The immaculate conception of data: Agribusiness, activists, and their shared politics of the future. By KellyBronson, Québec: McGill‐Queen's University Press. 2022. pp. 224. C$ 37.95 (pbk)/C$ 130 (hbk). ISBN: 9780228011224 (pbk)/ISBN: 9780228011217 (hbk)

Abstract

If such work migration was blocked, we would soon have a tidal wave of desperate footloose populations on the move.Toulmin brushes up against two literatures in her book without confronting them directly. On the one hand, the policy debate pours all the world's misfortunes into the same cauldron of a witches' brew of Shakespearian proportions: climate, terror, demography, migration, poverty, corruption and violence. Eye of newt, and toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog. Without dismissing any of this, Toulmin takes a longer view, a citizen's view, and pulls together a narrative of ordinary people in extraordinary situations. The book also speaks to political ecology. Toulmin combines quantitative data to give a sense of proportion, with descriptive profiles of men and women to understand their different rationalities, their choices and their perception of opportunity and danger. This fastidious structure and agency perspective is a wholesome contribution to political ecology research and a welcome kick in the shins to those who obsess with fast turnover in academic publishing.Land, Investment and Migration enters the shelves of Tania Li′s The End of the Land and Jacobo Grajales' Agrarian Capitalism, War and Peace in Colombia. It seems to me that books like this have become few and far between. But without a close inspection of the bio-physical resources, and the organization of production and reproduction, it becomes all too easy to create stereotypical avatars of political ecology heroes or faceless inevitable losers. Camilla Toulmin's voice is vibrant and engaged. While scientific, the timbre betrays a deep solidarity with the inhabitants of Dlonguébougou and the wider Sahel. Still, while the subject matter is filtered through her sincere commitment to the plight of the village population, the text stops short of being sentimental, or carelessly optimistic.