Introduction: New directions in agrarian political economy

For four decades, The Journal of Peasant Studies (JPS) has served as a principal arena for the formation and dissemination of cutting-edge research and theory. It is globally renowned as a key site for documenting and analyzing variegated trajectories of agrarian change across space and time. Over the years, authors have taken new angles as they reinvigorated classic questions and debates about agrarian transition, resource access and rural livelihoods. This introductory essay highlights the four classic themes represented in Volume 1 of the JPS anniversary collection: land and resource dispossession, the financialization of food and agriculture, vulnerability and marginalization, and the blurring of the rural-urban relations through hybrid livelihoods. Contributors show both how new iterations of long-evident processes continue to catch peasants and smallholders in the crosshairs of crises and how many manage to face these challenges, developing new sources and sites of livelihood production.     

Indigenous peoples vs peasant unions: land conflicts and rural movements in plurinational Bolivia

Agrarian reforms do not constitute linear processes: rather, they are based on the interconnection between the crystallization of land governance in formal tenure rules and the way societies organize around a set of identities and power mechanisms. This paper focuses on how the misinterpretation of this two-way relationship, in setting up a new normative framework, can generate unintended consequences in terms of conflict. The recent wave of land conflicts in Bolivia shows how changes in the allocation of strategic resources inspired by the so-called ‘politics of recognition’ triggered processes of political ethnicization and organizational fragmentation, eventually contributing to fuelling new tensions between indigenous groups and peasant unions.     

‘Control Grabbing’ and small-scale agricultural intensification: emerging patterns of state-facilitated ‘agricultural investment’ in Rwanda

The Rwandan government's ongoing reconfiguration of the agricultural sector seeks to facilitate increased penetration of smallholder farming systems by domestic and international capital, which may include some land acquisition (‘land grabbing’) as well as contract farming arrangements. Such contracts are arranged by the state, which sometimes uses coercive mechanisms and interventionist strategies to encourage agricultural investment. The Rwandan government has adapted neo-liberal tools, such as ‘performance management contracts’, which make local public administrators accountable for agricultural development targets (often explicitly linked to corporate interests). Activities of international development agencies are becoming intertwined with those of the state and foreign capital, so that a variety of actors and objectives are starting to collaboratively change the relations between land and labour. The global ‘land grab’ is only one aspect of broader patterns of reconfiguration of control over land, labour and markets in the Global South. This paper demonstrates the ways in which the state is orienting public resources towards private interests in Rwanda, through processes that have elsewhere been termed ‘control grabbing’ [Borras et al. 2012 Borras, S.M., et al. 2012. Land grabbing and global capitalist accumulation: key features in Latin America. Canadian Journal of Development Studies/Revue canadienne d'études du développement, 33(4), 402–416. doi: 10.1080/02255189.2012.745394[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 402–416].     

魏晋南北朝步虚词初探

“:步虚词”这种文学样式,从题材内容至文体起源都与道教有着密切的联系。该文体大约出现于东晋,大致可以分为道教徒创作和教外文人创作两大类。搞清步虚词的起源、内容特征、与道教的联系、存在的现实功能等,对全面了解把握步虚词这种文体,及其对中国古代文学的影响,都有着重要意义。     

“兴地睦边”农田整治重大工程调查研究

搞好土地整理,不仅改善农业农村的生产生活条件,提高农业综合生产能力,促进新农村建设,还将从根本上缓解土地资源供需矛盾,保障经济社会可持续发展。西部生态建设地区云南省“兴地睦边”农田整治重大工程是国土资源部在云南省西南边境地区开展的一项兴边富民工程,重点对区域内田、水、路、林、村等进行综合整治,并配套较完备的农田基础设施。该文认为项目的建设对改善区域农业生产环境、提高当地人民生活水平、促进边境地区民族团结、维护边疆稳定产生重要意义,并就项目的实施、管理、研究等问题提出了建议。     

Institutional Reform and Social Changes in Northeast China During the Late Qing: A Case Study of Appeal Trials

Institutional reform and social changes in northeast China during the late Qing period are usually attributed to the Qing dynasty changing its policy on immigration to northeast China. However, institutional reform because of debt appeals between civilian creditors and the Mongolian princes is often overlooked. Using administrative cases from Fengtian Governor Archives and Kirin Prefecture Archives, this study identifies how the governor officers of northeast China changed Mongolian land rights and official finance institutions through appeal judgments in the late Qing dynasty. Appeals were related to Mongolian land rights reform and promoted the financial institutional reform in northeast China. This study concludes by arguing that the judgments affected the profits of the litigants and changed the local society.     

公共安全支出对陆疆国防支出影响的实证研究——基于陆疆9省(区)的面板数据

以陆疆9省(区) 2007-2016年国防支出与公共安全支出的面板数据作为样本数据,采用最大似然估计方法对短面板数据进行了随机效应回归分析,结果发现,公共安全支出对陆疆9省(区)国防支出具有显著性作用,陆疆经济发展水平制约着陆疆国防支出。公共安全支出与陆疆国防支出呈现负相关关系。陆疆安全稳定在一定程度上受到了城乡差距的影响。地方财政支出与国防支出的关系为正,财政支出的增加能为国防支出提供更多支持,但并不显著,说明地方财政支出对国防支出影响因子较小,国防支出在陆疆安全上有一个比较稳定的投入,也印证了陆疆国防支出与地方经济发展的关系。陆疆国防支出的增加对犯罪率的下降有促进作用,社会犯罪行为是陆疆另一个社会稳定影响的因素,一些国际犯罪、宗教类犯罪行为会影响陆疆国防安全。     

利益视角下我国农地流转的法律思考

"三农问题"归根结底就是土地问题,现阶段土地问题的重心则在于土地流转,土地流转过程中所出现的种种问题都源于利益关系的差异.利益与利益机制就成为了农村土地流转的原点问题,而利益冲突就是土地流转中的不和谐音符,由此设计出利益协调的各项原则,并在此原则的指导下建立利益共享机制,对我国农村土地流转制度进行完善.     

我国高房价的成因与控制对策

目前,我国高房价已对经济的发展和社会的稳定造成影响,同时,高房价也造成了房价与收入比偏高、房地产空置率过高和房价租金比增大等问题。文章认为,高房价的原因是多方面的,应当从多角度着手来采取措施。当务之急解决高房价的问题应从两个方面着手：一是宏观调控房地产市场,防止房地产出现过多泡沫;二是加大经济适用房与廉租房建设,解决中低收入家庭的居住问题。为此,政府应出台相应的政策约束房地产商的行为,宏观调控、科学决策、正确引导．确保房地产稳定发展。     

农村宅基地使用权之法律研究

物权法草案明确规定,农村村民经分配取得宅基地使用权.宅基地使用权在本质上是属于土地使用权,将宅基地使用权规定为一类独立的用益物权形态,对于维护农民合法权益具有重要意义.但草案规定宅基地使用权不能单独转让,不得抵押,并禁止城镇居民在农村购置宅基地.这就基本上禁止了宅基地使用权的流转,其合理性有待商榷.