commercialization and contract farming; (2) a presentation of further evidence using several case studies on the gender effects of large-scale deals; and (3) a conclusion that looks at knowledge gaps and areas for further research as well as broad recommendations for gender equitable large-scale land deals.     

Food security or commercial business? Gulf State investments in Australian agriculture

Worldwide investments in agricultural land have gained much attention in recent years, resulting in renewed awareness of land as being a scarce and finite resource. This paper investigates a case of South-to-North land deals, namely investments from the Arab Gulf targeting agricultural land in Australia. For the Arab Gulf States that highly depend on external food supplies, investment abroad is one strategy to guarantee future food security. At the same time, leading Australian political and economic representatives have been eager to attract investments from the Gulf. Increasing foreign investment in Australian land has, however, provoked a vivid public debate in Australia. Concepts of foreign direct investment and its role are currently renegotiated on the federal level with regard to Australia's own food security, the ‘national interest’ and the redefinition of ‘Australian agricultural land’. While these concerns also play out on the local level, investments have to be seen within the wider context of Australian ruralities. The paper reveals how food security and commercial and financial interests intersect and become blurred within current transformations of the global agri-food system.     

Plantation rubber,land grabbing and social-property transformation in southern Laos

This paper critically examines theories of accumulation, dispossession and exclusion for analyzing the agrarian transformations that result from contemporary large-scale land acquisitions across the Global South. Building upon Marx's primitive accumulation, Harvey's accumulation by dispossession and Hall et al.'s Powers of Exclusion, conceptual lenses are developed through which to examine how land grabs transform property and social relationships of resource-based production. I examine the concession of 10,000 hectares by the central government of Laos to a Vietnamese corporation for extracting timber and planting rubber in the southern province of Attapeu. This acquisition has excluded farmers from land and resources that constituted their primary sources of (re)production, reconfigured rural property relations, altered the peasant relationship to land and produced new exploitative forms of wage labor.     

土地用途管制模式的立法转变

我国现行土地用途行政管制模式出现“制度失灵”,公法与私法规范结合的激励性管制应成为行政管制的替代模式。国际上土地用途管制改革已出现了总量管制与弹性管制、社区赋权、规划协议等激励性管制的实证样本,规划的不确定性理论、规划权利理论、管制协商理论为新型管制做出了法学解释。激励性土地用途管制的本质是模仿市场机制的私人自我管制。在我国,国家本位的衰落,土地市场多元利益的并存与竞争,迫切需要以激励性管制替代制度成本过高的传统行政管制。土地用途管制改革的基本路径是,划分行政干预与市场配置土地资源的法定边界,合理嵌入管制的私法规范。     

Politics of inclusion and exclusion in the Chinese industrial tree plantation sector: the global resource rush seen from inside China

In the last two decades, the industrial tree plantation (ITP) sector has expanded rapidly in southern China, causing important changes in land-use and land control. It involves both domestic and transnational corporations, and has provoked widespread conflict and political contestations. The villagers who are affected by the expansion of ITPs have reacted in varied and complex ways: some of the villagers were incorporated in the ITP sector, while others are excluded; some have embraced the change, while others have complaints; and some of the complaints remained latent, while others developed into (overt or covert) forms of resistance. This paper explores how and why various social groups have responded differently to the expansion of ITPs. This paper reveals the dynamics of villagers’ inclusion and exclusion in the ITP sector, covering both ‘passive’ and ‘active’ forms of inclusion and exclusion, resulting in differentiated political reactions from villagers. This paper hopes to contribute towards a more comprehensive understanding of the complex engagement of villagers in changes in land use and land control, not just in the most commonly studied countries in global land grabbing but inside China, and in transactions that involved large foreign companies, something that has so far been missed in the literature on land grabbing.     

香港土地审裁处司法活动综述及启示

拆迁问题归根结底是利益问题,政府、开发商、被拆迁者三方进行着激烈的利益博弈。有利益就有纠纷,恶性、惨痛的拆迁纠纷时见报道,且愈演愈烈。拆迁该如何实现和谐？拆迁难题的解决可能需要系统性的改革,而土地纠纷的解决却有一个最基本的理念,即需要中立、独立、没有偏私的机构和人员以公平、公正、专业和高透明度的方式来解决纠纷,让利益的博弈回归到法律框架之下。香港土地审裁处解决土地纠纷的成功经验值得借鉴。     

资源型城镇产业接续机制与实证

该文提出“在资源鼎盛期率先打造产业接替的基础条件、规避资源枯竭后再进行转型的世界性难题”的观点,指出矿区工业-生态产业链的结构设计是解决矿区传统经济发展方式与生态环境之间尖锐矛盾的有效途径.以平朔矿区为例,从循环经济角度,分析了矿区工业-生态产业链结构设计的必要性和可行性,探讨了矿区工业-生态产业链结构设计的目标、原则和依据.在矿区现有资源和条件基础上,构建了两条相互依存的产业链:一是以煤为主,电、化、硅铝、建材并举的黑色工业产业链；二是以土地复垦与复垦土地利用为主,种、养、加一体化的绿色生态产业链；对其产业链的结构、功能和效益进行了分析,提出了在矿区工业-生态产业链实施过程中应注意的关键问题.     

瞿秋白土地革命理论及实践

瞿秋白是中共早期重要领导人。在中国革命被迫转入农村的环境下,他的土地革命理论和实践值得关注。瞿秋白关注土地革命的中心问题,阐述了土地革命的核心要素,制定了土地纲领和文献,推动土地革命向广度和深度发展。梳理瞿秋白的土地革命理论及实践对当前的理论创新和实践指向具有一定的启迪意义。