Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

PEGS > Political Ecology of Agriculture > Flashcards

Political Ecology of Agriculture Flashcards

1
Q

What was significant about the 2008 food crisis?

A

It was the first GLOBAL food crisis

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What did the 2008 food crisis do to global agriculture?

A
  • Shut down global food commodity markets
  • Caused resistance and export bans to protect stocks and raise prices
  • Coincided (roughly) with the 2008-09 financial crisis

FIND CITATION

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What report was published in the wake of the 2008 global food crisis?

A

The Foresight Report (2011)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What did the Foresight report 2011 propose regarding food security?

A
  • More pressures in the next 40 (now 30) years
  • Rising global population will increase demand for food
  • As countries develop people will become wealthier
  • Also supply side changes needed re climate change

.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Why is the Foresight Report (2011) duplicit?

A

The discourse does not address the inequalities of demand (taken as aggregate demand) and distribution, as well as power structures in the Global economy

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What is the received wisdom surrounding agriculture in the Global South?
(2 pts)

A

1) Smallholder and pastoral agriculture are inappropriate

2) ‘Big is best’ (e.g., World Bank 2008)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What academic publication has endorsed large-scale agriculture? Why is it endorsed?

A

Collier and Durcon 2009
- Large scale farms are the only means of econ growth (link development too)
- Smallholder agriculture = mismanagement and too risky (ironic!)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What is the difference between high modernism and low modernism?

A

High modernism = Large scale technology, simplification (Grapes of Wrath tractors)

  • e.g. Scott 1998 Seeing like a State

Low modernism = bottom-up, implementing technology from below

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What is the difference between Malthusian and neo-Malthusian epistemologies?

A

Malthusian = suffering is inevitable with scarcity (population will be ‘checked’)

Neo-Malthusian = Intervention needed to curtail population growth

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What was Ester Boserup’s contribution to population and development?

A

Societies adapt and develop new technologies to avoid a Malthusian catastrophe

(Boserup 1965)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What is a further critique of Boserup (1965)?

A

Although good at disproving Malthusian thinking, Boserup did not consider the uneven uptake and provisioning of technology

Who decides?

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What are practically finite resources?

A

Those which are not quickly (geologically speaking) replaced, e.g., oil

Differs to physically infinite resources which are replenished (e.g., plants and trees)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

How did fertilisers affect social metabolism?

A

From a loop to a metabolic rift

Fertilisers needed to replenish the nutrients sucked out of the soil

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What was arguably the most significant invention of the 20th century?

A

The Haber Process

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

What was one of the underlying aims of Norman Borlaug’s Green Revolution?

A

To prove capitalism was better than communism
- See political appetites
- ‘Green’ has dual meaning (nature and opposite of a Red Revolution

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What was the idea behind Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth (1960)?

A
  • Opposed to Communism
  • A teleology, setting a path to follow
  • Need to develop the Global South and allow people to move to cities

Highlights the significance of ideas and ideologies

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Did the Green Revolution work?

(covered more in Pol App)

A

It did produce more food overall
- Yields went up and prices came down globally
- Arguably, by these measures, a success in SE Asia

NOT in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Too focussed on growing food, not relations of production or distribution
- conglomerate take-over

The failure that topples all our success?

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

What is the issue with philanthropists helping smallholders?

A

They try to make them investable, financialising their land and labour (issues re risk)

(Watts and Scales 2020)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What has financialization of agriculture done to the teleology of rural development?

A

Moved towards low-modernist, philanthrocapitalism

e.g., B+M Gates and ‘New’ Green Revolution

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

What is the issue with technological solutions?

A
  • “Render Technical” (Li 2007)
  • Anti-political, framed in ways which ignore the underlying politics of technological ‘improvement’ (Ferguson 1994)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

What are peasants?

A
  • A specific term in cultural ecology / anthropology
  • Those who produce food for their own sustenance
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

What is cultural ecology? How does it differ to political ecology?

A
  • Cultural ecology = how people use the land and environment (CITATION?)
  • PE = how these relations are contested and uneven, winners and losers
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

Why are Peasants vilified?

A
  • Produce own food for sustenance
  • Not productive
  • A barrier to capital and accumulation
  • Needs primitive accumulation
  • Seen as backward

Scott 1976 good source

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

How are peasants being commodified?

A

“The smallholder entrepreneur” (Gates 2008)
- Intro tech, make productive

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

In what ways does global agriculture relate to the North?

A
  • Arguably as important as South
  • Affects South with modes of production
  • Also consumer changes (and efficacy of these…)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

What resistances have taken place in retaliation to commodification of peasants and smallholders?

A

La Viva Compesina, Mexico (CITATION?)
- Seeking to re-establish food sovereignty among peasants
- Opposed to high-mod and entrepreneurial perspectives

Part of “peasant way” retaliation (Bernstein 2014)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

What are the different types of power associated with PE? What is the historiography of power in PE?

A

Early PE (1980s) = Power focus in political economy. Materialism

Discursive phase = power in language and framing of environmental change / cultural ecology

More-than-human = power in webs of relations and different actants

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

What are ‘actants’?

A

In ANT, actants are non-human objects which mediate relations between humans and the environment

(Good definition in Latour 1996)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
29
Q

What are Henry Bernstein’s (2017) four questions?

A

1) Who owns what?
2) Who does what?
3) Who gets what?
4) Who decides?

Bernstein 2017
Could be a good way of addressing an exam question…

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
30
Q

What is the main premise of historical materialism?

A

Present shaped by material changes in the past through dialectic relations of production

Changes are historically contingent and NOT INEVITABLE

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
31
Q

Who has been the main author behind food regime analyses?

A

McMichael 2009

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
32
Q

What is the intellectual focus of world-systems theory?

A

That global economic relations are between a core (concentrated with capital) and periphery, with capital accumulating in the core

Not nestled within Nation State

(See McMichael 2009 food regime)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
33
Q

When did the first food regime emerge and why?

(3 pts, inc what countries were hegemonic powers)

A

In the 1870s, when the food system became globalised

Lasted until 1930s

Dominated by Britain and France

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
34
Q

Why does the North (or ‘Core’ in World-systems theory) have hegemony over the food system?

A
  • Geopolitical and historical roots (colonialism)
  • Also (and perhaps more significantly) through the accumulation and recirculation of capital (wages, trade etc)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
35
Q

How significant is geopolitics for world-systems theory (and specifically food regime analyses)?

A

Stable geopolitical power configuration enables control over periphery

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
36
Q

Why did the first food regime emerge in the 1870s?

A

Needed cheap goods from colonies to feed urban labourers in UK and France

Underconsumption in core absorbed in the periphery where surplus could be produced to provide cheaper goods

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
37
Q

What is a good paper on the historic expropriation of peasants and their land?

A

Watts (1984) silent violence

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
38
Q

What is Watts’ idea in “silent violence”?

A

That drought in the Housa was not the fault of farmers, but rather the fault of British colonialism commodifying agriculture

Colonies needed to pay for themselves and be profitable

(Watts 1984)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
39
Q

What is a commodity in the Marxist sense?

A

A reified good that is produced for exchange

Exchange value based on labour, yet does not reflect true use value of commodities

Value made to appear innate

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
40
Q

Why is ‘White Man’s Burden’ problematic? (Two reasons)

A

1) saviour complex

2) During colonialism, colonies (esp in French) needed to be profitable

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
41
Q

Why was the accumulation by dispossession associated with colonialism and the first food regime (McMichael 2009) so significant?

A

Changed agriculture in the Global South away from subsistance (minimal risk)

changed to globalised food trade, prone to price fluctuations which made food unaffordable as prices went up

IT INTRODUCED NEW RISKS, ironically

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
42
Q

What is cash cropping?

A

By introducing taxes incentivises (FORCES!) people to sell something to pay cash sum of tax

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
43
Q

What is cash cropping a form of?

A

Primitive accumulation

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
44
Q

Does backwardness cause food insecurity?

A

No, colonial agricultural changes and changes to the world economy do (Watts 1984)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
45
Q

Besides increasing the exposure to price fluctuations, in what other ways does primitive accumulation increase risk?

A

During food regimes increases risk through monocropping to maximise productivity

An ECOLOGICAL form of risk too

  • consider bringing ecology into political ecology
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
46
Q

With the introduction of commodified capitalist agriculture, what changes occured?

A
  • More econ and ecological risk
  • MORAL ECONOMY -> POLITICAL ECONOMY#
  • You produce surplus value in all goods produced (not just surplus going to community - see Scott 1988)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
47
Q

When was the second food regime?

A

1950s-1970s

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
48
Q

What were the characteristics of the second food regime?

A
  • USA dominated, with domestic agro-indl revolution producing food surpluses
  • Overproduction = exported goods abroad
  • Cold war backdrop (prove capitalism works)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
49
Q

What is an interesting paper on the epidemeological consequences of land movement brought about by agricultural change during colonialism?

A

Packard 1984 (see 1B disease)

PE relatively little engagement with disease!

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
50
Q

How did modernist ideas affect movement?

A
  • Modernism about fixity
  • Modernising Tanzania = preventing nomadism (Scott 1998)
  • also developed villages had an aesthetic; looked pleasing, ordered. Organised ways of living (villagisation)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
51
Q

Why did the Green Rev fail in Africa?

A

Betting on the Strong
- Needed all inputs (fertilisers, investment, techniques) to work
- Also relied on standard environmental conditions (which vary across space)

More in Pol App

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
52
Q

Why did betting on the Strong cause unequal outcomes of the green rev in Africa?

A

Only the wealthiest farmers could afford the necessary fertilisers, crops and inputs (AND continually replenish them)

Those with more capital were at an advantage from the start

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
53
Q

Why did betting on the Strong cause unequal outcomes of the green rev in Africa?

A

Only the wealthiest farmers could afford the necessary fertilisers, crops and inputs (AND continually replenish them)

Those with more capital were at an advantage from the start

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
54
Q

Why was ecology important in the Green Rev failure?

A

Need seeds that are correct for environment

Good application of ANT

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
55
Q

What food regime was the Green Revolution part of?

A

Second (post-war) Green Rev?

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
56
Q

Was there a food regime in the 1970s (after the first ended)?

A

Not really
Sort of a transition phase, with globalised capital restructuring

OPEC oil crisis = debt in South

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
57
Q

Why did the oil crisis cause problems in the South?

A
  • Created debt as currency value depreciated
    and oil prices went up
  • The value of exports depreciated and imports appreciated value (a mis-match)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
58
Q

How did the SAPs aggravate changes during the oil crisis?

A

Removed trade barriers
- Currencies devalued
- Made exports more competitive but imports more expensive

Bernstein 1990

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
59
Q

Are we currently in a food regime?

A

Not sure

Currently an unstable phase; more corporatisation and uneven geographies (Cotula et al. 2009)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
60
Q

What are the epistemological differences between Political Ecology and Political Economy?

A

Pol Eco = Field studies, bottom up; uses Pol Econ

Pol Econ = More theoretical, macro-scale

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
61
Q

What is the significance of chains of explanation?

A

Social life is embedded within the political economy (Polanyi, 1944)

62
Q

What is significant about Blaikie and Brookfield’s (1987) Chains of expanation?

A

Chains are not unilateral; they are multidirectional

Nature, environments and people are CO-PRODUCED

Actually overlooked by Blaikie and Brookfield (1987)

63
Q

What is a good source for the multidimensionality of chains of explanation?

A

Robins 2004

Things that appear to be caused by individual agency are actually caused/ provoked by structures

64
Q

What is the problem with chains of explanation?

A

Pre-given containers of “state”, “households”, “communities” etc - does not problematise the terms

65
Q

How have the more messy realities of chains of explanation been reconceptualised?

A

Webs of relations (assemblage theory) - helps represent the messy realities of agricultural change

66
Q

What is a disadvantage of webs of relations?

A

Lacks a clearer methodology, especially compared to chains of explanation

67
Q

Is capialocentrism a bad thing?

A

Often seen as such, but perhaps it is indicative of something? (the dominance of capital)

68
Q

Find examples of webs of relations and citations

A

Find citations

69
Q

What is swidden cultivation?

A

aka slash and burn (pejorative)
- cut forest
- grow crops (3-5 yrs)
- allow nutrients to be absorbed
- allow forest to grow back (10-50 years)
- replenish nutrients

Restarts

70
Q

Who said Madargascar was “committing ecological suicide”?

A

Prince Philip in 1985 (See Norris, 2006)

71
Q

Have people in the west always been opposed to swidden agriculture?

A

No, Shantz 1924 recognised the logic of swidden cultural ecological relations

72
Q

Why is swidden considered bad?

A

Does not correspond with the natural order of sublime landscape representations (Cronon, 1996) - appears extremely altered

73
Q

Why does swidden reduce risks?

A
  • Helps create a natural surplus which is socialised amongst communities
  • Less risk relations with environment
  • no prerogative for profit
74
Q

Why is swidden ecologically beneficial?

A

A web of relations which has existed for millennia - helps maintain a metabolic loop, not a rift, as nutrients are able to replenish the soil

75
Q

What is a good case study for chains of relations historically?

A

Scales 2011 on Swidden agriculture in Madagascar
- external global trade and market forces have shaped agriculture and deforestation
- A temporal flux of capital
- Can help accrue wealth sometimes… not all about reducing risk
.
.
.
.
(Scales 2011)

76
Q

What do analyses of swidden agriculture in PE overlook?

A
  • Cultural aspects: spiritual value
  • Perspectives of preservation via destruction Kull (2000)
77
Q

How has swidden argiculture been used in resitances?

A

A “weapon of the weak” (Scott, 1986) to resist the criminalisation of swidden

State has turned a blind eye for regulation. State has been unpacked (Scott, 1988)

78
Q

What are the two emerging trends in agriculture in the G South?

A

1) Corporatisation (longer term)

2) Financialisation (esp since 2000s)

79
Q

What does the corporatisation of agriculture involve?

A

FDI sent in to increase agricultural productivity (Cotula et al 2009)

80
Q

What has the corporatisation of agriculture led to?

A

Monopolies - dominated by 4 private companies in South

81
Q

What have monopolies in agriculture resulted in?

A

Not just dominating the market, but controlling ALL stages of production

82
Q

What does the financialisation of agriculture involve?

A
  • Built on commodification, yet more anticipatory
  • Private finance markets
  • Making investments and aiming to make returns
  • creates contracts (and debt…)

(Epsitein 2005)

83
Q

Why does financialisation make money out of thin air?

A

Can go short (expect price to deprecate) or long (appreciate), and make returns off this through financial markets

LOOK INTO THIS

84
Q

What does the financialisation of agriculture entail for farmers/

A

Far more actors involved in determining the future of livelihoods (financiers are at the helm)

85
Q

Do financial markets increase or decrease risk?

A

Debated - look into this

86
Q

When was there a boom in publications concerning the political economy of biofuels?

What were the key publications?

A

2010
Including Borras et al 2010 (overview)

Dauvergne and Neville 2010 (uneven consequences)

Vermeulen et al 2010 (who decides/consultations)

87
Q

Why have biofules expanded?

A

Fears (justifiably) of fossil fuel scarcity

Desiring more geosecurity

(legitimised as a necessary change)

88
Q

What was the consequence of biofuel expansion?

A

2008 global food crisis
- Demand for biofuels ^, so less land for crops

Localised failure of Jatropha in Senegal (see Kant and Wu 2011) - speculative frontiers

89
Q

What is the trouble with referring to “marginal land”?

A

It provides and excuse to evict people

90
Q

What were the proximate drivers of the 2008 global food crisis?

A

Changes to supply (flooding, drought, land to biofuel use)

These narratives overlook the underlying drivers

91
Q

What is the food system ultimately dependent on?

A

Oil

92
Q

Why are food regimes significant?

A

It engineers dependency and markets (rigged - overstating??)

93
Q

Why can Gramscian neo-Marxist analyses be rewarding?

A

Provides information on how consent is engineered for environmental changes / politics

Find citations

94
Q

What is important when writing about food regime analyses?

A

Make sure it is grounded in examples (how/where)

Actually point towards this in answers

95
Q

What is an interesting publication on ANT in PE (in G North…)?

A

Paul Robins (2007) ‘Lawn People’

96
Q

What does jumping scale involve?

A

Moving beyond the local to the regional and global in resistances (Jones et al 2017; Smith, 1982)

Neil Smith theorised that scale is produced…

97
Q

What did Smith and Katz theorise regarding materialities?

A

Material relations in space are more significant than metaphorical (discursive) (Smith and Katz,1993)

98
Q

Who has been critical of giving too much primacy to peasants as an alternative to capitalist agriculture?

A

Bernstein 2014
- “Peasant way” good for analysis
- Not good as a seed for a new system

A good critique of hatchet and seed rubric

99
Q

Who has written about the problems of SAPs for agriculture in the G South?

What are two good points and one issue?

A

Bernstein 1990

Good points:
- Reproduction of capital (link to food regime change)
- Tried to make production predictable through standardisation (at detriment of small farmers)

Issue:
Essentialist views of African politics as disorderly

100
Q

Who studied the discursive framing of forests degradation in W Africa?

A

Fairhead and Leach 1995

101
Q

What is a narrative?

A

A story “of apparently incontrovertible logic which provide scripts and justifications for development action”

(Fairhead and Leach 1995)

102
Q

How does a narrative differ from discourse?

A
  • Discourse = a system of meaning among several people
  • Narrative = a specific story line; with heroes (dev agencies; Swift 1996) and villains
103
Q

What is the case study used by Fairhead and Leach’s (1995) seminal study?

A
  • Narratives about deforestation at Guinean forest margin zones in the Forest Islands of Kissidougou

Focussed on narratives created and propagated by colonial “social scientists”

104
Q

What was the predominant narrative about deforestation in the Forest Islands of Kissidougou?

A
  • Marginal returns
  • Poor land management by local smallholders
  • Overpopulated with migration

A narrative of “dysfunctionality”
(Fairhead and Leach 1995)

105
Q

Why are narratives about deforestation powerful?

A

They not only shape lay attitudes but also policy (technocratic solutions; e.g., Stebbing 1937)

(Fairhead and Leach 1995)

106
Q

What is the “counter-narrative” to prevailing narratives of deforestation in Kissidougou, Guinea?

A

Elders’ accounts suggest that forest cover has actually increased

Directly contradicts prevailing narrative

(Fairhead and Leach 1995)

107
Q

Why are narratives about environmental degradation particularly virulent?

A
  • They are morally legitimising
  • Frames those destroying forests etc as bad
  • “the imperative is to intervene”

(Fairhead and Leach 1995)

108
Q

What is a critique of Fairhead and Leach’s seminal study of deforestation in the Forest Islands of Kissidougou?

A

Focusses too much on narratives without their political and epistemological context (Foucault 1982)

What actions are acceptable and WHO DECIDES?

109
Q

Why are (and have) peasants been vilified?

A
  • Originally to justify their submission into the capitalist means of production / through improvement
  • Handy (2009) suggests more about ignorance nowadays
110
Q

Why were colonisers displeased with the happiness of peasants?

A

They were happy with limited materials (Handy 2009)

111
Q

When did backwardness narratives prevail?

A

From 19th century onwards, especially since Irish Great Famine (Handy 2009)

112
Q

Who saw peasants as a barrier to economic growth in the South?

A

WW Rostow (Handy 2009)

Peasants were a barrier to the “take-off stage”

113
Q

What was the trouble with Hardin’s (1968) tragedy of the commons regarding peasant livelihoods?

A

Acted as “proof” that peasants were destructive, despite being empirically flawed (not accounting for cooperation)

Handy 2009

114
Q

What two publications during the 1960s instigated neo-Malthusian ideas?

A
  1. The population bomb (Erlich 1968)
  2. The tragedy of the commons (Hardin 1968)
115
Q

Are peasants in narratives real peasants?

A

Not really, increasingly “imagined peasants” who have had their labour power commodified

(Handy 2009)

116
Q

Why is the perceived destruction of forest islands in Guinea aroused concern?

A

The islands are considered to be “an ideal nature” (Fairhead and Leach 1996)

Corresponds with Fairhead and Leach’s (1995) argument that narratives are morally legitimising

116
Q

Why is the perceived destruction of forest islands in Guinea aroused concern?

A

The islands are considered to be “an ideal nature” (Fairhead and Leach 1996)

Corresponds with Fairhead and Leach’s (1995) argument that narratives are morally legitimising

117
Q

Who has made an tentative link to Foucauldian discourse analysis in discussions of narratives of environmental change

A

Peet and Watts 1993 “hegemonic discourses” focus

118
Q

What was the aim of Collier and Dercon 2014?

A

To “transform these poor peasants into a non-poor population (Collier and Dercon 2014)

Neo-colonial language, little reflexivity, lots of ignorance

119
Q

How do Collier and Dercon (2014) perceive changes to agriculture in the G South over the next 45 years?

A

Needs modernisation and technology to solve the low yields of “poor peasants”

Good links to pol appetites

120
Q

What is a good paper proving Bolserup’s (1965) innovation hypothesis?

A

Tiffen and Mortimore 1994

(good awareness of regional idiosyncrasies)

121
Q

What do calls for a “New Green Revolution” highlight about the inertia of narratives?

A

Narratives continue, lessons are not learnt from the past, and narratives become policy

(cf. Moseley 2016_

122
Q

Can narratives for environmental change work in isolation?

A

No, the discourse is tied in place, allowing land to become investible (Le Billon and Sommerville 2017)

123
Q

What is land, according to Li (2014)?

A

Land is an assemblage of things that make it appear commodifiable and of many affordances

Li 2014

124
Q

Is there sort of a paradox of discourses?

A

Potentially - talking about discourses is itself a discourse

Means that critiques of discourses vilifying peasants are themselves a “populist discourse” (Adger et al 2001)

125
Q

Who has considered the role of discourse for making ‘truths’ (Foucauldian) in PE?

A

Scott and Sullivan 2000
- PE about “uncovering the power relationships supported by narratives”

  • Internalised privileging of certain ideas
126
Q

What distinguishes a Foucauldian study of discourse?

A

Foucault (1982) saw discourse as a “regime of knowledge”, producing truths, and not just a system of meaning

(Adger, et al 2001)

127
Q

Can narratives be refuted by simply proving them inaccurate?

A

No, false narratives can persist (Roe 1991)

128
Q

Who discusses the “received wisdom” of discourses on environmental change?

A

Leach and Mearns (1996) received wisdom

129
Q

What is Leach and Mearns’ (1996) main argument?

A

Colonial history is important for the continued use of narratives of backwardness

Leach and Mearns 1996

130
Q

What is a good way of summarising the persistence of narratives?

A

“the stickiness of ideas” (Swift 1996)

131
Q

How rapid did Stebbing (wrongly) estimate desertification to have advanced?

A

1km/year in sub-Saharan Africa (Stebbing 1937)

See Swift 1996)

132
Q

Who resurrected Stebbing’s (1937) ideas in the 1970s?

A

Lamprey 1975 at UN conference on desertification (UNCOD)

Swift 1996

133
Q

Why can the continuation of narratives not just be put down to ignorance?

A

They continue to be used despite widespread awareness of their failure (Swift 1996)

134
Q

Why do narratives surrounding smallholder agriculture continue to be used despite knowledge of their inaccuracies

A

If narratives “meet a need” (Swift 1996)

Poses two avenues:
- Marx hard: need to commodify peasants and expand the base of production (e.g., in Collier and Dercon 2011)

  • Foucault proper: Institutional bias and the expectations that powerfully reproduce certain truths and knowledges (Swift 1996 - doesn’t go all the way with Foucault, though)

Scott and Sullivan 2000 good for Foucault.

135
Q

In what ways are narratives perpetuated in the interests of power and knowledge?

A

Roe 1995; Swift 1996
- African gov wanting control (Roe 1991)
- Acceptance in intl community for trade privileges (need to commodify)
- Scientific knowledge needed to be proved as the truth

136
Q

In what ways does ignorance of smallholder agriculture continue today?

A

Swift (1996) suggests in aid bureaucracies

137
Q

Who has discussed the application of the tragedy of the commons as a narrative for agricultural development?

A

Roe 1991

A focus on Botswana

138
Q

What is a good neo-Marxist / Gramscian critique of narratives and control?

A

-Some locals in Botswana agree with the premise of Hardin’s tragedy of the commons
- The masses legitimising the hegemonic status quo

(evidenced in Roe 1991)

139
Q

What is one way of moving away from old narratives?

A

To create new ones (Roe 1991)

140
Q

What is a good quote by Marx supporting the Foucauldian disciplinary power of narratives?

A

“They cannot represent themselves. They must be represented” (Marx 1852)

  • Power of those behind narratives
  • In Said 1978
141
Q

What is important to consider with power in PE?

A

It is messy, with overlapping scales and geographies of power within and between N-S

142
Q

When adding case studies what is always important to do?

A
  • Introduce slowly, describe the point first
  • Always explain technical terms
143
Q

Are narratives of environmental change in the south always controversial?

A

Only to some (critical social scientists)

Otherwise just received wisdom

144
Q

What are the limits to counter-narratives?

A

“the difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping the old ones which ramify… into every corner of our minds”

(Keynes 1936) - need more than new ideas, but need to dispel the old ones because of the association between power and knowledge

145
Q

How can a Gramscian and Foucauldian critique of power be reconciled?

A

Gramsci = support by the majority supports hegemonic narratives

Foucault = power and knowledge are reinforcing

Hence legitimisation of people through different knowledge production; legitimising power

146
Q

Do narratives emerge in isolation?

A

No, they emerge in a specific social context (Adger et al 2001)

147
Q

What two theories reflect on pol econ at a global scale?

A
  • World systems theory (Wallerstein 2004)
  • Dependency theory
148
Q

How does Collier & Durcon 2009 differ to Gates 2008 vision for agriculture in the G south?

A

Collier & Durcon top - down, high modernist, large corporation led

Gates smallholder entrepreneur approach (low modernist)

149
Q

What caused the 2008 world food price crisis?

A

Rising cost of oil (which = rising food prices) and uneven financial speculation causing prices for some commodities to rise

Also SAPs reducing store of food (Bernstein 1990)

150
Q

Who has highlighted that agency exists at a variety of levels?

A

Patel 2007 (regional differences in food supply)

Herring 2007 (local agency of smallholders using Bt cotton in India)

151
Q

When addressing a question on scale what is important to remember?

A

That whilst various activities take place at specific scales, scale jumping occurs for representatives or those who link local scales to wider scales

(Watts & Scales 2015)

PEGS (5 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions