Promised Land: Competing Visions of Agrarian Reform

"A pathbreaking volume that provides a compelling critique of the current market-led reforms promoted by the likes of the World Bank.... This is a state-of-the-art analysis coupled with a rich and sophisticated account of on-the-ground experiences and struggles. A tour de force."

-Michael Watts, Class of '63 Professor, and director of African Studies, University of California, Berkeley

"Written from the perspective of civil society actors themselves, [Promised Land] is a powerful argument for the need to develop food sovereignty, strengthen local communities, and build transnational connections in the fight against inequality, poverty, and rural violence."

-Wendy Wolford, co-author of To Inherit the Earth: The Landless Movement and the Struggle for a New Brazil

"This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand and contribute to the contemporary struggle for agrarian reform around the world."

-Rafael Alegria, coordinator, Global Campaign for Agrarian Reform, La Via Campesina

Agrarian reform is back at the center of the national and rural development debate, a debate of vital importance to the future of the Global South and genuine economic democracy. The World Bank as well as a number of national governments and local land owning elites have weighed in with a series of controversial policy changes. In response, peasants landless, and indigenous peoples’ organizations around the world have intensified their struggle to redistribute land from the underutilized holdings of a wealthy few to the productive hands of the many.

The essays in this volume, edited by scholars from the Land Research Action Network (LRAN), critically analyze a wide range of competing visions of land reform. Promised Land is an essential resource for academics, students, policy makers, activists, and peasant organizations.