Komal Chauhan’s research while affiliated with Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and other places

Esta contribución examina los retos y oportunidades que enfrentan las y los académicos en estudios agrarios críticos basados en o provenientes del Sur Global. Nuestro argumento es que, a pesar de las limitaciones históricas y estructurales, en la coyuntura actual convergen diversas crisis estructurales y un renovado interés en la economía política agraria que ofrecen una oportunidad para impulsar una agenda de investigación diversa e incluyente. En ella tienen lugar las perspectivas críticas originadas desde el Sur Global, que suelen estar ausentes en la academia convencional dominada por el Norte Global. Proponemos hacer esto por medio de la creación y fortalecimiento de vínculos de solidaridad que contrarresten las injusticias dentro de la academia y otros espacios de generación de conocimiento y diseminación. Para desarrollar el argumento, primero, reflexionamos acerca de la multiplicidad de crisis en las áreas rurales, el carácter cambiante de las luchas sociales y las interrelaciones entre las crisis ambientales y la reemergencia de los estudios agrarios críticos, las cuales están transformando la cuestión agraria. Posteriormente, discutimos las implicaciones y condiciones de la agenda política impulsada por nuestro movimiento de activismo académico en estudios agrarios desde el Sur Global. Desde nuestra posición como integrantes de CASAS, proponemos tres mecanismos para fortalecer la solidaridad a través de redes de académicos/as-activistas: accesibilidad al conocimiento, organización cooperativa y coproducción del conocimiento.

This paper examines the challenges and opportunities faced by critical agrarian scholars in and from the Global South. We argue that despite the historical and structural limitations, the critical juncture of convergence of crises and renewed interest in agrarian political economies offers an opportunity for fostering a diverse research agenda that opens space for critical perspectives about, from and by the Global South, which is mostly absent in mainstream scholarship dominated by the Global North. We also propose doing so by enhancing solidarity to transform injustices within academia and other spaces of knowledge production and dissemination. To develop the argument, first, we reflect on the multiplicity of crises in rural areas and the changing character of social struggles, as well as the interlinkages between environmental crises and the re-emergence of critical agrarian studies that are reshaping the agrarian question. Then, we discuss the implications and conditions of the political agenda carried out by a scholar-activist movement working on agrarian studies from the Global South. Drawing on our experience as the Collective of Agrarian Scholar-Activists from the South (CASAS), we conclude by proposing three ways forward for enhancing solidarity through networks of scholar-activists: knowledge accessibility, cooperative organization, and co-production of knowledge.

This paper examines the challenges and opportunities faced by critical agrarian scholars in and from the Global South. We argue that despite the historical and structural limitations, the critical juncture of convergence of crises and renewed interest in agrarian political economies offers an opportunity for fostering a diverse research agenda that opens space for critical perspectives about, from and by the Global South, which is mostly absent in mainstream scholarship dominated by the Global North. We also propose doing so by enhancing solidarity to transform injustices within academia and other spaces of knowledge production and dissemination. To develop the argument, first, we reflect on the multiplicity of crises in rural areas and the changing character of social struggles, as well as the interlinkages between environmental crises and the re-emergence of critical agrarian studies that are reshaping the agrarian question. Then, we discuss the implications and conditions of the political agenda carried out by a scholar-activist movement working on agrarian studies from the Global South. Drawing on our experience as the Collective of Agrarian Scholar-Activists from the South (CASAS), we conclude by proposing three ways forward for enhancing solidarity through networks of scholar-activists: knowledge accessibility, cooperative organization, and co-production of knowledge.