From survival to self‐governance: A comparison of two peasant autonomy struggles in Colombia's coffee and frontier regions

Considering the global restructuring affecting agrarian landscapes, we build on the concept of autonomy proposed by van der Ploeg and colleagues (but extended and critically complemented) to analyse how family farmers can build this autonomy to face rural capitalist tendencies and maintain their activities and identity. We offer insights from a case study in the Ecuadorian Andes, the BioVida organization that is linked to agroecological and social and solidarity economy movements. Our findings show that family farming autonomy is not being achieved homogeneously for the whole household but must be analysed through an intersectional approach. Furthermore, there are simultaneous processes to achieve different degrees of autonomy and (inter‐)dependency, which are co‐constitutive along gender and age lines and are conditioned by structural constraints. Therefore, for our case study area, agribusiness and family farming processes and spaces seem to operate co‐constitutively rather than antagonistically in practical terms. Agroecology‐based achievements so far act as a localized buffer against adversity rather than an emancipative territorial project of autonomy.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Family farmers' strategies to develop autonomy through agroecological and solidarity economy practices: The case of BioVida in the Ecuadorian Andes

Villalba-Eguiluz

Latorre

Jiménez

2023

“…The history of state absence in these regions has meant that by contrast with the Andean regions, peasant‐state relations have not been defined by corporatist ties. Rather, conflictive relations have been more conducive to strategies of political autonomy among campesinos (Sankey, 2021).…”

Section: Regional Agrarian Structures and Peasant Sectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

We, campesinos: The potentials and pitfalls of agrarian populism in Colombia's agrarian strike

Sankey

2022

Self Cite

This contribution aims to explore the potentials and pitfalls for the emergence of a popular agrarian movement capable of offering a progressive alternative to the far‐right. Taking the case of Colombia's national agrarian strike, the paper argues that food sovereignty can offer a mobilizing framework for a multiclass, antineoliberal agrarian coalition. However, the possibilities for building a counter‐hegemonic movement should be taken with more caution. An examination of the class differentiation between and within campesino movements reveals how the interests of certain groups may be prioritized over others. While agrarian populism may offer an important political strategy for building coalitions and framing demands, a closer class analysis points to limits to its transformative potential.

“…Sankey and van der Ploeg and Schneider discuss in their contributions the relationship between autonomy and market from different perspectives. Combining a Political Marxist approach to peasant autonomy with insights from Bernstein's approach to petty commodity production, Sankey (2022) shows how different histories, levels and types of market integration within Colombia lead to different exposure to the imperative of the market and responses to the crisis of small‐scale agriculture triggered by neoliberalism. Criticizing the idea of one single peasantry, she shows two different strategies.…”

Section: Overview Of the Contributions To This Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomy in agrarian studies, politics, and movements: An inter‐paradigm debate

Vergara-Camus¹,

Jansen

2022

Autonomy has been a term often used in agrarian studies to express the ability of individuals or collective subjects to escape the rule of capital or the control of the state. Academic interventions on autonomy in different fields and disciplines discuss how global capitalism operates and what kind of subjects, spaces, and practices can resist it and build alternatives to it. However, a closer look at the literature reveals contending notions of autonomy. This special issue therefore aims to stimulate theoretical debates on autonomy. This introduction provides an overview of the general problematic and major theoretical debates around which the discussion on autonomy has been taking place. This problematic is not specific to rural social subjects but involves the discussion within the Left about the need and possibility for radical social change. This article explores how ideas about autonomy are used by radical agrarian movements and critical agrarian studies scholars. It also presents the key issues covered by and the arguments of the different contributors to this special issue.