ISS-4140 Political Economy/Ecology of Agriculture and
Environment
Code
Weight of the course
Period
Course Leaders
Lecturer
Teaching Methods
Modes of Assessment
Contact
ISS-4140
12 ECTS
TERM 1
Jun Borras and Murat Arsel
Murat Arsel, Jun Borras, Bram Büscher, Wendy Harcourt,
Cristobal Kay, Max Spoor and Ben White
Participatory Lecture, Workshop, Study Visits
Assignment(s): 45%, Written Exam: 45%, Group Assignment: 10%
Nalini Harnam
Learning objectives
After the course, students will have:
 Developed a grasp of major theoretical and methodological traditions in AFES, seen in
overlapping/synergistic or conflicting/competing manner
 Developed a critical perspective on the political and economic structures that shape local, national
and international agrarian and environmental questions.
 Improved their skills to engage in critical discussion on contentious issues agrarian and
environmental studies
 Enhanced their ability to communicate their ideas on this specific thematic area of Development
Studies to specialist and wider attentive audiences.
Course description
This course introduces students to the inter-linked theoretical and methodological foundations of
critical agrarian studies and critical environmental studies. Participants will become familiar with the
necessary theoretical and analytical tools required to develop a critical understanding of
contemporary process of agrarian and environmental change, including environmental degradation,
rural resource access and use, and the key socio-political and economic processes facing the rural
world. Key themes and theories in Agrarian, Food and Environmental Studies will be introduced and
examined. This course does not take the rural world in isolation, but rather in an interlinked manner:
rural-urban and agricultural-industry linkages get considerable attention. Appropriate comparisons will
be made between developing and developed countries. The analytical starting point to tackle the
various issues is a ‘critical political-economy’ framework, meaning that the emphasis will be on the
political-economic power dynamics that frame and cut across agrarian and environmental issues.
Indicative readings
Bernstein, H. and P. Woodhouse (guest eds) (2010) ‘Special Issue: Productive Forces in Capitalist
Agriculture: Political Economy and Political Ecology‘, Journal of Agrarian Change, 10(3): 299453.
Bernstein, H. (2010) Class Dynamics of Agrarian Change. Halifax; Fernwood VA: Kumarian Press.
Borras, S. Jr. (ed.) (2009) ‘Special issue: Critical Perspectives in Rural Development Studies’, Journal
of Peasant Studies 36(1).
Fairhead, J., M. Leach and I. Scoones (guest eds) (2012) ‘Special issue: Green Grabbing: a New
Appropriation of Nature?’, Journal of Peasant Studies 39(2): 237-617.
Guha, R. and J. Martinez-Alier (1998) Varieties of environmentalism. Essays North and South. Delhi:
Oxford University Press.
Heynen, N., J. McCarthy, S. Prudham and P. Robbins (eds) (2007) Neoliberal Environments: False
Promises and Unnatural Consequences. London; New York: Routledge.
Peet, R., P. Robbins, and M. Watts (eds) (2011) Global Political Ecology. London, New York:
Routledge.