About this journal

A leading journal in the field of rural politics and development, The Journal of Peasant Studies ( JPS) provokes and promotes critical thinking about social structures, institutions, actors and processes of change in and in relation to the rural world. It fosters inquiry into how agrarian power relations between classes and other social groups are created, understood, contested and transformed. JPS pays special attention to questions of ‘agency’ of marginalized groups in agrarian societies, particularly their autonomy and capacity to interpret – and change – their conditions.

The Journal encourages contributions from across the social sciences which:

• question mainstream prescriptions;

• interrogate orthodoxies in radical thinking;

• explore theoretical, policy and political alternatives.

The Journal welcomes contributions on a wide range of contemporary and historical questions and perspectives related to rural politics and development; on issues that confront peasants, farmers, rural labourers, migrant workers, indigenous peoples, forest dwellers, pastoralists, fisherfolk and rural youth – both female and male – in different parts of the world.

In addition to articles and special issues, the Journal publishes Grassroots Voices – views that are written and presented in a non-academic style but provide important insights and information relevant to critical rural development studies; and Reviews of important theoretical or policy-oriented books or films written for diverse audiences. For more information about Grassroots Voices and Reviews, see here.

JPS was founded in 1973 on the initiative of Terence J. Byres and its first editors were Byres, Charles Curwen and Teodor Shanin who are among the most important agrarian political economists.

The Bharadwaj-Wolf Prize

The Bharadwaj-Wolf Prize is awarded every two years for an outstanding article published in the Journal by a ‘young scholar’ (either a graduate student or a scholar who has held a PhD degree for no longer than four years at the time of submission). An article jointly authored by a young and a senior scholar qualifies. The prize includes an award of £1000.

The award commemorates two long-standing and distinguished members of the Editorial Advisory Board of JPS: the political economist Krishna Bharadwaj (1935-92) and the anthropologist Eric Wolf (1923-99). All articles, except for Notes and Communications, published in the relevant volumes are eligible. Analytical creativity and originality is the basis for the awards.

Peer Review

All submissions published in this journal undergo a refereeing process.

Hear more from JPS

***To get regular updates about JPS activities, publications, conferences, and calls for papers, please email us at [email protected] and we will add you to our mailing list.***

Editors

Shaila Seshia Galvin – The Graduate Institute of Geneva, Switzerland
Jacobo Grajales – Panthéon-Sorbonne University, France
Ye Jingzhong - COHD, China Agricultural University, China
Ruth Hall – PLAAS, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Sergio Sauer- University of Brasilia, Brazil
Annie Shattuck- University of Indiana, USA

Editorial Office
Jackie Morse 

Amita Baviskar – Ashoka University, Sonipat, India
Ricado Jacobs - University of California Santa Barbara, USA
Michael Levien – Johns Hopkins University, USA
Diana Ojeda – University of Indiana, USA
Wendy Wolford – Cornell University, USA
Shaohua Zhan – Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Book Reviews Section Editors

Antonio Roman-Alcala – California State University, USA
Satendra Kumar – G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, India
George Mudimu – PLAAS, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Andrea Sosa – Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina

Grassroots Voices section Editors

Boaventura Monjane – Universidade Eduardo Mondelane, Mozambique
Martha Jane Robbins – International Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands

Key Concepts in Critical Agrarian Studies section Editors

Alberto Alonso-Fradejas – Wageningen University, The Netherlands
Yunan Xu– International Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands

Social media assistant

Nguyet Bang Dap

Past Editors

Terence J. Byres, 1973-2000
Charles Curwen, 1973-1984
Teodor Shanin, 1973-1975
Henry Bernstein, 1985-2000
Tom Brass, 1990-1998, 2000-2008
Saturnino M. Borras Jr, 2009-2023

International Advisory Board

Aniket Aga – Ashoka University, India
Joel Andreas – Johns Hopkins University, USA
Shapan Adnan – School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), UK
Suraya Afiff – University of Indonesia, Indonesia
Max Ajl – Wageningen University, The Netherlands
A. Haroon Akram Lodhi – Trent University, Canada
Penelope Anthias - Durham University, UK
Habib Ayeb – University of Paris VIII, France
Mads Barbesgaard – Lund University, Sweden
Jessica Barnes – University of South Carolina, USA
Anthony Bebbington – Clark University, USA
Tor Benjaminsen – Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway
Rachel Bezner Kerr – Cornell University, USA
Dan Brockington – University of Sheffield, UK
M. Jahi Chappell – Southeastern African-American Farmers' Organic Network (SAAFON), USA
Jennifer Clapp – University of Waterloo, Canada
Esteve Corbera – ICTA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Lorenzo Cotula – International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), UK
Jampel Dell’Angelo – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Annette Desmarais – University of Manitoba, Canada
Rama Dieng – University of Edinburgh, UK
Wolfram Dressler – University of Melbourne, Australia
Andries du Toit – PLAAS, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Marc Edelman– City University of New York, USA
Madeleine Fairbairn – University of California Santa Cruz, USA
Lourenzo Fernandez Prieto – Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Elizabeth Fitting – Dalhousie University, Canada
Jonathan Fox– American University, Washington DC, USA
Julien-François Gerber – Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Burak Gurel – Koç University, Turkey
Julie Guthman – University of California Santa Cruz, USA
Yan Hairong – Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Derek Hall – Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
John Harriss – Simon Fraser University, Canada
Susanna Hecht – University of California Los Angeles, USA
Philip Hirsch – The University of Sydney, Australia
Peter Ho – Zhejiang University, China
Hannah Holleman – Amherst College, USA
Eric Holt-Gimenez – Food First/Institute for Food and Development, USA
Ryan Isakson – University of Toronto, Canada
Kees Jansen – Wageningen University, The Netherlands
Deniz Kandiyoti– School of Oriental & African Studies, UK
Cristobal Kay – International Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands
Benedict Kerkvliet – Australian National University, Australia
Jack Kloppenburg – University of Wisconsin Madison, USA
Markus Kroger – University of Helsinki, Finland
Nancy Lee Peluso– University of California Berkeley, USA
Sharachchandra Lele – Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, India
Lianjiang Li – Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Tania Li – University of Toronto, Canada
Chuan Liao – Arizona State University, USA
Andres Leon Araya – Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica
Christian Lund – University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Mahmood Mamdani – Makerere Institute of Social Research, Uganda
Natalia Mamonova – Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Sweden
Bernardo Mançano Fernandes – Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil
John McCarthy – Australian National University, Australia
Nathan McClintock – Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Canada
Ben McKay – University of Calgary, Canada
Philip McMichael - Cornell University, USA
Marvin Joseph Montefrio – Yale-National University of Singapore, Singapore
Peter Newell – University of Sussex, UK
Alexander Nikulin – RANEPA Centre for Agrarian Studies, Russia
Gerardo Otero – Simon Fraser University, Canada
Raj Patel – University of Texas Austin, USA
Kasia Paprocki – London School of Economics, UK
Ivette Perfecto – University of Michigan, USA
Jan Douwe van der Ploeg – Wageningen University, The Netherlands
James Putzel – London School of Economics, UK
Shahra Razavi – International Labour Organization, Switzerland
Jesse Ribot – American University, Washington DC, USA
Jonathan Rigg – University of Bristol, UK
Laurence Roudart – Free University of Brussels, Belgium
Francisco Gutierrez Sanin – Universidad Nacional, Colombia
Arnim Scheidel – ICTA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Christina Schiavoni – International Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands
Olivier de Schutter – University of Louvain, Belgium
Ian Scoones– IDS, University of Sussex, UK
Issa Shivji – University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan– Yale University, USA
Max Spoor – International Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands
Lynn Stephen – University of Oregon, USA
Nikita Sud – University of Oxford, UK
Marcus Taylor – Queens University, Canada
Marina Temudo – University of Lisbon, Portugal
Dzodzi Tsikata – University of Ghana, Ghana
Anna Tsing – University of California Santa Cruz, USA
Chayan Vaddhanaphuti – Chiang Mai University, Thailand
Peter Vandergeest – York University, Canada
A.R. Vasavi – Punarchith Collective, Karnataka, India
Henry Veltmeyer – Autonomous University of Zacatecas, Mexico; Saint Mary's University, Canada
Oane Visser – International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Netherlands
Emily Yeh – University of Colorado Boulder, USA
Tony Weis – University of Western Ontario, Canada
Hannah Wittmann – University of British Columbia, Canada
Marc Wuyts – International Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands
Shaohua Zhan – Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

News, offers and calls for papers

News and offers

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