Ambivalences of collective farming: Feminist political ecologies from the Eastern Gangetic Plains
Collective farming has been suggested as a potentially useful approach for reducing inequality and transforming peasant agriculture. In collectives, farmers pool land, labor, irrigation infrastructure, agricultural inputs and harvest to overcome resource constraints and to increase their bargaining...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | Inglés |
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Uopen Journals
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/106361 |
| _version_ | 1855533531774582784 |
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| author | Leder, Stephanie Sugden, F. Raut, Manita Ray, D. Saikia, P. |
| author_browse | Leder, Stephanie Raut, Manita Ray, D. Saikia, P. Sugden, F. |
| author_facet | Leder, Stephanie Sugden, F. Raut, Manita Ray, D. Saikia, P. |
| author_sort | Leder, Stephanie |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Collective farming has been suggested as a potentially useful approach for reducing inequality and transforming peasant agriculture. In collectives, farmers pool land, labor, irrigation infrastructure, agricultural inputs and harvest to overcome resource constraints and to increase their bargaining power. Employing a feminist political ecology lens, we reflect on the extent to which collective farming enables marginalized groups to engage in smallholder agriculture. We examine the establishment of 18 farmer collectives by an action research project in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, a region characterised by fragmented and small landholdings and a high rate of marginalised and landless farmers. We analyze ambivalances of collective farming practices with regard to (1) social relations across scales, (2) intersectionality and (3) emotional attachment. Our results in Saptari/ Eastern Terai in Nepal, Madhubani/Bihar, and Cooch Behar/West Bengal in India demonstrate how intra-household, group and community relations and emotional attachments to the family and neighbors mediate the redistribution of labor, land, produce and capital. We find that unequal gender relations, intersected by class, age, ethnicity and caste, are reproduced in collective action, land tenure and water management, and argue that a critical feminist perspective can support a more reflective and relational understanding of collective farming processes. Our analysis demonstrates that feminist political ecology can complement commons studies by providing meaningful insights on ambivalences around approaches such as collective farming. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace106361 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publishDateRange | 2019 |
| publishDateSort | 2019 |
| publisher | Uopen Journals |
| publisherStr | Uopen Journals |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1063612024-11-19T09:59:18Z Ambivalences of collective farming: Feminist political ecologies from the Eastern Gangetic Plains Leder, Stephanie Sugden, F. Raut, Manita Ray, D. Saikia, P. collective farming collective action resource management gender relations women political ecology tenant farmers land fragmentation land management commons water management dry season social aspects labour case studies villages Collective farming has been suggested as a potentially useful approach for reducing inequality and transforming peasant agriculture. In collectives, farmers pool land, labor, irrigation infrastructure, agricultural inputs and harvest to overcome resource constraints and to increase their bargaining power. Employing a feminist political ecology lens, we reflect on the extent to which collective farming enables marginalized groups to engage in smallholder agriculture. We examine the establishment of 18 farmer collectives by an action research project in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, a region characterised by fragmented and small landholdings and a high rate of marginalised and landless farmers. We analyze ambivalances of collective farming practices with regard to (1) social relations across scales, (2) intersectionality and (3) emotional attachment. Our results in Saptari/ Eastern Terai in Nepal, Madhubani/Bihar, and Cooch Behar/West Bengal in India demonstrate how intra-household, group and community relations and emotional attachments to the family and neighbors mediate the redistribution of labor, land, produce and capital. We find that unequal gender relations, intersected by class, age, ethnicity and caste, are reproduced in collective action, land tenure and water management, and argue that a critical feminist perspective can support a more reflective and relational understanding of collective farming processes. Our analysis demonstrates that feminist political ecology can complement commons studies by providing meaningful insights on ambivalences around approaches such as collective farming. 2019-05-08 2020-01-03T09:22:38Z 2020-01-03T09:22:38Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/106361 en Open Access Uopen Journals Leder, S.; Sugden, F.; Raut, Manita; Ray, D.; Saikia, P. 2019. Ambivalences of collective farming: Feminist political ecologies from the Eastern Gangetic Plains. International Journal of the Commons, 13(1):105-129. doi: 10.18352/ijc.917 |
| spellingShingle | collective farming collective action resource management gender relations women political ecology tenant farmers land fragmentation land management commons water management dry season social aspects labour case studies villages Leder, Stephanie Sugden, F. Raut, Manita Ray, D. Saikia, P. Ambivalences of collective farming: Feminist political ecologies from the Eastern Gangetic Plains |
| title | Ambivalences of collective farming: Feminist political ecologies from the Eastern Gangetic Plains |
| title_full | Ambivalences of collective farming: Feminist political ecologies from the Eastern Gangetic Plains |
| title_fullStr | Ambivalences of collective farming: Feminist political ecologies from the Eastern Gangetic Plains |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ambivalences of collective farming: Feminist political ecologies from the Eastern Gangetic Plains |
| title_short | Ambivalences of collective farming: Feminist political ecologies from the Eastern Gangetic Plains |
| title_sort | ambivalences of collective farming feminist political ecologies from the eastern gangetic plains |
| topic | collective farming collective action resource management gender relations women political ecology tenant farmers land fragmentation land management commons water management dry season social aspects labour case studies villages |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/106361 |
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