Agrarian Social Movements and Struggles in Southeast Asia Past and Present

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Single Panel

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Session 1
Wed 09:00–10:30 Room 1.308

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Abstract

Across Southeast Asia, agrarian conflicts have long been major concerns of a variety of social movements, taken here to mean sustained forms of collective, contentious social action in primarily agricultural settings. In scholarship on agrarian conflict there is also a strong tradition of exploring agency ‘from below’, whether examining ‘weapons of the weak’, or more organised and overt collective action. In recent years this has included studies investigating responses to ‘global land grabbing’ or the ‘resource rush’. This panel takes as its starting point that there are gains to be had by encouraging dialogue between researchers studying historical and contemporary social movements in agrarian contexts. In doing so it takes an interdisciplinary approach, exploring cases from across a range of times and countries in Southeast Asia. The panel welcomes papers addressing questions including: under what conditions do people act collectively over agrarian issues? How do changing rural social and economic contexts relate to the development of social movements? How do ethnic, religious, gender and generational differences impact such movements? How are different movements organised, and what are the implications of varied patterns of organisation? How do we understand the role of symbols and ideas in this collective action? How do state actors interact with, and condition the opportunities for, these social movements? How can we explain the successes and failures of such movements?

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