The conflicts over the land and the environment spark all across Turkey as many local communities oppose large scale development projects, often supported by the state. Yet in the Kurdish inhabited areas of Turkey, the end of the Turkish-Kurdish peace process heavily limited possibilities of action for activists seeking to implement their ideas of ecology and autonomy. However, even in such a hostile environment many of our interlocutors adhere to the strategy of “building a new world in the shell of the old” and are seeking to build up more sustainable structures.
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 marketsis 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.
The ownership of private land in Turkey has numerous legal, political, economic, and ethnic dimensions, both individually and collectively necessitating discussion. Legally, the transition of the right of land use from state ownership (demesne) to private ownership began with the Ottoman Land Regulation Law of 1858 and was further fortified and safeguarded by the republican-era constitutions and other legal measures during the twentieth century. Legal regulations alone do not determine the nature of the distribution of land to individuals and groups, but they are a strong indicator. Other political and social aspects, such as population exchange, forced migration and displacement, and subsequent land allocation, as well as the influence of the Kurdish agha system in southeast Anatolia, indicate the political aspects of the determination of land ownership in the country. Considering all these factors, the Turkish experience reveals that the distribution of land ownership and usage rights cannot be explained by a single factor and that political considerations need to be taken into account.
Control and access to land and related natural resources have been systematically used against Kurds by the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish state as key disciplinary tools to consolidate state presence and to advance its colonial exploitation and assimilation processes. The Kurdish Freedom Movement (KFM, Tevgera Azadiyê ya Kurd) has developed an ecological struggle against these policies as an essential element of its politics to decolonize the state’s control mechanisms over land and resources through commitment to ecological and democratic principles with the objective of creating a new ethic and aesthetic of national liberation.
Rural Sociology Wageningen University 