Competing Views and Strategies on Agrarian Reform: International Perspective

Competing Views and Strategies on Agrarian Reform: Volume 1: International Perspective, by Saturnino M. Borras Jr.

Winner, National Book Award (Social Sciences), Philippines, 2009

This volume is one of the two broadly distinct but closely related books. Competing Views and Strategies on Agrarian Reform: International Perspective aims to broaden the discussion by focusing on international political, policy and theoretical debates, as well as on some empirical cases from different countries that are relevant to the study of agrarian issues in the Philippines. Competing Views and Strategies on Agrarian Reform: Philippine Perspective aims to deepen the discussion by focusing on the Philippine agrarian reform experience, but drawing lessons that are relevant to theory-building and to policy discourse and political actions in situations elsewhere. The overarching theme of the twin books is critical thinking : conventional assumptions are interrogated, popular propositions critically examined, and new ways of questioning proposed.

A key role in unmasking [market-led agrarian reform] was played by a new generation of land reform experts, among them Saturnino (Jun) Borras... This book is a distillation of years of valuable intellectual and activist engagement from which both the specialist and the general reader will profit greatly. From the Foreword by Walden Bello.

This book is the most comprehensive and through critique of the neoliberal land policies ever published. Borras provides a challenging new theoretical perspective for the analysis of agrarian reform. He also proposes a way forward for the achievement of the emancipation of the peasantry and the rural poor. This book should be read by all those concerned with rural livelihoods, poverty, inequality and social justice in the global south. Cristobal Kay, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague