selected research
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The video abstract of 'The ties that bind? Agroecology and the agrarian question in the 21st century, can be viewed here:
Peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and papers
Click on the following links to view selected articles by Haroon Akram-Lodhi:
I will follow? Authoritarian populism, past and present
The ties that bind? Agroecology and the agrarian question in the twenty-first century
Contemporary pathogens and the capitalist world food system
COVID-19 and the world food system
Food regimes and agrarian questions
Costing option for measuring gender equality in climate action
The promise? Using and misusing authoritarian populism
The agrarian question in the web of life
Requiem for the sustainable rural livelihoods approach
Factors driving the gender gap in agricultural productivity: Uganda
Factors driving the gender gap in agricultural productivity: Malawi
Forever young? The crisis of generational renewal on Canada's farms
Fair trade in theory and practice
The cost of the gender gap in agricultural productivity in Ethiopia
Equally productive? Assessing the gender gap in agricultural productivity in Rwanda
Economic efficiency and gender equity: a heuristic rationale
"Old wine in new bottles": enclosure, neoliberal capitalism and postcolonial politics
Gender issues paper: Agriculture, food and nutrition security sector in Uganda
Back to the future? Marx, modes of production and the agrarian question
Accelerating towards food sovereignty
Land grabs, the agrarian question and the corporate food regime
Engendering the investment climate
The quantitative impact of gender equality on economic growth
Land, labour and agrarian transition in Vietnam
Surveying the agrarian question (part 2)
Surveying the agrarian question (part 1)
The macroeconomics of human insecurity: Why gender matters
(Re)imagining agrarian relations
State, society and Sardar Sarovar
Land reform, rural social relations and the peasantry
Land markets and neoliberal enclosure
Land markets and rural livelihoods in Vietnam
Agriculture and rural livelihoods in Yemen
Gender relations, households and macroeconomics
Transition, savings and growth in Vietnam
Penalizing patients and rewarding providers
Are landlords taking back the land?
If they get sick they are in trouble
Peasants and sugarcane markets in northern Pakistan
The agrarian question, past and present
Towards a post-Keynesian theory of the household?
The public finances of the United Kingdom
Structural adjustment and the agrarian question in Fiji
The developmental impact of the India-Pakistan arms race
You are not excused from cooking
MH Khan, AV Chayanov and the peasant family farms of NWFP
Tax-free manufacturing in Fiji
Peasants and hegemony in the work of James C Scott
The political economy of trade liberalization in India
Class and chauvinism in Sri Lanka
Books
Haroon Akram-Lodhi's most recent book, co-edited with Kristina Dietz, Bettina Engels and Ben M. McKay, is the Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies.
The Handbook offers interdisciplinary insights from both leading scholars and activists to understand agrarian life, livelihoods, formations and processes of change. An ambitious undertaking, its 72 contributions highlight the development of the field of critical agrarian studies, which is characterized by theoretical and methodological pluralism and innovation. Furthermore, the Handbook presents critical analyses of, and examines controversies about, historical and contemporary social structures and processes in agrarian and rural settings from a wide range of perspectives.
Further details about the Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies, including how to order it, can be found by clicking here.
Haroon Akram-Lodhi's last book was Hungry for Change: Farmers, Food Justice and the Agrarian Question.
Hungry for Change explains how the creation, structure and operation of the world food system is marginalizing family farmers, small-scale peasant farmers and landless workers as it entrenches us all in a global subsistence crisis. Written to be accessible, and incorporating accounts from farmers themselves, Hungry for Change explains how building upon food sovereignty can solve the current crisis.
Further details about Hungry for Change, including how to order it, can be found by clicking here.
Read reviews of Hungry for Change in The (Charlottetown) Guardian here, by Food First here, by the Halifax Media Coop here, and by the Mudandwaterdotorg blog here.
In September 2013, as part of the Yale University symposium on "Food Sovereignty: A Critical Dialogue", Eric Holt-Gimenez gave a public review of 5 books in 5 minutes, one of which was Hungry for Change. Watch Eric Holt-Gimenez's review by clicking below:
Hungry for Change has been described by Raj Patel as a 'must-read for anyone who cares about understanding food and the planet today' and by Jim Stanford as an 'inspiring...introduction to what will surely be one of the defining social struggles of our time: the struggle over food'. Cristóbal Kay simply says: 'Read it!'
Haroon Akram-Lodhi has also co-edited, with Cristóbal Kay, Peasants and Globalization: Political Economy, Rural Transformation and the Agrarian Question. The book critically examined the historical importance and contemporary relevance of the so-called 'agrarian question', which explores the characteristics shaping the emergence--or otherwise--of capitalism in agriculture in developing countries. It features an extremely distinguished set of contributors, including Terence J Byres, Henry Bernstein, Michael Watts, Philip McMichael, Ellen Meiskins Wood, Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Ray Kiely, Farshad Araghi, Saturnino M Borras, Jr, Bridget O'Laughlin and Miguel Teubal.
The Journal of Peasant Studies described this book as 'a must for anyone looking for a theoretically sophisticated, historically informed and comparative perspective on agrarian changes under neoliberal globalization'. The Journal of Agrarian Change described the book as 'an indispensable addition to our understanding of capitalist globalization, peasants and agrarian transformation over the past four centuries'. The Canadian Journal of Development Studies described the book as 'a landmark'.
Further details about this book, including how it can be ordered, can be obtained by clicking here.
In 2007 Haroon Akram-Lodhi co-edited, along with Saturnino M Borras, Jr and Cristóbal Kay:
Using 10 country case studies as its foundation, the book makes the case for comprehensive state-led land and agrarian reform as a first step towards poverty elimination in contempoary developing and transition countries. The Journal of Agrarian Change commented that the book was 'well researched, thorough and smart.'
Further details about this book, including how it can be ordered, can be obtained by clicking here.
Previously, Haroon Akram-Lodhi co-edited, along with Robert Chernomas and Ardeshir Sepehri:
which explores how, over the course of the last two decades, governments have implemented a fundamental shift in mainstream economic policy and ushered in a period of globalization. These changes, which are commonly known as 'neo-conservative', have been resisted by a range of social forces, from workers to farmers, in the universities and on the streets, who have sought to promote a range of democratic alternatives to neo-conservative policies,alternatives that appear increasingly relevant as the world experiences economic recession. Written to recognize the life and work of the late John Loxley of the Department of Economics at the University of Manitoba, Development and Change wrote that the book 'is a fitting tribute to (John Loxley's) legacy in economic thought and policy making'.
Further details about this book, including ordering information, can be obtained by clicking here.
Before that, Haroon Akram-Lodhi had co-edited, along with Jim Freedman:
which, using a massive land reclamation project as its basis, explored the dynamics of two decades of rural change in northern Pakistan. The book was described by the Lahore Daily Times as 'a poignant and informed demonstration of how development investments in Pakistan have failed to address the endemic problem of disparities of power and privilege, and by this neglect have contributed to Pakistan’s present poverty crisis.'
Further details about this book, including ordering information, can be obtained by clicking here.
Haroon Akram-Lodhi's first book was:
which sought to offer a forward-looking assessment of the social, political and economic circumstances facing the troubled Pacific island state, and which seems, in retrospect, quite prescient of more recent developments. The Journal of Economic Literature was unambigious: 'this is a useful book'.
Confronting Fiji Futures is now available to be freely downloaded, and can be obtained by clicking here.
Research presentations
On 1 June 2022 Haroon Akram-Lodhi gave a seminar on the impact of the war in Ukraine on the world food system to the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Vienna Research Seminar. Click on the link below to listen to the full seminar and watch the slide deck:
ie.talks Recording_A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi_01.06.2022.mp4On 13 May 2022 Haroon Akram-Lodhi delivered a keynote address on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Rural Sociology Group at Wageningen University entitled "From peasant studies to critical agrarian studies. Click on the link below to watch the keynote in full:
On 9 February 2022 Haroon Akram-Lodhi gave a seminar on agroecology through the lens of critical agrarian studies to the Development Research Seminar at the University of East Anglia's School of Development Studies. To watch the seminar in full, click here:
On 3 February 2022 Haroon Akram-Lodhi gave a seminar on agroecology and the agrarian question to the Agrarian Change Seminar, organized by the Journal of Agrarian Change and the Department of Development Studies at SOAS University of London. Click on the link below to watch the seminar in full:
On 19 January 2022 Haroon Akram-Lodhi gave a seminar on COVID-19 through a critical agrarian studies lens to the Interrogating Development Seminar Series, organized by the Department of International Development at King's College, University of London. Click on the link below to watch the seminar in full:
On 25 February 2021 Haroon Akram-Lodhi gave a seminar on The gender gap in agricultural productivity in eastern and southern Africa to the Agrarian Change Seminar Series, organized by the Journal of Agrarian Change. To view the seminar in full, click on the link below:
On 13 May 2020 Haroon Akram-Lodhi gave a seminar on Contemporary pathogens and the world food system to the Economics of COVID-19 Webinar Series organized by the Department of Economics at SOAS University of London, London, UK. To view the seminar in full, click on the link below:
On 2 December 2016 Haroon Akram-Lodhi gave the Concluding Remarks to the International Symposium on Conflicts over Land and Global Change, organized by the Global Change - Local Conflicts Research Group of the Freie Universitat of Berlin. Click here to listen to the remarks.
On 23 June 2014 Haroon Akram-Lodhi gave the Keynote Address to the Feeding Cities 2014 Conference: Urban -Rural Connections and the Future of Family Farming. Click here and go to 29.25 of the video to watch the address in full.
Haroon Akram-Lodhi was the Esau Distinguished Visiting Professor in Menno Simons College at the University of Winnipeg in November 2013. While in Winnipeg, he gave a public lecture entitled "Feeding the world: is hunger inevitable". Click on the link below to watch the lecture in full:
Recent invited talks
'COVID-19 through a critical agrarian studies lens', presented to the Interrogating Development Seminar Series, King's College University of London, January 2022.
'The gender gap in agricultural productivity in eastern and southern Africa: quantitative and qualitative determinants', presented to the Agrarian Change Seminar Series, SOAS University of London, February 2021.
'Contemporary pathogens and the capitalist world food system', presented to the SOAS University of London Department of Economics COVID webinar, May 2020.
'Understanding the contemporary food crisis', presented to the Food Studies Working Group of the Calgary Institute for the Humanities, University of Calgary, February 2020.
'Social reproduction and labour markets', presented to 65 Years of Economics at SOAS, SOAS University of London, London, United Kingdom, September 2019.
'What is critical agrarian studies', presented to the Workshop on Critical Agrarian Studies, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo, Canada, July 2019.
'Challenges to a macroeconomic model of social reproduction', presented to the Care Work and the Economy Conference, American University, Glasgow, United Kingdom, July 2019.
'Carework and agricultural productivity gaps: the case of Tanzania', presented to the International Association of Feminist Economics Annual Conference, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, United Kingdom, June 2019.
'Carework and gender gaps in agricultural productivity: the case of Malawi', presented to the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development Annual Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 2019.
'The diversity of classical agrarian Marxism', presented to the Workshop on Critical Agrarian Studies, Free University, Berlin, Germany, May 2019.
'The gender gap in agricultural productivity in eastern and southern Africa', presented to the Women's Work and Rural Economies Conference, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, Kochi, India, December 2019.
'What causes the gender gap in agricultural productivity in Tanzania?', presented to the Economics (Economy and Society) Seminar, Department of Economics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada February 2019.
'Authoritarian populism, gender and threats to global multilateralism', presented to the 67th United Nations Department of Public Information / Non-Governmental Organization Annual Conference, United Nations, New York City, United States, July 2018.
'The macroeconomic dimensions of unpaid care and domestic work', presented to the Group of 77 and China, United Nations Development Programme and UN Women Panel Discussion on Women's Economic Empowerment, United Nations, New York City, United States, June 2018.
'Developing capacities for gender and economic policy making', presented to the 27th Annual Conference of the International Association for Feminist Economics, State University of New York – New Paltz, New Paltz, United States, June 2018.
'How to get your paper through peer review', presented to the Publication Workshop of the 27th Annual Conference of the International Association for Feminist Economics, State University of New York – New Paltz, New Paltz, United States, June 2018.
'The gender gap in agricultural productivity in Malawi', presented to the 27th Annual Conference of the International Association for Feminist Economics, State University of New York – New Paltz, New Paltz, United States, June 2018.
'Unpaid care and domestic work', presented to the Mentoring Workshop of the 27th Annual Conference of the International Association for Feminist Economics, State University of New York – New Paltz, New Paltz, United States, June 2018.
'The cost of the gender gap in agricultural productivity in eastern and southern Africa', presented to the UN Women / International Monetary Fund Workshop on Gender and Macroeconomics, Dar es Salam, Tanzania, June 2018.
'The economic costs of the gender gap in agricultural productivity in eastern and southern Africa', presented to the Africa Climate-Smart Agriculture Summit, Nairobi, Kenya, May 2018.
'The promise? Using and misusing authoritarian populism', presented to the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative International Conference on Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World, International Institute of Social Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, Netherlands, March 2018.
'Gender relations, agricultural productivity and agrarian change: a conceptual framework', presented to the Agrarian and Environmental Studies PhD Students Seminar, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands, March 2018.
'Conflicts over resources: a critical agrarian studies perspective', presented to the 2nd International Symposium on Global Crises and Conflicts over Resources, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany, February 2018.
'International trade: myth, reality and Canada's farmers', presented to the 48th Annual Convention of the National Farmer's Union, Ottawa, Canada, November 2017.
'Feeding the future: understanding the contemporary food crisis', presented to the annual Al Berry Lecture in Critical Development Studies, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Canada, November 2017.
'Women's economic empowerment', presented to the United Nations Development Programme's Global Gender Retreat, New York, USA, June 2017.
'Critical agrarian studies: an introduction', presented to the International Workshop on Critical Agrarian Studies, Freie Universitat Berlin, Berlin, Germany, May 2017.
'Key development tensions', presented to the Canadian Network for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Peterborough, Canada, February 2017.
'Conflicts over land and global change', presented to the International Symposium on Conflicts Over Land and Social Change, Freie Universitat Berlin, Berlin, Germany, December 2016.
'Fifty years of peasant studies: reflections on Wolf and Chayanov', presented to the XIV Congress of the International Rural Sociological Association, Toronto, Canada, August 2016.
138. 'The agrarian question in the web of life', Keynote Address to the Second Annual Conference of the World-Ecology Network, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom, July 2016.
'Political ecology and the agrarian question', presented to the Political Ecology of Capitalism, Contestation and Conflict Conference of the European Political Ecology Network, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, July 2016.
'The political economy of economic efficiency: a gender perspective', presented to the annual conference of the International Association for Feminist Economics, National University of Ireland – Galway, Galway, Ireland, June 2016.
'Reflections on Bina Agarwal: a life of engagement', presented to the annual conference of the International Association for Feminist Economics, National University of Ireland – Galway, Galway, Ireland, June 2016.
'Why we need a new food system', presented to the annual conference of the University of Waterloo Food Issues Group, Waterloo, Canada, April 2016.
'Gender, the agrarian question and the web of life', presented to a Special Seminar, College of Humanities and Development Studies, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China, April 2016.
'The agrarian question: past and present', presented to the Critical Issues in Agrarian and Development Studies Seminar Series, College of Humanities and Development Studies, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China, April 2016.
'Why hunger?', presented to the University of Toronto – Scarborough Oxfam Hunger Banquet, Toronto, Canada. March 2016.
'Hunger and the world food system', presented to the Lakehead University Seminar on Global Issues, Thunder Bay, Canada, February 2016.