The quest to bring land under social and political control: land reform struggles of the past and present in Ecuador

Geoff Goodwin

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Land reform was one of the most important policies introduced in Latin America in the twentieth century and remains high on the political agenda due to sustained pressure from rural social movements. Improving our understanding of the issue therefore remains a pressing concern. This paper responds to this need by proposing a new theoretical framework to explore land reform and providing a fresh analysis of historical and contemporary land struggles in Ecuador. Drawing on the pioneering work of Karl Polanyi, the paper characterizes these struggles as the attempt to increase the social and political control of land in the face of mounting commodification. The movement started in the 1960s and remains evident in Ecuador today. Exploring land reform in Ecuador from this theoretical perspective provides new insight into land struggles in the country and contributes to debates over land reforms of the past and present elsewhere in the Global South.

Keywords: land reform; land markets; social movements; Ecuador; Karl Polanyi (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-07-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published in Journal of Agrarian Change, 1, July, 2017, 17(3), pp. 571-593. ISSN: 1471-0358

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:66383

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