Author Archives: Dirk Roep
Migrant agricultural workers in search of a dignified life – new publication by Pedro Navarro-Gambin and Kees Jansen
What is a ‘dignified life’ for those people who migrate to South Spain to work in ‘the orchard of Europe’? How their working conditions are connected to their life quality? Does working in agriculture make people socially vulnerable?
These questions are addressed in a paper by Pedro Navarro-Gambin and Kees Jansen in a paper published in Sociologia Ruralis: Migrant agricultural workers in search of a dignified life: Labour conditions as a source of vulnerability in Spain.
Abstract
This study analyses the dynamics of agency and social vulnerability of international migrant agricultural workers in intensive agriculture in Murcia (South-East Spain). It engages with the work of a group of scholars who analysed the emergence and reproduction of Murcia as an intensive agricultural enclave by taking an expanded vision of social reproduction, which includes a subjective and contextual dimension in the definition of what constitutes a ‘dignified life’. Based on a qualitative study of the life stories of foreign migrant agricultural workers and ex-workers in Murcia, two main arguments are developed. Firstly, the idea of migrant workers’ agency as intrinsically positive is evaluated as problematic. Secondly, agricultural labour conditions should be conceptualized as an independent social vulnerability driver. These findings contribute to the existing literature on migrant agricultural labour in Europe’s intensive agriculture by pointing at migrants’ exploitative and undesired labour market position rather than just at their suffered citizenship inequalities.
‘Gesloten vanwege stikstof’ – nieuw boek Jan Douwe van der Ploeg
‘Gesloten vanwege stikstof‘ is een nieuw boek van Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, emeritus hoogleraar Rural Sociologie, die zich grondig heeft verdiept in en verbonden met vernieuwingsprocessen in de landbouw en op het platteland, zowel in Nederland als internationaal, en uitgesproken is over waar het zijns inziens naar toe moet en waar het aan schort. Hij was onder meer lid van de Raad voor het Landelijke Gebied en adviseur van de Europese Commissie. Hij was ook nauw betrokken bij de eerste agrarische natuurverening in Nederland in de Noardlike Fryske Wâlden.
In dit nieuwe boek betoogt Jan Douwe van der Ploeg hoezeer het stikstofprobleem is uitgegroeid tot een megacrisis. En dat falend landbouwbeleid en Wageningse theorieën daarbij een belangrijke rol hebben gespeeld. De megacrisis van nu vertakt zich internationaal en is ecologisch, economisch, sociaal en politiek van aard. Ondertussen zit Nederland op slot.
Woensdag 15 november wordt het ‘eerste’ exemplaar wordt overhandigd aan voormalig gedeputeerde Douwe Hoogland, tevens oud-voorzitter van de Noardlike Fryske Wâlden.
Zondag 12 november was Jan Douwe van der Ploeg te gast in het radioprogramma Vroege Vogels. Het gesprek valt hier terug te beluisten.
Continue readingUnpacking gender mainstreaming: a critical discourse analysis of agricultural and rural development policy in Myanmar and Nepal by Dawn Cheong et al.
Dawn Cheong is PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group (dawn.cheong@wur.nl) . Her first paper has just been published open access in ‘Agriculture and Human Values‘:
Cheong, D.D., Bock, B. & Roep, D. (2023) Unpacking gender mainstreaming: a critical discourse analysis of agricultural and rural development policy in Myanmar and Nepal https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-023-10502-x.
Abstract
Conventional gender analysis of development policy does not adequately explain the slow progress towards gender equality. Our research analyses the gender discourses embedded in agricultural and rural development policies in Myanmar and Nepal. We find that both countries focus on increasing women’s participation in development activities as a core gender equality policy objective. This creates a binary categorisation of participating versus non-participating women and identifies women as responsible for improving their position. At the same time, gender (in)equality is defined exclusively as a women’s concern. Such discourses, as constitutive practices, produce specific knowledge about rural women and new subjectivities that prescribe and govern them solely as subjects of development. Our research suggests that such a limited discursive practice invisiblises gendered power relations and structural and institutional issues, ultimately slowing progress towards gender equality. We demonstrate the importance of studying policy as discourse, beyond the effectiveness of policies or mainstreaming tools, and call for empirical evidence on the impact of these discourses on women’s subjectivities and lived experiences.
‘The Promised Transformation: Mexican Coffee Policies During the Administration of President López Obrador’, PhD-thesis by Claudia Oviedo Rodriguez
August 30, 2023, 13.30-15.00 Claudia Oviedo Rodriguez will defend her PhD-thesis titled The Promised Transformation: Mexican Coffee Policies During the Administration of President López Obrador during a ceremony in the Auditorium of the Omnia building of Wageningen University. The ceremony will be live broadcasted: a link will appear five minutes before the start in the events box (upper left of the screen). See the Abstract below. The full thesis can be downloaded once the embargo has been lifted: clicking its DOI. The paper Incorporation of different types of farmers into different coffee markets is published open access in the Canadian Journal of Development Studies. Contact: claudia.oviedo.rodriguez@outlook.com.
Abstract
This thesis analyses Mexican coffee policies during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). It builds on approaches of state theories, agrarian political economy, and global value chain studies, and contributes to debates regarding the role of the state in small farmers’ livelihoods. The thesis is based on a case study analysing implementation of rural policies in the Soconusco region of Chiapas, and contains four empirical and analytical chapters. Chapter 1, “Evolution of Coffee Policies in Mexico”, addresses how the interests of the state and its mechanism of support to coffee farmers evolved from the time this crop was introduced to Mexico until the start of the AMLO administration. Chapter 2, “Incorporation of Different Types of Farmers into Different Coffee Markets”, discusses social differences among beneficiaries of rural programmes and the conditions under which different types farmers are incorporated into the market. Chapter 3, “Arabica, Robusta, and the Narrative of Quality Coffee”, analyses collaboration and conflicts among the state, small-scale farmers, farmer organizations, and the coffee processing industry with respect to formulation and implementation of coffee policies. It also explores the role of quality in the politics of coffee. Chapter 4, “AMLO’s Rural Programmes and Elimination of Intermediaries” discusses achievements and weaknesses of rural programmes, paying particular attention to the AMLO administration’s strategy of bypassing farmer organizations upon providing agricultural subsides. The aim of this thesis is to understand how a radical transformation that has been promised by the Mexican state influences social relationships among the state, small farmers, farmer organizations, and the coffee processing industry.
Rural Sociology Wageningen University 