Global Capitalism and the Future of Agrgarian Society

This book offers historical and comparative analyses of changes in agrarian society forced by the globalization of capitalism, and the implications of these changes for human welfare globally. The book gives special attention to recent economic development and urbanisation in the People's Republic of China which have had a major impact on contemporary transformations globally. Case studies from South and Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America in turn place these transformations in a comparative global perspective. The contributors include distinguished scholars from the UN, PRC, India, Zimbabwe, and Latin America who are also active in policy issues. Acknowledgments Introductory Introduction / Arif Dirlik and Roxann Prazniak The "end of the peasant" scenario : dream and nightmare / Alexander Woodside The return of the peasant : possible? desirable? / Immanuel Wallerstein The People's Republic of China History, capitalism, and the making of the postsocialist Chinese peasant / Alexander Day China experience, comparative advantage, and the rural reconstruction experiment / Wen Tiejun, Dong Xiaodan, Liu Xiangbo and Lau Kin Chi The political economy of spatial inequality in China / Wang Shaoguang Reserve the land for family farming : on the use of farmland and the future of the peasantry in China / Dong Zhenghua Awaiting urbanization : urban village redevelopment in coastal urban China / Leslie Shieh Public regulation of private relations : changing conditions of property regulation in China / Pitman B. Potter Tricontinental perspectives Primitive accumulation and the peasantry in the present era of neo-liberalism with reference to the Indian experience / Utsa Patnaik Peasants in Indonesia and the politics of (peri)-urbanization / Abidin Kusno Land occupations and land reform in Zimbabwe : toward the national democratic revolution / Sam Moyo and Paris Yeros Polycultures of the mind : the "end" of the peasant and the birth of agroecology / Alejandro Rojas Community capacity and challenges of Ecuoadorian agrarian farmer organizations for generating alternatives to pesticide use : a case study / Fabio Cabarcas Epilogue Drawing lessons from the 2008 food crisis / Jomo Kwame Sundaram. This book offers historical and comparative analyses of changes in agrarian society forced by the globalization of capitalism, and the implications of these changes for human welfare globally. The book gives special attention to recent economic development and urbanization in the People s Republic of China which have had a major impact on contemporary transformations globally. Case studies from South and Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America in turn place these transformations in a comparative global perspective. The contributors include distinguished scholars from the UN, PRC, India, Zimbabwe, and Latin America who are also active in policy issues.' Historical and comparative analysis of how globalisation has affected agrarian societies. Includes contributors from the UN, China and India.