This thesis is concerned with social policy during structural transformation, focusing on the case of Ethiopia. The thesis takes a realist, case-based approach to the study of social policy, which recognises that political actors construct the domain of 'social' policy within legitimising discourses in specific national-historical contexts. Social policy is a key aspect of state-society relations and an inherently political field of study. Consequently, the study integrates analysis of cleavages in domestic society along class and ethnic lines, the role of state organisations and international influences, and their impact on the social policy pronouncements by senior government officials and implementation of those policies on the ground. In the Ethiopian case, this approach highlights the centrality of land to social policy and state• society relations. In particular, state land ownership is a key part of the government's development strategy that aims to combine egalitarian agricultural growth with security for smallholders. Nevertheless, the failure to expand the use of productivity-enhancing agricultural inputs, which constitute key complements to the use of land for social objectives, has led to differentiation in social policy provision along class, gender, age and ethnic lines. Micro-level case studies link the land question to food security, including the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), and processes of agricultural commercialisation, notably the so-called 'global land grab'. A main argument of the thesis is that the Ethiopian government is attempting to manage social processes in order to minimise the social and political upheaval involved in structural transformation, and that social pol icy is a central means by which it does so. The development strategy requires social policies that enable the government to control the allocation of factors of production, necessitating restrictions on the rights of individuals and groups. As such, this strategy is intricately intertwined with political authority.

This thesis contains five chapters dealing with different aspects of the social relations of aquaculture development in South and Southeast Asia. This analysis is presented with reference to a series of qualitative empirical studies conducted in Vietnam, Bangladesh and Thailand, and challenges conventional narratives relating to the causes, effects and significance of different forms of aquaculture development. Chapter 1 compares the impacts associated with projects intended to promote pro-poor forms of fish culture with the impacts of commercial forms of aquaculture originating in the private sector, and examines complementarities between the two forms of development. It finds that the latter form of aquaculture development, which it terms ‘immanent’, has generally resulted in far more significant economic impacts that the former, which it terms ‘interventionist’. Impacts occur particularly through the creation of employment in associated value chains, although some caution must be exercised in equating these effects with reductions in poverty. The conditions under which immanent aquaculture development is able to take place are elaborated. Chapter 2 provides a critical evaluation of the private sector development (PSD) discourse adopted under the post-Washington consensus. This is achieved with reference to a detailed comparative study of the establishment of hatcheries for mono-sex tilapia in Thailand and Pangasius catfish in Vietnam. This exercise shows the transfer of technical knowledge from public institutions to actors in the private sector to have been largely informal in both cases. The subsequent establishment of hatchery enterprises has also been shaped by culturally specific patterns of economic behaviour that go unrecognised by champions of PSD. The chapter cautions against taking the existence of causal links between increased economic activity and reductions in poverty for granted. Chapter 3 examines patterns of development associated with the extraordinary expansion of the Pangasius catfish industry in Vietnam. It concludes that the ability of catfish producers to access a range of key production factors including land and credit has been mediated by relationships between individuals and the state and its associated institutions, as has access to some markets and services. As a result, the integration of producers into global markets has tended to reinforce existing class relations rather than radically transforming the rural class structure. Chapter 4 evaluates the likely outcomes of governance by third party certification for Pangasius producers in Vietnam and Bangladesh. Widespread insistence on compliance with emerging standards by Northern retailers will have little impact on Bangladeshi producers at present given their domestic orientation, but will probably involve severe consequences for smaller Vietnamese producers who will struggle to comply due to their unfavourable organisation of production and lack of integration. Although Pangasius production in Bangladesh appears more ecologically sustainable than its Vietnamese counterpart, the manner in which standards are formulated means that these advantages are unlikely to be recognised or rewarded. It is also concluded that standards will have limited impact on the industry’s environmental performance in Vietnam. With reference to the literature on agricultural growth and two case studies of aquaculture in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, Chapter 5 argues that commercially oriented quasi-capitalist forms of aquaculture have far greater capacity to alleviate poverty and enhance food security at the national level than the quasi-peasant forms traditionally promoted by development projects. The majority of poverty impact associated with aquaculture is demonstrated to derive from employment in associated value chains and service provision, with likely horizontal benefits also created in the rural non-farm economy via consumption linkages. By contrast, forms of aquaculture traditionally considered ‘small-scale’ and ‘pro-poor’ are shown to be beyond the reach of the majority of the rural poor, and to yield limited positive social externalities, although their role in countering the seasonal financial pressures associated with irrigated rice cultivation is shown to be significant. The conclusion of the thesis summarises key findings presented in preceding chapters, elaborates appropriate methodologies to guide future research on aquaculture development, and sets out a research and policy agenda which identifies work in a number of key areas as priorities for further attention.

The rapid expansion of oil palm plantations throughout Indonesia has resulted in a range of environmental and social consequences, including dispossessing rural people of their land. But these people are not accepting the infringements passively. As oil palm plantations have expanded and spread, so have instances of oil palm-related protest and resistance. In almost all accounts of oil palm, however, women and gender relations are overlooked. This thesis examines the role of women and gender relations in oil palm expansion and resistance in Indonesia today. Using a combination of secondary literature (specifically, the fields of agrarian political economy, feminist political ecology and contentious politics) and primary data, this thesis provides both a new case study and a new way - through the lens of gender - of understanding oil palm expansion and resistance in Indonesia. At the heart of this research study are the voices, opinions and experiences of 42 women who participated in one protest against dispossession in Sambas district, Indonesia. Emphasizing the role of these women in their households, communities and in this protest, as well as the gender relations that shape and are shaped by the women’s participation at all of these levels, this study offers new analysis of who is impacted by oil palm expansion, who resists it and in what ways. The Sambas case study demonstrates how gender relations shape all stages and facets of a protest, from womenʼs decisions to participate in protest (by informing their motivations and political opportunities) to womenʼs protest activities and how women experience protest outcomes. It also reveals how at all stages of mobilization, gender relations are not fixed. Rather, gender relations themselves may also be shaped by and through womenʼs participation in protest. This study has far-reaching implications not only for the future of oil palm expansion and resistance, but on women’s participation in protest, in politics in general and on gender relations.

Empirical forest transition (shift from deforestation to reforestation) literature has historically struggled to establish a single universally-accepted forest transition “theory” due to various knowledge gaps hindering any efforts to do so. One such gap is the fact that very few studies have focused on how and why smallholder farmers respond to commonly accepted forest transition drivers, as well as how these responses impact forest cover and agricultural trends. Also, there remain many parts of the world where forest cover evolution has been insufficiently researched, as is the case of Mae Chaem district (Chiang Mai province, Thailand). Even though there are studies which claim forest loss occurred in the district between the 1990s and mid-2000s, there are few available records of forest cover evolution since then. To address these research needs, this thesis used secondary literature and spatial data, as well as semi-structured interviews and personal observations gathered during fieldwork in Mae Chaem district. It was first determined that forest cover in the district decreased between the 1990s and mid-2010s due to agricultural expansion. However, it appears that forest cover is expected to increase from 2016 to 2021 due to more strictly-enforced conservation measures set in motion by the Mae Chaem Model (a state-sponsored sustainable development model). These findings first suggest that the district might be currently in the early stages of a forest transition, its drivers being shifting forest policies and economic factors. Second, interviewed farmers resisted forest policies to optimize their crop productions before 2016, before beginning to develop more acceptant responses in early 2016 due to pressure from pro-conservation discourses and cognitive shifts regarding the value of protecting forest at the expense of agriculture. Also, farmers adopted ambiguous responses (motivated by their economic rationality) to pressure stemming from various economic factors, both prior and since 2016. With both environmental and socioeconomic issues deriving from these responses, the outputs from this study will hopefully help supplement existing forest transition studies on local populations responses to drivers of forest change. It is also expected to provide up-to-date information on existing and anticipated impacts of recent state development efforts, such as those deriving from the establishment of the Mae Chaem Model.

This thesis analyses the scope for the “self-help” model of rural development to succeed in its broadly stated aims of enabling rural women to advance their social status and enhance their own and/or their family’s livelihoods. The thesis is organised around two key sites of investigation. The first questions the potential for “self-help” to operate within existing social relations - expressed in access to land, other assets and resources (including credit), and in different forms, conditions, and relations of labour. The second questions its potential to intervene in, and potentially overturn, these relations. These questions are embedded in a wider analysis of the ways in which individual and collective attempts to advance living conditions (or at least defend them from deterioration) are defined by historically (re)produced social relations. Analysis is centred on the South Indian State of Andhra Pradesh, where the “self-help” policy approach, now widely replicated as a model for central and federal interventions, is most established. This is a mixed-methods study. It draws on statistical analysis of large-scale secondary survey data, analysis of primary fieldwork, and of government policy documents and other relevant documentation. The thesis engages directly with the philosophical issues this raises, to develop a foundation for the logically consistent assimilation of statistical and “qualitative” methods into mixed methods research. Fieldwork centred on two villages in southern Chittoor district and relied primarily on repeated in-depth interviews with members of four self help groups and, where applicable, their husbands (30 respondents in total). Local officials and programme staff and bank managers were also interviewed. In addition, multi-level logit regression analysis was conducted with two large-scale, complex secondary data sets; the All India National Survey Sample (round 61; schedule 10; 2004/05) and the Young Lives Project Survey (round two; 2005/2006). An innovative weighting procedure was applied to adjust for the latter’s non-random sampling procedure.The findings demonstrate the tensions invoked by state policy emphasising agential action in the absence of due regard for the structural relations within which actions not only take place, but in which the conditions for their possibility and articulation are generated, institutionalised, and reproduced. This situation is exacerbated by unfolding ecological crisis in the fieldwork village sites, problematising the land-based solutions traditionally advocated by the Indian Left. The thesis concludes that Andhra’s self-help programmes can perform a non-trivial ameliorative role in the short-term, but this is undermined by a wider tendency to reproduce and potentially exacerbate ongoing processes of rural differentiation.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / In recent years, donors, policy makers, and non-governmental organisations working on land and agricultural issues have latched onto the catch phrase ‘inclusive business models’ as an alternative to large-scale land acquisitions. Development actors promote these inclusive models, such as contract farming or outgrowing schemes, to mitigate the often significant and adverse impacts of land grabs on rural people while still supporting foreign direct investments, particularly in agriculture in developing countries. The need to increase investments in agriculture in developing countries is clear, however, it is important to assess how such investments are implemented and who benefits from them and who loses.

As part of a USAID-funded integrated pest management (IPM) project, this thesis presents research conducted across four communities in midwestern Nepal We conducted semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and participant observation with local farmers and NGOs. Grounded in feminist political ecology (FPE) and drawing on the social relations approach (SRA), we sought to engage with the feminization of agriculture narrative and understand how it interacts with IPM practices and decision-making. This research responds to a growing interest within development in the feminization of agriculture as a potentially empowering or disempowering global process of change, conceptualized through the ways that male out-migration affects the labor and decision-making roles of women and other household members left behind on the farm. We find that contextual factors change the implications of the feminization of agriculture narrative. Co-residence with in-laws and varied migration patterns influence the dynamic nature of household structure and headship. Migration patterns have pushed women to take on new agricultural duties and manage increasing household labor responsibilities. Additionally, IPM vegetable cultivation is changing how farmers use and value their land through increasing crop diversification. Agricultural decision-making processes related to these different forces extend beyond the household, and participation in community spaces through the IPM project may contest traditional gender norms. We contend that the heterogeneity of household power dynamics muddies the potentially empowering or disempowering effects of the feminization of agriculture, and we emphasize the importance of community spaces as a locus of decision-making in the sustainability of new agricultural technologies. / M. S. / This research aims to understand how gender affects and is affected by new agricultural practices in rural Nepal. Several changes are occurring across Nepal; these changes include men migrating for work at increasing rates, as well as farmers growing different crops in new ways. This study is specifically concerned with integrated pest management (IPM) practices, whereby farmers manage pests on their farm while minimizing the use of chemical pesticides. These IPM practices are developed through partnerships between university scientists and in-country organizations under the USAID-funded Feed the Future IPM Innovation Lab. As men look for work outside of their home communities and agricultural production diversifies, gender norms and expectations of migrant-sending communities influence how both men and women farmers participate in learning and practicing IPM across different seasons. Through interviews, focus group discussions, and participant observation, we contend that women in migrant-sending communities are taking on new labor roles on the farm, depending on if they reside with their mother-in-law and father-in-law. Furthermore, decisions about agricultural production and IPM are made within farmer cooperative meetings and social spaces between men and women members, contesting traditional gender norms that previously limited interactions between men and women in public gatherings. These findings help support the sustainability of projects within the IPM Innovation Lab, as well as highlight the importance of community, social spaces as places of decision-making and changing gender norms beyond the household. We emphasize the need to carefully assess social and cultural implications of development interventions within the geographic context and incorporate this specificity into project and research design.

In just over a decade, soybean production in Uruguay emerged from almost non-existence to second most important export product. The extraordinary rapid soybean expansion is often referred to as representing changes that go far beyond the mere substitution of one agrarian activity for another, but evolved into a broad societal concern. Accordingly, the soybean expansion has not only been debated in national media, but among NGO’s, firms, scholars, farmers, political parties as well as within broad sectors of the state apparatus. Although the views expressed are allegedly about the soybean expansion, they are found to reflect much deeper values and assumptions about what is good, appropriate and desirable. All this ultimately represents discordant alternative visions and paths of development. This dissertation outlines and analyzes the dynamics of different, complementary and competing views on the soybean expansion in Uruguay between 2002 and 2013. These have in turn been related to wider debates about “development” of longer historical roots within the social sciences. Rather than exclusively relying on the mediatized accounts expressed in the public debate, often posed in a rather superficial and antagonistic way in accordance to some media logic, this study has made intensive use of in-depth interviews. This has allowed for deeper, more complex and nuanced accounts, as well as made possible to include voices that were only indirectly “represented” in the public debate. The main agreements and disagreements expressed in relation to the soybean expansion have been outlined, described, situated and explored. While constant contingency and unfixity are acknowledged, three main broader competing world-views, or discourses, have also been identified. These are discerned through the analysis of patterns of regularities in the articulations about the soybean expansion. The first is labelled “agro-ecology discourse”, reflecting anti-capitalist notions and centered in values of local autonomy and justice. The other is labelled “pro-market discourse”, reflecting market faith and centered in values of growth, dynamism and meritocracy. The third is labelled “pro-public regulation discourse”, reflecting beliefs in development intervention and centered in values of progress and upgrading. / FORMAS - 2006-2246 "The soybean chain in contemporary agro-food globalization: challenges for a sustainable agro-food system"

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Dynamics of Social Reproduction and Differentiation among Small-Scale Sugarcane Farmers in Two Rural Wards of KwaZulu-Natal A. Dubb M.Phil thesis, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape. Outgrower or contract-farming schemes have long been considered an important „pro-poor‟ method of incorporating small-scale farmers into agro-commodity chains, oft defined by their capital intensity and consequent high barriers of entry. Nonetheless, critics have observed that such schemes often operate under highly imbalanced relations of power between farmers and processors, generate substantial inequality, and negatively impact on household food security. In the province of KwaZulu-Natal, home to much of South Africa‟s sugar industry, the number of small-scale sugarcane outgrowers increased rapidly from near nothing in the late 1960s to around 50,000 in the early 2000s; an increase born out of industry-subsidized miller initiatives, disguised as micro-credit, to bring commercially inalienable Bantustan land under cane production. However, in the past decade small-scale sugarcane growers have faced a precipitous decline following the restructuring of the sugar industry in the 1990s and the onset of drought in the 2000s. This study seeks to trace the origins and shifting structural foundations of small-scale sugarcane production and investigate its impacts on dynamics of social reproduction and accumulation in two rural wards of the Umfolozi region, in the wake of the sale of the central mill by the multinational corporation Illovo to a consortium of largescale white sugarcane growers. Utilizing survey data from 74 small-scale grower homesteads and life-history interviews, it is argued that regulatory restructuring resulted in deteriorating terms of exchange and the retraction of miller oversight in production, cane-haulage and ploughing operations, hence devolved to commercially unstable local contractors. Growers have subsequently struggled to compensate for consequent capital inefficiencies through intensified exploitation, largely due to the successful impact of social grants in mitigating the desperation of family and hired labour, and further face considerable barriers to expansion in land. While proceeds from sugarcane continue to represent an additional source of coveted cash-income, sparse off-farm income opportunities have gained prominence as a basis for stabilizing consumption and some re-investment in cane. The centrality of incomediversification for simple reproduction and limited accumulation has rendered the dynamics of social differentiation to be both unstable and reversible, and has closely tied sustained cane production to the labour content of non-cane income sources. Meanwhile, with less direct oversight in production, millers face the challenge of retaining their implicit „grab‟ on customary land, throwing into relief the contradictions inherent in attempts „from above‟ to foster a nominal „peasant‟ class „from below‟.

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