This book offers historical and comparative analyses of changes in agrarian society forced by the globalization of capitalism, and the implications of these changes for human welfare globally. The book gives special attention to recent economic development and urbanization in the People s Republic of China which have had a major impact on contemporary transformations globally. Case studies from South and Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America in turn place these transformations in a comparative global perspective. The contributors include distinguished scholars from the UN, PRC, India, Zimbabwe, and Latin America who are also active in policy issues."e;

I: Introductory; Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: The "End of the Peasantry" Scenario: Dream and Nightmare; Chapter 3: The Return of the Peasant: Possible? Desirable?; II: The People's Republic of China; Chapter 4: History, Capitalism, and the Making of the Postsocialist Chinese Peasant 1; Chapter 5: China Experience, Comparative Advantage, and the Rural Reconstruction Experiment 1; Chapter 6: The Political Economy of Spatial Inequality in China; Chapter 7: Reserve the Land for Family Farming; Chapter 8: Awaiting Urbanization; Chapter 9: Public Regulation of Private Relations; III: Tricontinental Perspectives; Chapter 10: Primitive Accumulation and the Peasantry in the Present Era of Neoliberalism with Reference to the Indian Experience; Chapter 11: Peasants in Indonesia and the Politics of (Peri) Urbanization 1; Chapter 12: Land Occupations and Land Reform in Zimbabwe; Chapter 13: Polycultures of the Mind; Chapter 14: Community Capacity and Challenges of Ecuadorian Agrarian Farmer Organizations for Generating Alternatives to Pesticide Use; IV: Epilogue; Chapter 15: Drawing Lessons from the 2008 World Food Crisis