Global Land Grabbing and the Neo-Extractivism: A Post-Socialist Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47152/ziksi2023032Keywords:
neo-extractivism, land grabbing, accumulation of capital, post-socialism, European Union, SerbiaAbstract
The paper analytically connects neo-extractivism, as the current development phase of capitalism, with the phenomenon of land grabbing, which refers to the importance of direct foreign investments in less developed countries aimed at acquiring land for the exploitation of ores and minerals, production of biofuel and food. Firstly, some relevant critical interpretations of land grabbing and neo-extractivism are presented, as well as the question of whether the observed territorialization of the resistance to the neo-extractivism increases mobilization potential or populist divisions in related social movements. Secondly, attention is drawn to the exposure of European post-socialist countries to these processes, including the experience of Serbia, and emphasizes that it is still a relatively neglected research topic in sociology.
References
Aistara, G. A. (2009). Maps from space: Latvian organic farmers negotiate their place in the European Union. Sociologia Ruralis, 49(2), 132–150. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9523.2009.00485.x
Antonowicz-Cyglicka, A. (2021). Europe’s green and digital decade could be a raw deal for people and the environment in Serbia.
Araghi, F. (2009). The invisible hand and the visible foot: Peasants, dispossession and globalization. In A. H. Akram-Lodhi & C. Kay (Eds.), Peasants and globalization: Political economy, rural transformation and the agrarian question (pp. 111–147). Routledge.
Austin, K. (2010). The “hamburger connection” as ecologically unequal exchange: A cross-national investigation of beef exports and deforestation in less-developed countries. Rural Sociology, 75(2), 270–299. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1549-0831.2010.00017.x
Bilewicz, A. M. (2020). Beyond the modernisation paradigm: Elements of a food sovereignty discourse in farmer protest movements and alternative food networks in Poland. Sociologia Ruralis, 60(4), 754–772. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12295
Borras, S. M., Jr. (2019). Agrarian social movements: The absurdly difficult but not impossible agenda of defeating right-wing populism and exploring a socialist future. Journal of Agrarian Change, 20(1), 3–36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12311
Borras, S. M., Jr., & Dove, F. (2004). La Via Campesina: An evolving transnational social movement. Transnational Institute.
Borras, S. M., Jr., Edelman, M., & Kay, C. (2008). Transnational agrarian movements: Origins and politics, campaigns and impact. Journal of Agrarian Change, 8(2–3), 169–204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0366.2008.00167.x
Borras, S. M., Jr., & Franco, J. (2013). Global land grabbing and political reactions “from below.” Third World Quarterly, 34(9), 1723–1747. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2013.843845
Borras, S. M., Jr., Franco, J. C., Gomez, S., Kay, C., & Spoor, M. (2012). Land grabbing in Latin America and the Caribbean. Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(3–4), 845–872. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2012.679931
Borras, S. M., Jr., Franco, J. C., & Suárez, S. M. (2015). Land and food sovereignty. Third World Quarterly, 36(3), 600–617. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2015.1029225
Borras, S. M., Jr., Franco, J., & van der Ploeg, J. D. (2013a). Introduction: The report and its highlights. In J. Franco & S. M. Borras Jr. (Eds.), Land concentration, land grabbing and people's struggles in Europe (pp. 6–28). Transnational Institute.
Borras, S. M., Jr., Franco, J. C., & Wang, C. (2013b). The challenge of global governance of land grabbing: Changing international agricultural context and competing political views and strategies. Globalizations, 10(1), 161–179. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2013.764152
Bunkus, R., & Theesfeld, I. (2018). Land grabbing in Europe? Socio-cultural externalities of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA) in East Germany. Land, 7(3), 98. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/land7030098
Ciccantell, P. S., & Smith, D. A. (2005). Nature, raw materials, and political economy: An introduction. In P. S. Ciccantell, D. A. Smith, & D. Seidman (Eds.), Research in rural sociology and development (pp. 1–20). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1057-1922(05)10001-8
Constantina, C., Luminița, C., & Vasile, A. J. (2017). Land grabbing: A review of extent and possible consequences in Romania. Land Use Policy, 62, 143–150. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.01.001
Cotula, F. (2013). The new enclosures? Polanyi, international investment law and the global land rush. Third World Quarterly, 34(9), 1605–1629. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2013.843847
Fairhead, J., Leach, M., & Scoones, I. (2012). Green grabbing: A new appropriation of nature? The Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(2), 237–261. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2012.671770
Franco, J., Mehta, L., & Veldwisch, G. J. (2013). The global politics of water grabbing. Third World Quarterly, 34(9), 1651–1675. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2013.843852
Geisler, C., & Makki, F. (2014). People, power, and land: New enclosures on a global scale. Rural Sociology, 79(1), 28–33. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12030
Gorlach, K., Loštak, M., & Mooney, P. (2008). Agriculture, communities, and new social movements: East European ruralities in the process of restructuring. Journal of Rural Studies, 24(2), 161–171. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2007.12.003
Gorton, M., Lowe, P., & Zellei, A. (2005). Pre-accession Europeanisation: The strategic realignment of the environmental policy systems of Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia towards agricultural pollution in preparation for EU membership. Sociologia Ruralis, 45(3), 202–223. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9523.2005.00301.x
Hall, D. (2013). Primitive accumulation, accumulation by dispossession and the global land grab. Third World Quarterly, 34(9), 1582–1604. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2013.843854
Harvey, D. (2003). The new imperialism. Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199264315.001.0001
Harvey, D. (2004). The “new” imperialism: Accumulation by dispossession. Socialist Register, 40, 63–87.
Harvey, D. (2010). The enigma of capital: And the crises of capitalism. Oxford University Press.
Ince, O. (2014). Primitive accumulation, new enclosures, and global land grabs: A theoretical intervention. Rural Sociology, 79(1), 104–131. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12025
Jehlička, P., Grivinš, M., Visser, O., & Balazs, B. (2020). Thinking food like an East European: A critical reflection on the framing of food systems. Journal of Rural Studies, 76, 286–295. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.04.015
Kelly, A. B. (2011). Conservation practice as primitive accumulation. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 38(4), 683–701. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2011.607695
Kušić, K., & Lazić, S. (2022). Land on the move: Inequality and consolidation of agricultural land in Serbia. LeftEast.
Kušić, K. (2020). Land and human-soil relations in Southeast Europe. Connections: A Journal for Historians and Area Specialists.
Lubarda, B. (2020). “Homeland farming” or “rural emancipation”? The discursive overlap between populist and green parties in Hungary. Sociologia Ruralis, 60(4), 810–832. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12289
Mamonova, N. (2018). Patriotism and food sovereignty: Changes in the social imaginary of small-scale farming in post-Euromaidan Ukraine. Sociologia Ruralis, 58(1), 190–212. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12188
Mamonova, N., & Franquesa, F. (2020). Populism, neoliberalism and agrarian movements in Europe: Understanding rural support for right-wing politics and looking for progressive solutions. Sociologia Ruralis, 60(4), 710–731. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12291
Mandacı, N., & Tutan, M. U. (2018). Global land grab and the Balkans: Continuity and changes in a unique historical context. Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 20(3), 230–250. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2018.1379754
Martinez-Alier, J. (2003). The environmentalism of the poor: A study of ecological conflicts and valuation. Edward Elgar Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781843765486
Martinez-Alier, J., Temper, L., Del Bene, D., & Scheidel, A. (2016). Is there a global environmental justice movement? The Journal of Peasant Studies, 43(3), 731–755. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1141198
Mazzo, A. F., & García, J. S. (2020). Deciphering the phenomenon of land grabbing within the framework of the European Union: Legal-political responses and impact of biofuels production. Revista Jurídica, 19(2), 142–160. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25054/16576799.2379
McMichael, P. (2014a). Historicizing food sovereignty. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 41(2), 933–957. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2013.876999
McMichael, P. (2014b). Rethinking land grab ontology. Rural Sociology, 79(1), 34–55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12021
Moore, J. W. (2011). Transcending the metabolic rift: A theory of crises in the capitalist world-ecology. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 38(1), 1–46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2010.538579
Nedeljković, M. (2021). Sociološka analiza karakteristika društvenog sloja novih veleposednika. Agroekonomika, 50(90), 41–53.
Oliveira, G., McKay, B., & Liu, J. (2021). Beyond land grabs: New insights on land struggles and global agrarian change. Globalizations, 18(3), 321–338. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2020.1843842
Oya, C. (2013). Methodological reflections on “land grab” databases and the “land grab” literature “rush.” Journal of Peasant Studies, 40(3), 503–520. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2013.799465
Petrović, M., & Pešić, J. (2023). Potentials and obstacles for the transnationalisation of recent environmental struggles in Serbia. Sociologija i prostor, 61(2 [227]), 397–422.
Piletić, A. (2023). Renewable energy and EU-led authoritarian neoliberalization: Small hydropower in Rakita, Serbia and the upscaling of environmental struggles. Globalizations, 1–16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2023.2167985
Swain, N. (2013). Agriculture “East of the Elbe” and the Common Agricultural Policy. Sociologia Ruralis, 53(3), 369–389. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12016
Swain, N. (2016). Eastern European rurality in a neo-liberal, European Union world. Sociologia Ruralis, 56(4), 575–596. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12131
Šljukić, S. (2006). Agriculture and the changes of the social structure: The case of Serbia. Sociologija, 46(2), 137–148. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2298/SOC0602137S
Tarrow, S. (2005). The new transnational activism. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791055
Veltmeyer, H., & Petras, J. (2014). The new extractivism: A post-neoliberal development model or imperialism of the twenty-first century? Zed Books.
Veltmeyer, H. (2018). Resistance, class struggle and social movements in Latin America: Contemporary dynamics. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 46(6), 1264–1285. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2018.1493458
Vorbrugg, A. (2022). Ethnographies of slow violence: Epistemological alliances in fieldwork and narrating ruins. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 40(2), 447–462. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654419881660
Woods, M. (2008). Social movements and rural politics. Journal of Rural Studies, 24(2), 129–137. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2007.11.004
Yang, B., & He, J. (2021). Global land grabbing: A critical review of case studies across the world. Land, 10(3), 324. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/land10030324
Ye, J., van der Ploeg, J. D., Schneider, S., & Shanin, T. (2020). The incursions of extractivism: Moving from dispersed places to global capitalism. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 47(1), 155–183. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2018.1559834
Zoomers, A. (2010). Globalisation and the foreignisation of space: Seven processes driving the current global land grab. Journal of Peasant Studies, 37(2), 429–447. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066151003595325
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright over their published works and grant the publisher a non-exclusive right to publish the article, to be identified as its first publisher in cases of reuse, and to distribute it in all forms and media. The articles will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution International (CC BY 4.0) license, unless otherwise stated.
