农民具体权利的有效保护——一个法社会学的多维视角

农民具体权利的立法进化实际上是一种与时俱进、安而不忘危、治而不忘乱的忧患思维.农民问题过去是中国革命的中心问题,今天和今后一个相当长的时期是中国社会主义建设的中心问题.21世纪上半叶,保护中国农民权益的首要任务应定位于实行具有法治意义的、饱含公平正义价值的具体权利立法,依法有效地保障农民之经济社会权利.化解农村社会矛盾的所有对策的核心价值必须以农民权利的有效保护为切入点和落脚点,尤以改善农民具体的民生、民权之福祉为要,通过整合良策引入立法着重解决农民的现实问题.同时,依据自然正义准则,结合成规制定法,依托发展着的社会实践不断探寻新的社会规则,促进社会的良法善治.     

State marionettes,phantom organisations or genuine movements? The paradoxical emergence of rural social movements in post-socialist Russia

Of all the rural social movements in the world, those in post-socialist Russia have been considered to be among the weakest. Nevertheless, triggered by the neo-liberal reforms in the countryside, state attention to agriculture and rising land conflicts, new social movement organisations with a strong political orientation are emerging in Russia today. This sudden burst of civil activity, however, raises questions as to how genuine and independent the emerging organisations are. Our research shows that many rural movements, agricultural associations, farm unions and rural political parties lack constituency, support the status quo and/or are actually counterfeits (what we call ‘phantom movement organisations’). With this analysis, we aim to explain the nature of social movements in the post-Soviet countryside and offer an original contribution to the theory on and practice of rural social movements.     

‘Like gold with yield’: evolving intersections between farmland and finance

Since 2007, capital markets have acquired a newfound interest in agricultural land as a portfolio investment. This phenomenon is examined through the theoretical lens of financialization. On the surface the trend resembles a sort of financialization in reverse – many new investments involve agricultural production in addition to land ownership. Farmland also fits well into current financial discourses, which emphasize getting the right kind of exposure to long-term agricultural trends and ‘value investing’ in genuinely productive companies. However, capital markets' current affinity for farmland also represents significant continuity with the financialization era, particularly in the treatment of land as a financial asset. Capital gains are central to current farmland investments, both as a source of inflation hedging growth and of potentially large speculative profits. New types of farmland investment management organizations (FIMOs) are emerging, including from among large farmland operators that formerly valued land primarily as a productive asset. Finally, the first tentative steps toward the securitization of farmland demonstrate the potential for a much more complete financialization of farmland in the future.     

The political economy of global tree plantation expansion: a review

This contribution analyses the recent global expansion of different types of tree plantations. A literature review collates accounts from recent academic publications and by NGOs, and is accompanied by field research and interview observations about the causal processes, central features and likely futures of contemporary tree plantation expansion. I will analyse the political and spatial causalities explaining varieties and commonalities in expansion style and pace, with elaboration on the applied and empirical significance of these findings for peasant studies. The literature on environmental and developmental impacts of tree plantation expansion is also surveyed.     

Landscapes of power: local struggles and national stakes at the rural-urban fringe of Kabul,Afghanistan

This article shows the coexistence of the language of legal claims and the use of violence as constitutive modes of getting control over resources. Through the analysis of a specific case of land dispute east of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, we aim at revealing how local struggles are linked to broader geographies of power. Following important changes in the material conditions in Afghanistan, which have led to the expansion of the city and the transformation of the rural-urban fringe, territorialized power appears as a pre-condition to control the circulation of people, goods and money, information and ideas, allowing us to add landscapes, the circulation of land, to the five categories famously distinguished by Appadurai as a way of organizing the study of the world's culture and economy.     

Private game farming and its social consequences in post-apartheid South Africa: contestations over wildlife,property and agrarian futures

Spaces of privatised wildlife production, in the form of game farms, private nature reserves and other forms of wildlife-oriented land use, are an increasingly prominent feature of the South African countryside. Whilst there is a well-developed literature on the social impacts of state-run protected areas, the outcomes of privatised wildlife production have thus far received little attention. It is argued here that the socio-spatial dynamics of the wildlife industry, driven by capitalist imperatives related to the commodified production of nature and ‘wilderness’, warrant both in-depth investigation in their own right, and contextualisation in terms of broader processes of agrarian change locally as well as globally. The growing influence of trophy hunting and the wildlife industry on private land can be seen as a significant contributing factor to processes of deagrarianisation that are mirrored in other parts of the African continent and elsewhere. In South Africa, these developments and their impacts on the livelihoods of farm dwellers take on an added dimension in the context of the country's efforts to implement a programme of post-apartheid land reform. Two decades after the formal end of apartheid, contestations over land rights and property ownership remain live and often unresolved. This theme issue explores these dynamics on private land partly or wholly dedicated to wildlife production, with special emphasis on two South African provinces: KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.     

Game fences in the Karoo: reconfiguring spatial and social relations

In this article, we discuss how farm conversions to wildlife habitats result in the reconfiguration of spatial and social relations on white-owned commercial farms in the Karoo region of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. Farmers and landowners justify such conversions stressing economic and ecological rationales. We illustrate how conversions are (also) a reaction to post-apartheid land reform and labour legislation policies, which white farmers and landowners perceive as a serious threat. They seek to legitimate their position in society and reassert their place on the land by claiming a new role as nature conservationists. We argue that game farms should be interpreted as economically and politically contested spaces for three reasons: (1) whereas landowners present the farm workers' displacement from game farms as the unintended by-product of a changing rural economy, the creation of ‘pristine’ wilderness seems designed to empty the land of farm dwellers who may lay claim to the land; (2) game farms further disconnect the historically developed links between farm dwellers and farms, denying them a place of residence and a base for multiple livelihood strategies; (3) this way the conversion process deepens farm dwellers' experiences of dispossession and challenges their sense of belonging. Game fences effectively define farm workers and dwellers as people out of place. These dynamics contrast government reform policies aimed at addressing historical injustices and protecting farm dwellers' tenure security.     

Direct Democracy and Political Efficacy Reconsidered

Some studies have contended that direct democracy has secondary benefits unrelated to its impact on policy. In particular, recent scholarship claims that the American ballot initiative process enhances political efficacy. We began with concerns about the logic and empirical methods underlying this conclusion. We connect this research to the broader political psychology literature and in doing so find little reason to expect a positive relationship between direct democracy and efficacy. Our other contribution is to subject the empirical claim to more extensive testing. In contrast to prior research, we draw from multiple data sources and consider sampling methods. The results consistently fail to indicate that direct democracy generally enhances political efficacy. We find cause for skepticism about the secondary benefits of the ballot initiative process.

我国农地承包经营权流转体系研究

2009年2月“中央一号文件”提出健全农地承包经营权流转市场,这使稳定农地承包关系,发展规模化经营,成为一个重大而紧迫的课题。从农地承包经营流转权的前提、主体、形式、融资和保障措施方面,提出进行农地的确权、尊重农户的土地流转主体地位、创新农地流转形式、完善农村社保机制、盘活农地融资方式等措施,从而促进农地集约化发展,建立现代农业。     

论辽宁农村最低生活保障制度立法缺陷及完善

建立适合中国国情的农村低保制度是完善农村社会保障制度、促进新农村建设、构建和谐社会的切实需要。辽宁省是建立农村最低生活保障制度较早的省份,在制度构建及运行各方面取得了较好的效果。但随着这项制度的深入发展,一系列的问题也逐步暴露出来,其中地方性立法所存在的问题尤为突出,这也成为了辽宁农村最低生活保障制度发展的瓶颈。只有切合实际地解决这个问题,才能使最低生活保障制度在辽宁发挥更好的作用。