Development Sociology

'Institutional Diversity and Capitalist Transition: The Political Economy of Agrarian Change in Arunachal Pradesh, India', Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp.512-547. (2009)

by Deepak Kumar Mishra

Coauthored with Barbara Harriss-White and V Upadhyay

This paper contributes a preliminary analysis of the process of agrarian capitalist transition in Arunachal Pradesh,... more This paper contributes a preliminary analysis of the process of agrarian capitalist transition in Arunachal Pradesh, one of the least studied regions of India. Primarily based on information collected through a field survey in eleven villages, the paper seeks to explain the nature and implications of institutional unevenness in the development of capitalism. Institutional diversity is not simply mapped across space, it is also manifested in the simultaneous existence of market and non-market institutions across the means of production within the same village or spatial context. In addition, there is a continuous and complex interaction among these institutions which both shapes and is shaped by this capitalist transition. Primitive accumulation emerges as a continuing characteristic of the on-going agrarian and non-agrarian capitalist transition. Institutional adaptation, continuity and hybridity are as integral to the emergence of the market economy as are the processes of creation of new institutions and demise of others. There is no necessary correspondence between the emerging commercialization of the different productive dimensions of the agrarian economy. These uneven processes are deeply influenced by existing and emerging power relations and by the state. Framed by the Bernstein-Byres debate about the contemporary (ir)relevance of the agrarian question, evidence is presented to justify the conclusion that although the processes at work are far from the classical models of the transition to capitalism, all aspects of the agrarian question remain relevant.

Rebuilding livelihoods after dam-induced relocation in Koga, Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia.

by Irit Eguavoen

Eguavoen, Irit and Weyni Tesfai 2011. Rebuilding livelihoods after dam-induced relocation in Koga, Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia. ZEF Working Paper 83. Bonn.

For the past years, Ethiopia has been moving toward making better use of the waters from the Blue Nile. The Koga... more For the past years, Ethiopia has been moving toward making better use of the waters from the Blue Nile. The Koga project is the first new large-scale irrigation scheme in the river basin since the 1970s. The article analyzes the social-economic outcome of development-induced relocation of 500 relocated households, in particular the sub-set which moved to the nearby town. The delay in land re-allocation had left households without livelihood base as farmers for much longer than expected and compensation payments were not sufficient to bridge the critical period. Households tended to maintain their social network and memberships in supportive rural associations after relocation but poverty acted as constraints in some cases, especially when households did not find other income generating activities. Housing in town was made difficult due to the need to legalize land exchange arrangements. And it required a common interest (security) to initiate social relations between town dwellers and newcomers.

Violence, democracy, and the neoliberal ''order'': the contestation of public space in posttransitional Cambodia

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2009. Violence, democracy, and the neoliberal "order": the contestation of public space in posttransitional Cambodia. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 99 (1), 138-162.

Neoliberal policies explain why authoritarianism and violence remain the principal modes of governance among many... more Neoliberal policies explain why authoritarianism and violence remain the principal modes of governance among many ruling elites in posttransitional settings. Using Cambodia as an empirical case to illustrate the neoliberalizing process, the promotion of intense marketization is revealed as a foremost causal factor in a country's inability to consolidate democracy following political transition. Neoliberalization effectively acts to suffocate an indigenous burgeoning of democratic politics. Such asphyxiation is brought to bear under the neoliberal rhetoric of order and stability, which can be read through the (re)production of public space. The preoccupation with order and stability serves the interests of capital at the global level and political elites at the level of the nation-state. Citizens themselves may fiercely contest these particular interests in a quest for a more radical democracy, as evidenced by the burgeoning geographies of protest that have emerged in Cambodian public spaces in the posttransition era.

The nonillusory effects of neoliberalisation: linking geographies of poverty, inequality, and violence

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2008. The nonillusory effects of neoliberalisation: linking geographies of poverty, inequality, and violence. Geoforum. 39 (4), 1520-1525.

This paper steps into recent debates concerning the (f)utility of neoliberalism as an ‘actually existing’ concept by... more This paper steps into recent debates concerning the (f)utility of neoliberalism as an ‘actually existing’ concept by reminding the reader that without a Marxian political economy approach, one that specifically includes neoliberalisation as part of its theoretical edifice, we run the risk of obfuscating the reality of capitalism’s festering poverty, rising inequality, and ongoing geographies of violence as something unknowable and ‘out there’. By failing to acknowledge such nonillusory effects of neoliberalisation and refusing the explanatory power neoliberalism holds in relating similar constellations of experiences across space as a potential basis for emancipation, we precipitously ensure the prospect of a violent future.

MSP Briefing Note

by Sarah Miraglia

An extended bibliography of the Gendering Justice essay