Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Political Ecology of Food Sovereignty Movements in Neoliberal India

粮食主权运动是以地方自治概念为基础的替代农业运动日益增长的趋势的一部分，根据这种趋势，粮食生产、分配和消费由当地社区控制，目的是加强农民对其耕作方式和生活的控制。这项研究的主要目的是了解地方化社会运动在调解贫困农村地区新自由主义经济政策影响方面的作用。这项研究使用了一个政治生态框架，该框架考察了全球和地方进程如何相互作用，同时了解了该地区的农业转型历史，并以印度“饥饿地带”的德干发展协会粮食主权倡议为例进行了研究。主要问题是：哪些机构对粮食主权运动至关重要？它们是如何发展的，它们带来了哪些变化，它们是如何联网的？谁是粮食主权的主要受益者？粮食主权对处于特定农业生态环境中的农民有何影响？不同的利益集团对粮食主权倡议有什么态度？本研究使用了定量和定性数据，包括人口普查数据、调查、参与者观察、深度访谈、制度法规和政策。分析包括定量(统计)和人种学(话语和内容分析)方法，这将使人们能够深入了解具体的地方背景，并认识到粮食主权对粮食安全和农村生计的更广泛影响。这些研究结果预计将支持这样一种假设，即在粮食主权机构满足小农的不同社会经济需求并植根于他们的文化规范、边缘化和高度依赖农业的情况下，粮食主权运动在缓解农业困境方面最有效。这项研究将有助于就全球农业粮食制度对农村穷人的影响而不断增长的关于土地过渡、替代农业和本地化社会运动的文献。通过提请注意性别、阶级/种姓、获取资源和粮食安全等相互关联的问题，这项研究将突出在粮食生产日益集团化的背景下，当地农业系统中的政治斗争和性别斗争。大多数关于亚洲当代农业转型的研究都集中在市场日益深入农村的必然性，以及小农如何适应这一全球现象。然而，关于本地化社会运动在影响土地过渡方面的作用，人们知之甚少。面对当前的全球粮食危机及其对粮食安全的影响，这项研究有助于增进我们对参与新自由主义全球农业粮食制度的当代替代办法的理解。调查拥护粮食主权原则的本地化农业系统的更广泛影响，为被高度边缘化和代表性不足的群体，如贱民和其他贫穷农民，提供了参与通常由国家机构和世界市场主导的发展话语的途径。

Food sovereignty movements are part of a growing trend of alternative agricultural movements that are based on the notion of local autonomy, whereby food production, distribution and consumption are controlled by local communities with the aim of increasing farmers' control over their farming practices and thus their lives. The main objective of this research is to understand the roles of localized social movements in mediating the impacts of neoliberal economic policies in poor rural regions. Using a political ecology framework that examines how global and local processes interact along with an understanding of the history of agrarian transitions in the region, this research uses the Deccan Development Society food sovereignty initiative in the "hunger belt" of India as a case study. The main questions are: What institutions have been crucial to food sovereignty movements? How do they develop, what sorts of changes do they bring about, and how are they networked? Who are the primary beneficiaries of food sovereignty? What is the impact of food sovereignty on farmers in their particular agroecological environments? What attitudes do diverse interest groups have toward food sovereignty initiatives? This research uses both quantitative and qualitative data including census data, surveys, participant observation, in-depth interviews, institutional rules and regulations, and policies. Analysis includes quantitative (statistical) and ethnographic (discourse and content analysis) methods that will allow for both an in-depth understanding of a specific local context as well as an appreciation of the broader implications of food sovereignty for food security and rural livelihoods. The findings are expected to support the hypothesis that, where food sovereignty institutions address the diverse socioeconomic needs of small farmers and are embedded within their cultural norms and where marginalization and the dependence on agriculture is high, food sovereignty movements are most effective in alleviating agrarian distress.The research will contribute to the growing literature on agrarian transitions, alternative agriculture and localized social movements, with respect to the impact of global agro-food regimes on the rural poor. By drawing attention to the interrelated issues of gender, class/caste, access to resources, and food security this research will highlight the political and gendered struggles in local agricultural systems within the increasingly corporate face of food production. Most studies of contemporary agrarian transitions in Asia have focused on the inevitability of the market's growing reach into the countryside, and the ways in which small farmers are adapting to this global phenomenon. However, little is known with regard to the role of localized social movements in affecting agrarian transitions. In the face of the current global world food crisis, and its implications for food security, this research serves to enhance our understanding of contemporary alternatives to participating in the neoliberal global agro-food regime. The broader impacts of investigating localized agricultural systems that espouse food sovereignty principles opens avenues for participation of highly marginalized and underrepresented groups, such as the Dalit (untouchable) and other poor farmers, in the development discourse generally dominated by state institutions and world markets.