Gender And Agrarian Reforms

Land and agrarian reforms potentially provide a prime opportunity to equalize the positions of women and men, both in terms of property holdings and more widely, points out Jacobs (sociology and global studies, Manchester Metropolitan U.), but in fact gender has been a marginal topic both in concrete policies and in discussions of agrarian reform. She integrates theoretical research on agrarian and land reforms with that on gender relations to explain how the two areas can also be integrated on the ground in contexts of collectives and decollectivizations and of household models of reform and alternatives. Her topics include debates over agrarian reform, concepts for a gendered analysis of agrarian reform, gender and agricultural collectives in Soviet-type economies, egalitarian land reform in Viet Nam, Latin American examples of mobilization and marginalization, and customary law and land titling in sub-Saharan Africa. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Susie Jacobs is Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, USA.