In-depth and systematic enquiry has become urgent and necessary in order to have deeper, meaningful and productive debates around this issue. This is the reason why the Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) has been launched and had sponsored last year a small grant competition. The latter was a huge success: we were able to fund 40 small grants. Many of these papers were later presented at the LDPI-organized International Conference on Global Land Grabbing held at IDS, Sussex in April 2011. The 2011 Sussex conference was a major success, with 120 papers presented. Many of these papers have subsequently contributed inputs to various policy initiatives such as the UN Committee on Food Security (CFS) related studies and deliberations. Several of the papers from the first round of small grant competition and the 2011 Sussex conference have been selected as contributions to three forthcoming journal special issues on land grabs: ‘Green Grabs: a new way of appropriating nature?’ guest edited by James Fairhead, Melissa Leach and Ian Scoones for release in March 2012, ‘The politics of global land grabbing’ guest edited by Ruth Hall, Ben White and Wendy Wolford for release in May 2012 – both in the Journal of Peasant Studies (JPS), and ‘Governing land grabs’, guest edited by Jun Borras, Ruth Hall, Ian Scoones, Ben White and Wendy Wolford for release in July 2012 in Development and Change. In early 2011, JPS released the 3-article ‘Forum on Global Land Grabbing’ with contributions from Klaus Deininger, Olivier de Schutter and Tania Li. We want to continue building on this emerging body of literature on critical perspectives on global land grabbing. This is one of the reasons for the second round of small grant competition for 2011-12; this is the reason why we are holding an ‘LDPI International Conference on Global Land Grabbing Part 2’ in October 2012 in Cornell University in New York. Further information about the latter will be released soon via: www.iss.nl/ldpi.

Conference Call

24th—28th May 2010

Egerton University Njoro, Kenya T

he Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) announces the 2010 conference call at Egerton University, Njoro, Kenya. The conference will involve plenary sessions, with presentations from renowned international scientists on topics covering recent advances in knowledge on climate change adaptation in the dry lands. Other events include roundtable discussions involving the scientific community and representatives of agencies working with pastoral communities as well as members of vulnerable communities in the dry lands.

CALL FOR PAPERS

International Academic Conference on ‘Global Land Grabbing’

6-8 April 2011

Co-organized and hosted by the Future Agricultures Consortium Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

The Journal of Peasant Studies, in collaboration with the Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) is organizing an international academic workshop on ‘Global Land Grabbing’ to be held on 6-8 April 2011 at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.

A convergence of factors has been driving a revaluation of land by powerful economic and political actors. This is occurring across the world, but especially in the global South. As a result, we are seeing a dramatic rise in the extent of cross-border, transnational corporation-driven and, in some cases foreign government-driven, large-scale land deals unfolding worldwide. The phrase ‘global land grab’ has become a catch-all phrase to describe this explosion of (trans)national commercial land transactions revolving around the production and sale of food and biofuels, conservation and mining activities.