Call for Papers. Crisis and Conflict in the Agrarian World: An Evolving Dialectic

Agriculture and food security are globally affected by crises and rural communities are among the worst affected by various forms of conflicts. On the other hand there are agricultural and rural drivers of crisis and conflict (including competition over natural, water, and land resources). This is particularly pertinent in many regions of the developing world such as the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Crisis and conflict affect the human and natural agricultural landscapes and shape social and gender relations. Appropriate strategies to rehabilitate agriculture during and following crisis or conflict are crucial in making livelihoods more resilient and rebuilding societies after periods of crisis and conflict.

Against this backdrop, the Kuwait Chair at Sciences Po invites to an academic conference on the topic of Crisis and Conflict in the Agrarian World: An Evolving Dialectic, in cooperation with the American University of Beirut and CIDOB, the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs. The conference will be held on 1-3 March 2017 in Paris.

After the review process, conference proceedings will be published towards the end of 2017 in an edited volume of  CABI Publishers, a leading academic publisher on development, agriculture, food security and health issues.

The organizers invite abstracts or preferably detailed proposals with a short CV and list of publications. They should be submitted electronically to Eckart Woertz eckart.woertz@sciencespo.fr and Rachel Anne Bahn rb89@aub.edu.lb  until 30 November 2016. Authors of selected papers will be notified by 2 December 2016 and should submit their papers by 1 February 2017.

The papers should have a length of 7,000 words and represent original research not presented or published elsewhere. All costs for travel and accommodation will be covered according to Sciences Po travel policy.

Texts can deal with a variety of crises and their impact on agriculture and food security, such as politically-driven violence and dispute, as well as crises stemming from natural disasters or other phenomena (earthquake/tsunami, drought, flooding, climate change, and disease epidemics). Case studies will explore the relationship between agriculture and conflict/crisis before, during, and after crisis periods.

Beside cross cutting and methodological explorations on topics like political ecology, gender, health, climate change, land grabs or ethnography we are interested in case studies of specific countries, particularly from Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

We look forward to receiving your abstracts or proposals.