The social relations of agrarian change

The literature on land grabbing and agricultural commercialization has established that there have been major changes in the agrarian political economy over the last three decades. However, the implications of these for agrarian social relations have not been given full consideration. This paper examines some of these questions, identifying agreements and contestations about the implications of agrarian change for social relations, particularly those of class, gender and kinship, which are key to the production and reproduction of the agrarian political economy. We argue that issues of growing social differentiation and inequalities need to be addressed both by the literature and in policy discussions.