Peasant Politics of the Twenty-First Century - (Cornell Land: New Perspectives on Territory, Development, and Environment) by Marc Edelman

About the Book

"Peasant Politics of the Twenty-First Century analyzes the emergence and consolidation of dynamic transnational agrarian social movements that seek to remake rural society and the world's food and agriculture systems."--

Book Synopsis

Peasant Politics of the Twenty-First Century illuminates the transnational agrarian movements that are remaking rural society and the world's food and agriculture systems. Marc Edelman explains how peasant movements are staking their claims from farmers' fields to massive protests around the world, shaping heated debates over peasants' rights and the very category of "peasant" within the agrarian organizations and in the United Nations.

Edelman chronicles the rise of these movements, their objectives, and their alliances with environmental, human rights, women's, and food justice groups. The book scrutinizes high-profile activists and the forgotten genealogies and policy implications of foundational analytical frameworks like "moral economy," and concepts, such as "food sovereignty" and "civil society."

Peasant Politics of the Twenty-First Century charts the struggle of agrarian movements in the face of land grabbing, counter agrarian reform, and a looming climate catastrophe, and celebrates engaged research from Central America to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

About the Author

Marc Edelman is Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the author of Peasants Against Globalization.