On the UN’s World Day Against Child Labour, a new comment piece argues that the current narrative of ‘child labour’ is too simplistic. The authors argue that current approaches fail, and at times even harm, the young people they are supposed to be serving. The commentary is published by the programme Action on Children’s Harmful…
World Day Against Child Labour: thinking about choices and harms
New papers explore heated debates in agronomy for development
A special issue of Experimental Agriculture, ‘Doing Development-Oriented Agronomy: Rethinking Methods, Concepts and Direction’ brings together a selection of papers that not only present agronomic research findings, but critically review orientations, methodologies and research practices in agronomy. The special issue is edited by Jens Andersson and Ken Giller, who (along with STEPS members Jim Sumberg and John…
How do ‘transformative spaces’ open up possibilities for action?
A paper by Fiona Marshall (SPRU), Jonathan Dolley (SPRU) and Ritu Priya (South Asia Sustainability Hub) explores how ‘transformative space making’ can contribute to systemic change that supports pro-poor transformations to sustainability. The authors describe transformative spaces as follows: “The metaphor of transformative spaces is used here not to suggest a bounded location in space…
Apply now: ‘Writeshop/workshop’ on Critical Agrarian Studies, Beijing, July 2019
Early career researchers from the Global South are invited to apply to be part of a summer ‘writeshop’/workshop in Beijing on critical agrarian studies and activism. The deadline for abstracts is 1 March 2019.
How do pastoralists handle uncertainty? Insights from Asia, Europe and Africa
Pastoralists are experts in uncertainty. In a series of 3 blog posts, STEPS director Ian Scoones reports back from visits to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, Isiolo (Northern Kenya) and the Tibetan plateau. The visits were carried out under the PASTRES (Pastoralism, Uncertainty and Resilience) project, which explores what can be learned from the ways…
Japan book launches: Ian Scoones on sustainable rural livelihoods and the SDGs
This week, as part of book launches of the Japanese edition of “Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development”, STEPS Centre director Ian Scoones will be giving two talks in Japan. The talks explore the linkages between livelihoods and agrarian political economy and the links between a politically-informed sustainable livelihoods approach and the SDGs. Buy the book…
Ubuntu, collective seed: Bioleft project on the press
Two articles about Bioleft project and the first Bioleft seed, Ubuntu, were published last month on specialized n
n the press Bioleft project and
From common good to corporate ownership: The new strategy to modify the Seed Law
De bien común a propiedad corporativa: La nueva estrategia para modificar la Ley de Semillas By Maxi Goldschmidt Abstract This article reflects on the debate around the reform of Argentina’s Seed Law, and exposes the critical points of the project introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture and entities of the field. The current seed law, which…
Open Source Seeds
Semillas con código abierto By Juan Manuel Repetto Abstract Currently, the seed industry has a high level of concentration and only three business groups control more than half of the global seed trade. Therefore, a team of lawyers, sociologists, economists and geneticists, seek to democratize the production of food and develop alternatives in Argentina that…
Multimedia story: #ERPI2018 – Authoritarian Populism & the Rural World
The event Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World, held in March in The Hague, generated a lively online discussion. We’ve compiled a multimedia story with selected tweets and images from the conference, as well as relevant links. You can also read a growing list of articles on the issues around the conference, including fresh pieces…