The Political Economy of “Landgrabbing”

This project is an interdisciplinary research venture conducted by both the Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institute and the University of Freiburg.  Primarily in the global south, the long-term purchase or leasing of large plots of arable land by government actors or private investors has acquired a new name amongst journalists and social scientists – ”landgrabbing”. This project utilizes an interdisciplinary political-economic perspective to analyze the controversies surrounding transnational agriculture-investments.  In addition to an examination based on theory, this project employs more importantly empirical comparisons of tangible landgrabbing cases. These cases are pulled from ongoing field work in Ethiopia, Namibia, Bulgaria, India and Mexico.