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In rural development studies there are two mainstream assumptions. One holds that peasants are the victims of state rural development schemes, the other that only planning can ensure change and prosperity in rural regions. It is rarely considered that peasants are architects of their own and local wellbeing – notions which are often in opposition to state plans for agriculture. The Laissez-Faire Peasant explores how rural development emerges on the ground. The concept involves the manifestation of peasant worldviews in which autonomy in decision-making, freedom of action, spontaneity, and flexibility in everyday cooperation play a dominant role. A role in which individual and local values generate a self-regulating system that manages a range of economic, social, and political relationships. The book examines manifestations of peasant autonomy, both in response to and independent of state rural development policies through a multi-sited ethnography of three Serbian villages. It is shown how these factors impede state programs for rural development while enabling the spontaneous flourishing of local communities. By focusing on the agency of rural residents, the book finds that peasants are resilient and competent agents who do not need government plans to thrive. Praise for The Laissez-Faire Peasant ‘Anthropologists and missionaries claim to love their peasants. Economists and planners claim to help them. Both look down. Diković brilliantly proposes a new approach, which might be called “humanomics’’. It gives respect, looking up from where people actually live.’ Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, University of Illinois at Chicago ‘This is an ethnographically rich and conceptually original study of post-socialist peasantry and rural development in Serbia. Jovana Diković draws a complex picture of the post-socialist peasants as autonomous and resilient subjects motivated by the visions of rural development anchored in their local lifeworlds.’ Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi, University of Fribourg ‘In her excellent study Jovana Diković challanges the narrative about Serbian peasants usually viewed as downtrodden and exploited underdogs in need of governmental help. In this careful case study, these peasants represent an entrepreneurial, self -reliant and individualistic social group that can survive and thrive even in the conditions of modern and technologically advanced capitalism.’ Ivan Janković, Institut auf dem Rosenberg

Postcapitalist Countrysides explores the tensions that arise from the established conventions of economic production and private accumulation, as they affect life, wealth and work in rural areas. Its premise is that capitalism, as we experience it today, is incapable of solving key societal challenges – centred on social justice and sustainable livelihoods. By rethinking land, capital and labour relationships, postcapitalism offers glimpses of alternative modes of socio-economic organisation, achievable through local pre-figurative actions today and scalable through structural supports in the future. The glimpses of hopeful futures offered in this collection focus on rural places, communities and economies. Praise for Postcapitalist Countrysides ‘A comprehensive, wide-ranging and pioneering book, with a strong economics and planning emphasis, creatively foregrounding the place of our countryside today within debates about postcapitalism.’ Keith Halfacree, Swansea University, Wales 'A critically important book that looks beyond the structural inequalities of capitalism in rural areas, and answers the question of "what is to be done". Drawing on evidence from the UK and other advanced economies, it argues for alternative postcapitalist modes of socio-economic organisation.' Natalia Mamonova, Ruralis – The Institute for Rural and Regional Research, Norway

In rural development studies there are two mainstream assumptions. One holds that peasants are the victims of state rural development schemes, the other that only planning can ensure change and prosperity in rural regions. It is rarely considered that peasants are architects of their own and local wellbeing – notions which are often in opposition to state plans for agriculture. The Laissez-Faire Peasant explores how rural development emerges on the ground. The concept involves the manifestation of peasant worldviews in which autonomy in decision-making, freedom of action, spontaneity, and flexibility in everyday cooperation play a dominant role. A role in which individual and local values generate a self-regulating system that manages a range of economic, social, and political relationships. The book examines manifestations of peasant autonomy, both in response to and independent of state rural development policies through a multi-sited ethnography of three Serbian villages. It is shown how these factors impede state programs for rural development while enabling the spontaneous flourishing of local communities. By focusing on the agency of rural residents, the book finds that peasants are resilient and competent agents who do not need government plans to thrive. Praise for The Laissez-Faire Peasant ‘Anthropologists and missionaries claim to love their peasants. Economists and planners claim to help them. Both look down. Diković brilliantly proposes a new approach, which might be called “humanomics’’. It gives respect, looking up from where people actually live.’ Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, University of Illinois at Chicago ‘This is an ethnographically rich and conceptually original study of post-socialist peasantry and rural development in Serbia. Jovana Diković draws a complex picture of the post-socialist peasants as autonomous and resilient subjects motivated by the visions of rural development anchored in their local lifeworlds.’ Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi, University of Fribourg ‘In her excellent study Jovana Diković challanges the narrative about Serbian peasants usually viewed as downtrodden and exploited underdogs in need of governmental help. In this careful case study, these peasants represent an entrepreneurial, self -reliant and individualistic social group that can survive and thrive even in the conditions of modern and technologically advanced capitalism.’ Ivan Janković, Institut auf dem Rosenberg

Bernard Derouet was a highly specialized researcher who regularly published articles about rural French society in Europe’s most renowned social and economy history journal, the Annales ESC / Annales HSS. This translation of five selected articles allows German scholars in the fields of social and economic history to continue working directly with intellectual sources from French research.

Since the global financial crisis, the world has seen a stark rise in financial investment in farming and agricultural production. Indeed, finance has been identified as one of the main causes of the so-called "global land rush". In a world with a growing population that needs to be fed, the financial returns from agriculture are sold as safe bets. The debate that this has prompted has been frequently alarmist, with financiers blamed for rising land prices, corporate enclosures, the dispossession of smallholder farmers and the expansion of large-scale industrial agriculture. Stefan Ouma speaks to these concerns via an ethnographic journey through the agrifocused asset management industry. His penetrating analysis of case studies taken from New Zealand and Tanzania allows him to put global finance "in place", bringing into view the flesh-and-blood institutions, globespanning social relations, everyday practices and place-based value struggles that are often absent in broad-brushed narratives on the "financialization of agriculture". The book closes with a key question for the Anthropocene: which form of finance forwhich kind of food future?

Jean-Marc Callois proposes to understand the mechanisms of territorial development, to identify the local potential of bioresources and the articulation between uses, to activate the various public policy tools, to articulate the scales of governance and finally to conceive the economic system as an ecosystem. Living resources are a major element in the response to the environmental crisis. Admittedly, photosynthesis has a much lower energy yield than photovoltaics, but it has the advantage of not requiring increasingly rare minerals whose extraction is polluting. Bioresources have considerable potential for creating activities and jobs, well beyond current food and energy uses. They are also a means of revitalising many rural areas in decline. The book sets out a methodological framework for implementing a territorial development strategy based on bioresources. It brings together the various theoretical tools needed to understand the economic mechanisms underlying territorial development and details their practical application. It is also a plea for greater consideration of the bioeconomy in public policies and in economic thinking. This book is primarily intended for regional development practitioners (local authorities, development agencies, consultants, etc.) who wish to implement such an approach to development.

This book is a historical review of international food and agriculture since the founding of the international organizations following the Second World War, including the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and into the 1970s, when CGIAR was established and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) was created to recycle petrodollars. The book concurrently focuses on the structural transformation of developing countries in Asia and Africa, with some making great strides in small farmer development and in achieving structural transformation of their economies. Some have also achieved Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG2, but most have not. Not only are some countries, particularly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, lagging behind, but they face new challenges of climate change, competition from emerging countries, population pressure, urbanization, environmental decay, dietary transition, and now pandemics. Lagging developing countries need huge investments in human capital, and physical and institutional infrastructure, to take advantage of rapid change in technologies, but the role of international assistance in financial transfers has diminished. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only set many poorer countries back but starkly revealed the weaknesses of past strategies. Transformative changes are needed in developing countries with international cooperation to achieve better outcomes. Will the change in US leadership bring new opportunities for multilateral cooperation?

What does it mean to say that rural areas of Africa are poor? Many people insist that in rural African populations poverty is prevalent. This is either because the smallholder agricultural practices are unproductive or it is because economic policies have not protected and promoted African farming. But whether this deprivation is the fault of the peasant, or the government, both sides agree on the facts of rural poverty. However in both cases rural poverty is described using measures which make it hard, if not impossible, to capture new forms of wealth that rural people may be accruing. These new forms of wealth, which largely comprise productive assets, are especially important because they feature so prominently in rural peoples’ own definitions of wealth. Using an unprecedented collection of longitudinal surveys, in which experienced researchers have revisited villages that they have known for decades, the volume tracks surprising increases in assets in diverse locations in Tanzania. The result of these findings is a compilation which is fascinating in itself and important for the understanding of rural economies’ development data and agricultural policy.

This open access book examines the significance of gay neighborhoods (or ‘gayborhoods’) from critical periods of formation during the gay liberation and freedom movements of the 1960s and 1970s, to proven durability through the HIV/AIDS pandemic during the 1980s and 1990s, to a mature plateau since 2000. The book provides a framework for contemplating the future form and function of gay neighborhoods. Social and cultural shifts within gay neighborhoods are used as a framework for understanding the decades-long struggle for LGBTQ+ rights and equality. Resulting from gentrification, weakening social stigma, and enhanced rights for LGBTQ+ people, gay neighborhoods have recently become “less gay,” following a 50-year period of resilience. Meanwhile, other neighborhoods are becoming “more gay,” due to changing preferences of LGBTQ+ individuals and a propensity for LGBTQ+ families to form community in areas away from established gayborhoods. The current ‘plateau’ in the evolution of gay neighborhoods is characterized by generational differences—between Baby Boom pioneers and Millennials who favour broad inclusivity—signaling various possible trajectories for the future ‘afterlife’ of these important LGBTQ+ urban spaces. The complicating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic provides a point of comparison for lessons learned from gay neighborhoods and the LGBTQ+ community that bravely endured the onset of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in various disciplines—including sociology, social work, anthropology, gender and sexuality, LGTBQ+ and queer studies, as well as urban geography, architecture, and city planning—and to policymakers and advocates concerned with LGBTQ+ rights and social justice.

Seit geraumer Zeit werden verstärkt regionale Erzeugnisse aus Deutschland beworben. Der Autor greift diesen Umstand auf und befasst sich mit der Frage, welche wirtschaftlichen, umweltbezogenen sowie rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen und Perspektiven für ebenjene regionale Erzeugnisse bestehen. Dabei erfasst er schwerpunktmäßig unionsrechtliche Vorgaben. Er überprüft auch, inwiefern Werbekampagnen mitgliedstaatlicher und privatwirtschaftlicher Natur für regionale Erzeugnisse protektionistisches, die Warenverkehrsfreiheit in der EU beschränkendes Potential haben. Abschließend zeigt der Autor Möglichkeiten zur Erhöhung der Transparenz bei der regionalen Produktherkunftsangabe auf.

Theories underlying the relationship between urbanization and transformation are being challenged by trends in Sub-Saharan African countries, since many have yet to observe their own “green” or industrial revolutions, despite moderate urbanization. Africa’s trajectory is very different than those of other developing regions, a main reason for which is the region’s significant “youth bulge” and the lack of a labor market outlet for this growing subpopulation. In many countries, the youth are driving the (albeit slow) movement out of agriculture, yet rather than migrating to urban areas, many are finding (usually informal) work in secondary cities, their peri-urban spaces, and the rural nonfarm economy. This book examines the overall trends in youth migration, policies, and political activism, then looks specifically at five African case studies to identify key trends and provide recommendations on encouraging youth to spur structural change. Conclusions reached in this book include that the rate of structural transformation varies among countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, but in most cases, it is the youth who are driving these changes. Education, access to financial services, and agricultural productivity contribute to this structural transformation and can act as pushes or pulls out of agriculture for the youth. However, when structural transformation policies are not pro-poor or inclusive, it can result in higher levels of youth under- and unemployment. Thus, the conclusions point to recommendations focusing on agricultural productivity, the rural nonfarm economy and informal sectors especially along agriculture value chains, access to finance and savings, infrastructure, and education.

Illicit financial flows constitute a global phenomenon of massive but uncertain scale, which erodes government revenues and drives corruption in countries rich and poor. In 2015, the countries of the world committed to a target to reduce illicit flows, as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. But five years later, there is still no agreement on how that target should be monitored—to say nothing of how it will be achieved. The term ‘illicit financial flows’ covers a range of corrupt practices, aimed at obtaining immunity or impunity from criminal law, from market regulation and from taxation. Illicit flows occur through many different channels, whether they involve laundering the proceeds of crime, for example, or shifting the profits of multinational companies. There are two consistent features. First, illicit flows are deliberately hidden. These cross-border movements of assets and income streams depend on a set of common tools including opaque company accounts, legal vehicles for anonymous ownership, and the secrecy jurisdictions that provide these services. Second, the overall effect of illicit flows is to reduce the revenue available to states, and to weaken the quality of governance—so there is less money to support human development, and it is less likely to be spent well. In this book, two of the economists most closely involved in the process to develop UN indicators of illicit financial flows offer a critical survey of the existing data and methodologies, identifying the most promising avenues for future improvement and setting out their own proposals.

Many African countries have experienced unprecedented rates of economic growth in recent years, yet their economic transformations display features that could constrain their future growth prospects. Particularly troublesome have been patterns of urbanization without industrialization, rapid growth of low-productivity jobs in the informal economy, and a neglected agricultural sector with increased need for imported foods. Using Ghana as a case study, this book explores the challenges and opportunities of these patterns of transformation. By combining a historical and political perspective with in-depth empirical analysis of the performance of the broader economy and the agricultural sector since the economic reforms of the 1980s, the book considers viable policy options for Ghana and discusses the implications for other African countries.

Based on abundant literature, Benoit Daviron sketches for us a long, economic and political history of the biomass. Farming is not just about providing food, nor is it alone in supplying the biomass. How, before and after the fossil energies, have European societies mastered the distance and mobilised the work to satisfy their growing needs? What consequences for the rest of the world? Over the years, we discover that the ability to mobilise energy and material, especially living beings, mirrors wealth and power in the leading country of the time. This book alters our queries about the future.

This book contributes to the understanding of smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa through addressing the dynamics of intensification and diversification within and outside agriculture, in contexts where women have much poorer access to agrarian resources than men. It uses a longitudinal cross-country comparative approach, relying on the Afrint dataset—unique household-level longitudinal data for six African countries collected over the period 2002–2013/15. The book first descriptively summarizes findings from the third wave of the dataset. The book nuances the current dominance of structural transformation narratives of agricultural change by adding insights from gender and village-level studies of agrarian change. It argues that placing agrarian change within broader livelihood dynamics outside agriculture, highlighting country- and region-specific contexts is an important analytical adaptation to the empirical realities of rural Africa. From the policy perspective, this book provides suggestions for more inclusive rural development policies, outlining the weaknesses of present policies illustrated by the currently gendered inequalities in access to agrarian resources. The book also provides country-specific insights from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia.

In an increasingly interconnected world wine market, evolving consumer demands, technologies, and climate have all contributed to large shifts in global patterns of production and consumption of wine. These shifting patterns of wine production and consumption have entailed changes in the vineyard in terms of total area planted, production practices, and the mix of grape varieties grown. In this book, for the first time, we have a detailed empirical picture, country by country and region by region within countries, of which varieties of grapes have been grown where, and how those varietal choices have changed over time. This statistical compendium will be directly useful for anyone interested in knowing about and understanding the changing patterns of production of wine and wine grapes around the world. It also will serve as an invaluable resource for economists and others who seek to analyze those patterns and their causes

This book focuses on opportunities and challenges in implementing a bioeconomy strategy from a research and education perspective. It draws on contributions presented during the 30th EURAGRI annual conference held in Tartu (Estonia) in September 2016, as well as on other workshops organised as part of EURAGRI. EURAGRI is an informal gathering of EU research and higher education organisations and ministries interested in agri-food research. It works as a platform of exchange and discussion on topics of common interest pertaining to the organisation, orientation and outlook of agri-food research in Europe in connection with global changes.

Agricultural input subsidies were a major feature of development policies in rural economies until the 1980s. Continuing rural poverty with low productivity and fertilizer use in smallholder staple crops has led to their resurgence in Africa. These subsidies are, however, controversial with claims of both large food security benefits and unsustainable, inefficient resource use. This book reviews current theory and evidence on the strengths and weaknesses of these programmes and the effects of programme context, design, and implementation. Theoretical arguments for agricultural subsidies are based on input promotion where farmers’ private costs (benefits) are higher (lower) than wider economic costs (benefits). These arguments, and concerns about inefficiency and diversion, are reviewed and extended to consider input affordability constraints and ‘smart’ rationing and targeting. Recent programmes in Africa have a variety of generally producer-focused objectives, with varied implementation and programme outcomes. Most pay little attention to consumer interests and potential contributions to wider growth. A detailed examination of Malawi’s controversial agricultural input subsidy programme follows. Drawing on a wide range of information sources, the political and agro-economic contexts of the programme are examined, with evidence on its implementation and impacts from 2005 to 2011. Positive impacts are recorded on beneficiaries’ production, incomes, food consumption, school enrolment, child health, and reduced need for earnings from undertaking casual labour for others. There is evidence of indirect economy-wide impacts, but this is not as strong as might be expected. Targeting and graduation are identified as critically important issues requiring continuing attention.