Pressure Sores Essay Example for Free

Weight Sores Essay The fundamental way of thinking of palliative consideration is to accomplish the best personal satisfaction for patients in any event, when their sickness can't be relieved. Palliative consideration is given through far reaching the executives of the physical, mental, social, and profound needs of patients, while staying touchy to their own, social, and strict qualities and convictions. Emergency clinic palliative consideration administrations are frequently given through an interdisciplinary group of human services experts including, however not restricted to: Doctors, Nurses, Healthcare Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers, and Priests. Weariness Weariness is a typical, upsetting and incapacitating indication experienced by individuals with disease. In those accepting palliative consideration it is presumably the most every now and again detailed side effect and is experienced by more than 90 percent of these patient. Nonetheless, it speaks to the most usually unrelieved disease side effect. Malignant growth related weakness can have various components that can be hard to build up, anyway in spite of these issues propelling examination will assist with advancing the issue as a palliative consideration side effect that can be evaluated and overseen. In patients with cutting edge malignant growth, the pervasiveness paces of different side effects are roughly as follows Pain 89% Fatigue 69% Weakness 66% Anorexia 66% Lack of vitality 61% Nausea 60% Dry mouth 57% Constipation 52% Dyspnoea half Vomiting 30%. (Donnelly 1995) Characterizing Cancer-Related Fatigue Disease related weariness is a perplexing wonder with physical, intellectual and full of feeling techniques for articulation. An away from of what it implies is basic before it tends to be surveyed and overseen, or social insurance Assistants can talk about it with patients and partners. In the wake of investigating weakness from the point of view of patients, Ream (1996) determined the accompanying definition: an emotional, disagreeable manifestation which joins sentiments going from sluggishness to weariness, making an unwavering generally condition which meddles with individual’s capacity to capacity to their typical Causes and impacts. The reasons for malignant growth related weakness is as yet obscure, and absence of accomplishment in rewarding it toward the finish of life stage is to some extent because of this absence of information. Personal satisfaction is identified with side effects, working, and mental and social prosperity, while during end-of-life care, otherworl dliness is a significant issue, patients become too drained to even think about participating completely in their jobs and exercises that make life important, exhaustion accordingly essentially influences their personal satisfaction. Patients/Family Perceptions One of the boundaries to rewarding exhaustion toward the finish of life might be patients, families and Doctors view of it as an unavoidable, untreatable manifestation (Johnson, 2004).Many individuals experience weakness, yet contemplates have indicated that weariness experienced by patients with disease is progressively fast in beginning, more vitality depleting, increasingly extreme, longer-enduring, progressively serious and progressively unwavering when contrasted and commonplace exhaustion. Advance consideration arranging and building up objectives of care are basic since they upgrade the control patients have over their mind and guarantee self-rule if the patient can't impart their desires or settle on choices at later phases of disease. Patients need a voice in their medicinal services, they need to comprehend what's in store and how to anticipate their treatment and their future. Setting up objectives at an opportune time for current and future social insurance assists with keeping away from future superfluous damage and unseemly prolongation of biting the dust. It is very much perceived that intercessions concentrated on restoring biting the dust patients bring about expanded affliction, with practically no advantage for the patient. This enduring may even reach out past the patient. Medical caretakers additionally battle morally and genuinely when care for passing on patients is centered around innovation instead of on solace and personal satisfaction. Likewise, 20 % of patients family members build up a physical ailment in light of the pressure of adapting to their friends and family unexpected frailty. Rewarding Underlying Causes Before a patients weariness is just credited to the malignancy it is critical to recognize and treat effectively reversible hidden physiological and mental reasons for exhaustion. For instance, this may include lessening unimportant drugs, rewarding contaminations, adjusting hypercalcaemia and electrolyte issue or rewarding agony, despondency, rest issue or weakness .A connection between exhaustion, rest and nervousness can be promptly distinguished, and the way to deal with the executives is a general one. In palliative consideration, endeavors are aimed at easing manifestations, just as toward forestalling or rewarding the basic reason when that is potential intercessions should start with the advancement of touchy correspondence, allowing patients the chance to examine their weakness with regards to living with a terminal disease and its effect on their lives , found that empowering patients to discuss their weariness both encouraged proficient evaluation and helped them to invest igate the importance of the malignant growth and exhaustion experience for themselves, and for their loved ones. This can assist patients with recovering a feeling of control and opportunity to concentrate on other significant parts of their lives, so reestablishing their confidence .Patient and family instruction can be of extraordinary incentive in understanding malignant growth related weakness. Relatives may decipher exhaustion as a sign that the patient is surrendering, when it is quite her or his control. Correlative medication epitomizes the standards of palliative consideration by assisting with facilitating the physical, psychosocial, and profound impacts of ailment. It expects to control indications and to improve personal satisfaction for patients and their families. Unwinding, representation, back rub and fragrant healing are as of now being assessed as a major aspect of a worldwide intercession known as Beating Fatigue. There is as of now proof of the gainful impact of back rub and fragrant healing on misery and different side effects including weakness. Ends/EVALUATIONS While undertaking this task certain words continue ringing a bell. Words like compassion, mindful, stress, burnout, cooperation a lot more however I have figured out how to regard all patients, advance nobility, to be a superior cooperative person be sure about my capacities, yet for the most part I have understood that to encourage a vocation in any territory of palliative consideration will require additionally preparing, all the more comprehension of various patients conditions and there necessities consistently and to be more still, small voice of the duties of medicinal services associates when thinking about all patients. As said beforehand I will look for additional preparation around there not exclusively to be of more noteworthy advantage to the patients yet in addition to look for preparing in some type of distress guiding to be of more prominent help to family members and companions of patients, to relate and to simply have the option to listen when required. Notwithstanding the high pervasiveness of malignant growth related exhaustion among patients in palliative consideration, its treatment is less fruitful than treatment for different side effects toward the finish of life. The reasons for exhaustion in patients with cutting edge malignant growth are regularly muddled, numerous components might be mindful and little is thought about its causes. The particular objectives of palliative consideration are to improve the nature of the last phases of patient’s lives, control indications, and offer help to relatives and to focus on patient’s view of direction and importance of life. The experience of malignant growth related weakness majorly affects patient’s inspiration as it implies they can't embrace physical exercises and that they lose enthusiasm for exercises and life as a rule. Despite the fact that it is hard to direct research on patients who are profoundly bothered, have extreme side effects or who are passing on, there is the potential for such examination to have a helpful advantage for those participating. Furnishing patients with disease a chance to examine their sentiments related with side effects, for example, exhaustion gives data important to create proficient comprehension and can likewise assist patients with making sense or deal with their condition. Future examination should concentrate on deciding successful arrangements including option and integral treatments instead of on rethinking need. Progressively engaged exhaustion appraisal instruments and focused on weariness mediations for patients toward the finish of life are required, as is preparing in weakness the board with the goal that medicinal services colleagues are increasingly educated and gifted in evaluating and overseeing weariness. By comprehension the physical, psychosocial and enthusiastic necessities of a people understanding of cutting edge malignant growth, palliative consideration research exhibits that wellbeing experts can assist patients with adapting to living with disease related weakness. Such mediation can engage patients to keep up power over choices identifying with their mind and can help them to comprehend and discover importance in their weakness. REFERENCES Donnelly S, Walsh D.(1995) The side effects of cutting edge malignant growth. Semin Oncol 1995; 22(2 suppl 3):67â€72. Johnson, C. (1992). Adapting to sympathy exhaustion. Nursing, 22(4), 116, 118-120. Ream E. (2007) Fatigue in patients Nursing Stand.2007: 21(28)49-56

Cindy Sherman Essay -- essays research papers

Craftsman: Cindy Sherman Conceived: 1954 Glen Ridge, NJ and brought up in rural Long Island School: Earned a BA Degree in 1976, Buffalo State University of N.Y., where she at first  â â â â examined painting. She bombed the essential initial photography course in light of the fact that  â â â â of her challenges with the mechanical parts of making a print. She credits her next  â â â â photography educator with acquainting her with calculated workmanship, which she says had a  â â â â freeing impact on her.  â â â â Graduated in 1977 and moved to N.Y. Show: First review presentation of her work, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1982  â â â â followed by a review at the Whitney Museum of American Art, N.Y. 1987  â â â â The total arrangement (Film Stills) was first shown at the Hirshhorn Museum in  â â â â Washington D.C., 1995  â â â â Lives and works in N.Y. Film Stills: Series of highly contrasting photos made from 1977 to 1980, arrangement of 69,  â â â â incorporates 7 shading works extending in date from 1980 to 1992  â â â â Many taken in Sherman's condo, she assumes each job herself, in spite of the fact that they are  â â â â not self-pictures. She doesn't uncover herself, however shows the numerous covers of  â â â â f...

Negative Bias Why Were Hardwired for Negativity

Negative Bias Why We're Hardwired for Negativity Basics Print What Is the Negativity Bias? By Kendra Cherry facebook twitter Kendra Cherry, MS, is an author, educational consultant, and speaker focused on helping students learn about psychology. Learn about our editorial policy Kendra Cherry Updated on April 11, 2019 More in Psychology Basics Psychotherapy Student Resources History and Biographies Theories Phobias Emotions Sleep and Dreaming In This Article Table of Contents Expand What Is the Negativity Bias? What the Research Says Examples of Negative Bias Evidence Effects How to Overcome Negative Bias View All Back To Top Have you ever found yourself dwelling on an insult or fixating on your mistakes? Criticisms often have a greater impact than compliments and bad news frequently draws more attention than good. The reason for this is that negative events have a greater impact on our brains than positive ones. Psychologists refer to this as the negative bias (also called the negativity bias), and it can have a powerful effect on your behavior, your decisions, and even your relationships. Verywell / Brianna Gilmartin     What Is the Negativity Bias? The negative bias is our tendency not only to register negative stimuli more readily but also to dwell on these events. Also known as positive-negative asymmetry, this negativity bias means that we feel the sting of a rebuke more powerfully than we feel the joy of praise. This psychological phenomenon explains why bad first impressions can be so difficult to overcome and why past traumas can have such long lingering effects. In almost any interaction, we are more likely to notice negative things and later remember them more vividly. As humans, we tend to: Remember traumatic experiences better than positive onesRecall insults better than praiseReact more strongly to negative stimuliThink about negative things more frequently than positive onesRespond more strongly to negative events than to equally positive ones For example, you might be having a great day at work when a co-worker makes an offhand comment that you find irritating. You then find yourself stewing over his words for the rest of the workday. When you get home from work and someone asks you how your day was, you reply that it was terribleâ€"even though it was overall quite good despite that one negative incident. This bias toward the negative leads you to pay much more attention to the bad things that happen, making them seem much more important than they really are. What the Research Says Research has shown that across a wide array of psychological events, people tend to focus more on the negative as they try to make sense of the world. We pay more attention to negative events than positive ones. We tend to learn more from negative outcomes and experiences. We even tend to make decisions based on negative information more than positive data. It is the “bad things” that grab our attention, stick to our memories, and, in many cases, influence the decisions that we make. Motivation Some finding from psychological research includes that the negative bias influences motivation to complete a task. People are less motivated when an incentive results in gaining something, but are more motivated when an incentive will avoid the loss of something. Bad News Additionally, studies have shown that negative news is more likely to be perceived as truthful. Since negative information draws greater attention, it also may be seen as having greater validity. This might be why bad news seems to garner more attention. Politics Differences in negativity bias have also been linked to political ideology. Some research suggests that conservatives may have stronger psychological responses to negative information than liberals. Some evidence, for example, has found that people who consider themselves politically conservative are more likely to rate ambiguous stimuli as threatening. Such differences in the negativity bias might explain why some people are more likely to value things such as tradition and security while others are more open to embracing ambiguity and change. Examples of Negative Bias The negative bias can have a variety of real-world effects on how people think and act. Do any of these situations and events seem familiar? You received a performance review at work was quite positive overall and noted your strong performance and achievements. A few constructive comments pointed out areas where you could improve, and you find yourself fixating on those remarks. Rather than feeling good about the positive aspects of your review, you feel upset and angry about the few critical comments.After an argument with your significant other, you find yourself focusing on all of your partner’s flaws. Instead of acknowledging his good points, you ruminate over all of his imperfections. Even the most trivial of faults are amplified, while positive characteristics are overlooked.  You still vividly recall humiliating yourself in front of your friends, even though the event happened years ago. You find yourself cringing with embarrassment over it, even though your friends have probably forgotten about it entirely. Evidence Our tendency to pay more attention to bad things and overlook good things is likely a result of evolution. Earlier in human history, paying attention to bad, dangerous, and negative threats in the world was literally a matter of life and death. Those who were more attuned to danger and who paid more attention to the bad things around them were more likely to survive. This meant they were also more likely to hand down the genes that made them more attentive to danger. The evolutionary perspective suggests that this tendency to dwell on the negative more than the positive is simply one way the brain tries to keep us safe. Development Research suggests that this negativity bias starts to emerge in infancy. Very young infants tend to pay greater attention to positive facial expression and tone of voice, but this begins to shift as they near one year of age. Brain studies indicate that around this time, babies begin to experience greater brain responses to negative stimuli. This suggests that the brains negative bias emerges during the latter half of a child’s first year of life. There is some evidence that the bias may actually start even earlier in development. One study found that infants as young as three-months-old show signs of the negativity bias when making social evaluations of others. The Brains Response Neuroscientific evidence has shown that there is greater neural processing in the brain in response to negative stimuli. Studies that involve measuring event-related brain potentials (ERPs), which show the brains response to specific sensory, cognitive, or motor stimuli have shown that the negative stimuli elicit a larger brain response than positive ones. In studies conducted by psychologist John Cacioppo, participants were shown pictures of either positive, negative, or neutral images. The researchers then observed electrical activity in the brain. Negative images produced a much stronger response in the cerebral cortex than did positive or neutral images. Due to this surge in activity in a critical information processing area of the brain, our behaviors and attitudes tend to be shaped more powerfully by bad news, experiences, and information. Effects While we may no longer need to be on constant high-alert as our early ancestors needed to be in order to survive, the negativity bias still has a starring role in how our brains operate. Research has shown that negative bias can have a wide variety of effects on how people think, respond, and feel. Some of the everyday areas where you might feel the results of this bias include in your relationships, decision-making, and the way you perceive people. Relationships The negativity bias can have a profound effect on your relationships. The bias might lead people to expect the worst in others, particularly in close relationships where people have known each other for a long time. For example, you might negatively anticipate how your partner will react to something and go into the interaction with your defenses already on high alert. Arguments and resentment are often the results. When it comes to relationships, it is valuable to remember that negative comments usually carry much more weight than positive ones. Being aware of our own tendency to fixate on the negative is also important. By understanding this natural human tendency, you can focus on finding ways to cut other people a break and to stop expecting the worst. Decision-Making The negative bias can have an influence on the decision-making process. In their famous work, Nobel-prize winning researchers Kahneman and Tversky found that when making decisions, people consistently place greater weight on negative aspects of an event than they do on positive ones. This tendency to overemphasize the negative can have an impact on the choices that people make and the risks that they are willing to take. When imagining scenarios involving either gaining a certain amount of money or losing the same amount of money, the risk of loss tends to loom larger in peoples minds. People often fear the consequences of the negative outcome more than they desire the potential positive gains, even when the two possibilities are equivalent. People have a stronger negative reaction to losing $20 than the positive feelings they have from gaining $20. People Perception When forming impressions of others, people also tend to focus more on negative information. For example, studies have shown that when given both “good” and “bad” adjectives to describe another person’s character, participants give greater weight to the bad descriptors when forming a first impression. How to Overcome Negative Bias The negativity bias can take a toll on your mental health. It can cause you to dwell on dark thoughts, hurt your relationships with loved ones, and make it difficult to maintain an optimistic outlook on life. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to change your thinking and fight the tendency toward negative thinking. Stop Negative Self-Talk Start paying attention to the type of thoughts that run through your mind. After an event takes place, you might find yourself thinking things like “I shouldn’t have done that.” This negative self-talk shapes how you think about yourself and others. A better tactic is to stop those thoughts whenever they begin. Instead of fixating on past mistakes that cannot be changed, consider what you have learned and how you might apply that in the future. Positive Self Talk for a Better Life Reframe the Situation How you talk to yourself about events, experiences, and people plays a large role in shaping how you interpret events. When you find yourself interpreting something in a negative way or only focusing on the bad aspect of the situation, look for ways to reframe the events in a more positive light. This doesn’t mean ignoring potential dangers or wearing rose-colored glassesâ€"it simply means refocusing so that you give fair and equal weight to good events. Establish New Patterns When you find yourself ruminating on things, look for an uplifting activity to pull yourself out of this negative mindset. For example, if you find yourself mentally reviewing some unpleasant event or outcome, consciously try to redirect your attention elsewhere and engage in an activity that brings you joy. Listening to upbeat music, going for a walk, or reading a good book are all ways to get your mind off negative thoughts. Savor Positive Moments Because it takes more for positive experiences to be remembered, it is important to give extra attention to good things that happen. Where negative things might be quickly transferred and stored in your long-term memory, you need to make more of an effort to get the same effect from happy moments. So when something great happens, take a moment to really focus on it. Replay the moment several times in your memory and focus on the wonderful feelings the memory evokes. A Word From Verywell The negativity bias can have a powerful impact on your behavior, but being aware of it means that you can take steps to adopt a more positive outlook on life. Taking a more mindful approach that involves being aware of your own tendency toward negativity and consciously elevating happier thoughts to the forefront of awarenessâ€"this is one of the best ways to combat negative bias. Ruminating on the negative can take a serious toll, so taking steps to combat this bias can play a role in boosting your mental well-being. The Best Types of Happiness

Gandhis principles of simple living Essay - 2041 Words

Gandhi: A Man of Principle George C. Wallace, the United States Secretary of State when Mohandas K. Gandhi was assassinated, said that Gandhi â€Å"had become a spokesman for the conscience of all mankind-a man who made humility and simple truth more powerful than empires† (Gandhi, np). Gandhi is well known for his leadership in the liberation of India from Britain, but his main goal and message transcends beyond the acts he did, into everyday living. Gandhi promoted simple living, non-violence, and forgiveness as a way to unite all people peacefully. These principles helped him to liberate his people and to teach them a lesson that all can learn. Much of Gandhi’s philosophy is rooted in what he learned as a child. From his†¦show more content†¦Gandhi was celibate for over four decades. He strived for a more simple life in order to have more time for community service. He gave back all compensation, including gifts that were given to him. His goal in living simply was to know his own heart and to reach the hearts of others (Leigh, np). Gandhi would never let another person serve him, not even a servant; he always served them (Gandhi, np). Gandhi taught that happiness does not come with things, but with work and pride in what you do. Knowing this, it was necessary for local skills to be revived in their community (Gandhi, np). Under British rule, Indian principles of simple living had been reduced. The Indians could be found adopting habits of the West such as expensive clothing and tea. They even ate meat, despite it being often against their religion (The Higher Taste, 28). In order for the country to gain independence from Britain, Gandhi realized that they must be independent economically. Gandhi walked the country, offering spinning wheels to people as an alternative to purchasing British goods (â€Å"Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi†, 203). Part of Gandhi’s goal in living simply was to unite people as equals. There were two kinds of slavery in India, as Gandhi claimed, the women and the Untouchables, the members of the exterior castes. He strived to end both (Gandhi, np). He saw women as people of great courage andShow MoreRelatedMartin Luther King Jr. And Gandhi1132 Words   |  5 PagesThere are always pros and cons to being a leader to millions, but Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi’s â€Å"non-traditional† non-violence philosophy triumphed over it all for the greater good of the people. â€Å"What is the philosophy of nonviolence?† According to Nonviolence on the Peace Pledge Union Website: Nonviolence means abstaining from the use of physical force to achieve an aim. It is a philosophy, a principle, and a practice. As an ethical philosophy, it upholds the view that moral behaviour excludesRead MoreGandhi : Gandhi And Essence Of His Movement1613 Words   |  7 Pagesfound many opportunities in his youth to meet people of all faiths. 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He himself remained a committed Hindu throughout his lifeRead MoreMahatma Gandhi`s Philosophy of Modern Civiliciation Essay2780 Words   |  12 PagesHighlight and assess Gandhi’s critique of â€Å"modern civilization† and relate it to the debate about the nature and practice of development that surfaced with Gandhi’s 1945 exchange with Nehru [in Sudhir Chandra’s essay] and continue into the post-independence era is with us today. â€Å"Through the ‘successor’ †¦ Gandhi was pitted against a whole discourse which the ‘successor’ and virtually the whole country considered as the only rational mode of ordering life, be it individual or collective†Read MoreBiography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi1995 Words   |  8 Pagesphrased that God is truth. In other cases the only visible change would turn this statement into Truth is God. Thus according to perception of belief of Gandhi Truth belongs to God (Fischer, 2002). 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On the other hand, nonviolence is not chosen for this reason alone. It is chosen because, as a matter of

Impact of Rhythm and Blues on African-American Culture Essay

Rhythm and blues, also known today as â€Å"R B†, has been one of the most influential genres of music within the African American Culture, and has evolved over many decades in style and sound. Emerging in the late 1940s rhythm and blues, sometimes called jump blues, became dominant black popular music during and after WWII. Rhythm and blues artists often sung about love, relationships, life troubles, and sometimes focused on segregation and race struggles. Rhythm and blues helped embody what was unique about black American culture and validate it as something distinctive and valuable. The term â€Å"rhythm and blues† was coined in 1947 by a white man named Jerry Wexler who was a reporter, editor, and writer for Billboard Magazine. The record†¦show more content†¦From the 1950s to the 1970s rhythm and blues bands usually consisted of piano, guitars, drums saxophone, bass, and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists. New World Encyclopedia (2008) st ates As rhythm and blues combined the elements of jazz, gospel music and the blues, it thus created a very personalized form of melody and rhythm which has become known as one of the outstanding styles of American music. From jazz and its combination of African black folk music blended with European folk and pop music, rhythm and blues incorporated the syncopated beats supported by colorful chordal combinations to mirror the emotions and experiences of the composer and singer/musician. The term rhythm and blues has had several different meanings. In the early 1950s it applied to blues records, in the late 1950s it applied to electric blues along with gospel and soul, in the 1960s it was called soul music, and in the 1970s it was a blanket term for soul, funk, and disco. Much of the popular electric guitar-led blues bands like Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, and BB King that came from Memphis and Chicago were considered rhythm and blues since they appealed to the older demographic. The br oadcasting and recording industries did not solely represent the conquering racial assumptions of the 1950s, they internalized them and helped to continue them. Racial conventions permeated the organization and structure of the music industry at every level. The very existenceShow MoreRelatedAfrican American Music Culture1490 Words   |  6 PagesAfrican American Music Culture Jakiella James â€Å"African-American gospel music is a major influence in nearly all genres of modern popular music, from rhythm ‘n blues to jazz, from soul to rock ‘n roll. The musical genre is a unique expression of the black experience in America? The emotionally-charged, wailing vocals and syncopated rhythms give the music a distinctive style. 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ByRead MoreAfrican American Vernacular Traditions: Integrated Into Modern Culture1292 Words   |  6 PagesAfrican American Vernacular Traditions: Integrated Into Modern Culture African American vernacular traditions have been around for many centuries and still cease to exist in their culture. The vernacular traditions of the African Americans started when slaves were existent in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. It is believed that the slaves spoke a mix of Creole and partial English, in which they had to create in order to communicate between them discreetly. The vernacular traditions originatedRead MoreRagtime And Blues : The History And Their Influence On Jazz1581 Words   |  7 PagesRagtime and Blues: The History and Their Influence on Jazz In the city of New Orleans, from parades to clubs and from weddings to funerals, one element usually remained constant throughout all these events: the music that permeated the air. 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Political economy of agrarian change Free Essays

string(77) " implementation far exceeds benefits of reform \(Rashid and Quibria, 1995\)\." Introduction Are redistributive land reforms possible and if so are they desirable today? Land reform (LR) is defined as a ‘legislation intended and likely to redistribute ownership of current farmland, and thus benefit the poor by raising their absolute and relative status, power, and/or income, compared with likely situations without the legislation’ (Lipton, 2009:124). Thus, land-based wealth and power are transferred from the monopoly control of private landed class to landless working poor. This, however, is far from being universal. We will write a custom essay sample on Political economy of agrarian change or any similar topic only for you Order Now LR has had a rollercoaster ride in the toolbox of development strategies from a panacea that would cure all ills and help replicate the successes of Japan and Korea, to venom that destroys property rights and creates unviable production units that lead to agricultural decline and urban migration as it has purportedly done in Latin America. The issue of LR is indeed complex and nuanced. A deeper understanding of LR, therefore, is imperative. This essay discusses the desirability and possibility of LR. On one spectrum, it will argue for the desirability of land reform in terms of efficiency and poverty reduction. On the other spectrum, it will venture arguments for the possibility of LR. It concludes that LR remains alive, active and acts as a beacon of hope for those with limited or no access to land. This essay begins assessing the possibility of LR in contemporary developing countries. It argues that LR is not only possible but an ongoing battle. It is back on the policy agenda of international development institutions since the 1990s and has not disappeared since then (Borras, 2010). It was in the mid-1990s when land struggles caught the attention of the world. Three of these were the most important, the Chiapas uprising in Mexico, the state-investigated land invasions by black landless poor of white commercial farms in Zimbabwe, and the resurgence of militant peasant land occupations in Brazil reminiscent of the actions by the peasant land of the 1950s but much greater in scale and political sophistication (Akram-Lodhi et al, 2007). While the international development community grappled with the meanings and implications of such complex conflicts, trans-national agrarian movements (TAMs) emerged (Borras, 2010). La Via Campesina (VC) is to be mentioned, beside the Internationa l Federation of Agricultural Producers and the IPC for Food Sovereignty. VC, for example, is an international movement of poor peasants and small farmers from the global South and North, which was established in 1993 as a critical response to neoliberalism and which is still very much active today (Ibid, 2010). VC validates what Ronald Herring (2003) observed, namely that LR was taken off the ‘policy agenda’ of national and international agencies in the 1980s, but never left the ‘political agendas’ of the peasants and their organisations. Herring explained that ‘even dead LR are not dead; they become nodes around which future peasant mobilisations emerge because promises unkept keep movements alive’ (Ibid, 2003: 123). Today, as in the case 50 years ago, severe poverty remains mainly rural with extreme land inequalities. As the World Bank study in 2003 shows 17.8% of the population in East and South East Asia live under 1.25$. The figure however is much higher for Latin America (38.6%) and drastic in Sub-Saharan Africa (50.3%). Further, though the LR thrust weakened from the mid-1970s, observers (de Janvry and Sadoulet,1989) saw factors tending to revive it. First, form the mid-1980s, spreading democracy and political organisation led to civil-society activism, including land invasions to press for enforcement of unimplemented LR laws (Binswanger-Mkhize, 2009). Second, growth of new markets induced many giant, near-feudal haciendas to become commercial farms; turned tied workers from feudal workers into casual, part-time employees, who are freer to press for LR (Bernstein, 2003). Third, in faster-growing countries, urban growth shifted visible poverty priorities at national levels from farms towards cities (Lipton, 2009). Thus, internal dynamics – urbanisation, unequal land and power distribution, and the expansion of democratic-consciousness among the rural population – supported, rather than kill, LR in twenty-first century. Since the Mexican revolution of 1910, internal dynamics decide whether LR slows, pauses, resumes or accelerates. Sometimes it was seen as complete, either having reached its limits or succumbed to limitations, mainly underperformance and unpopularity due to collectivist rather than distributives approaches (Olsen, 1971). But in no country did LR quite die or became impossible rather it has resumed or speeded up. Indeed in some countries LR sputtered on with many stops and starts. The timing of slowdowns or reversals varied, from 1910 in Mexico or 1973 in Chile. The timing of resumption or acceleration also varied, from the early 1990s in Brazil to 2006-08 in Bolivia and Venezuela (Sen, 1997). Many huge farms have partly transformed from haciendas to partly modernised commercial farms but gross, growth-inhibiting, and largely inherited land inequality remains unaddressed – making LR vital and crucial as ever. LR, therefore, is not impossible. Much had happened; some is happening now; more remains relevant and likely. Globally, LR recedes and advances, is fulfilled or abandoned, inspires new pressures and programmes or becomes dormant with old ones. Since LR is still not only possible today but also a burning issue, the question now is whether it is also desirable. Opponents of LR, for example, Lipton (2008) argue that with increased expansion of capitalism, large farms become more suitable than small farms – rendering LR superfluous. Worldwide, rapid technical change and globalisation confront farmers with transformed processing and marketing arrangements, often impinging on production. Larger farms are considered under these circumstances as more efficient, thus advantages of smallness are reversed by economic development, globalisation and supermarkets. Moreover, it is argued that LR is internally inconsistent often due to loopholes inserted by lawmakers under pressure from large landowners (Ibid, 2008). LR, so argued, gives ‘too’ much power to the state so that the goal of putting control of land in the hands of the poor is subverted, and the reform abused to extract enforced surplus from rural people, in cluding the poor. Also argued is that LR is politically infeasible because political and social costs of implementation far exceeds benefits of reform (Rashid and Quibria, 1995). You read "Political economy of agrarian change" in category "Essay examples" Yet, all these arguments considered are as amiss. There are two different discourses arguing in favour of LR. The one is Marxist, positivist, evolutionist, the other, neo-liberal and technocratic (Borras et al, 2010). The one has developed in Eastern and Central Europe during the late nineteenth century; the other after World War II in the technocratic language of development policy. Both traditions have resonances in today’s LR debate, however with competing political ideologies, reasoning, and conclusions. While it must be acknowledged that the debate about LR also includes institutional economics or livelihood economics, a further inquiry thereof is beyond the scope of this essay (Cousins et al., 2010). The main neo-liberal argument for LR lies in the inverse-relationship paradigm (IR) (Deiniger, 1999). The rationale is that small scale farmers are residual claimants to profits and have an incentive to provide greater efforts in the process of production. The reason for this is the following: small farms have advantages in managing labour, but larger farms in managing capital. Capital and large-farm advantage loom larger as a source of higher land productivity in developed, labour scarce rural areas; labour, and small-farm advantage, count for more in developing, capital scarce countries. Griffin, Khan and Ickowitz (2002) conclude that since the ratio of interest rates to wages is relatively low in large farms with access to credit, they tend to adopt relatively more capital intensive method of production. Small farmers on the other hand, so argued, tend to have worse access to capital and therefore tend to economize on it by adopting relatively more labour intensive technology. Sma ll farmers, therefore, generate more employment. Since the factor proportions are typically skewed in favour of labour as the abundant, small farms utilize resources more efficiently. Following this line of reasoning, there appears to be a clear policy outcome; economic policies should be geared towards reallocating land away from large farm holdings to small family farms since it is the most effective means of boosting efficiency and output. The desirability of LR based on IR, however, is disputable. Today, it is assumed that the connection between size and productivity is fallacious – even among neo-liberal economists. While the World Bank supported the IR in 1975, it now claims that ‘land ownership ceiling have been generally ineffective†¦to facilitate the break-up of big farms, and instead have led to red tapes, spurious subdivisions, and corruption’ (Binswanger-Mkhize, 2009). To argue further, IR paradigm suffers from methodological shortcomings – semantic relativism. What is a ‘small’ farmThere is no general consensus on this and it varies with each case study on IR. For example, Van Zyl (1996) conducted a study into South African agriculture in which he stated that, ‘significant efficiency gains can be made if farm sizes in the commercial sector become smaller (in Sender and Johnston, 2004:152). However, the definition of a ‘small farm’ used in this st udy was one with over 500 hectares. To argue that a 500 hectare farm is a ‘small’ scale farm is preposterous when compared to a small farm in Bangladesh which normally counts for 1-2 hectare (Khan, 2004). The term ‘small’ is used ambiguously in many investigations into agriculture and productivity. Therefore, until there is a clear definition of what constitutes a ‘small’ farm, it is difficult to accept evidence about higher productivity on ‘small’ farms without a pinch of salt. Second, IR suffers from theoretical limitations. IR ignores peasant differentiation and differences in land quality (Byres, 2004b). Small peasants are not heterogeneous. In each size group, some farms are run and worked by kin, others by employees; some are remote, others peri-urban; some have favourable land, others not, some are well-managed, others not. Simple measures, which regress annual farm output per hectare against farm size, miss out these factors. In statistics term, the ‘bivariate’ IR hides ‘missing variables’, and thus hides ‘unobserved heterogeneity’ within farm size-groups (Dyer, 2004). Moreover, smaller farms may have higher output per hectare, not because of its smallness, but because of its higher land-water quality (Ibid, 2004). Small farm land with poor soil quality can not be a guarantee for higher agricultural output. The desirability of LR from a Marxist perspective, however takes a different stance. According to political economists, LR’s desirability lies in its contribution to the resolution of the agrarian question (AQ). The AQ constitutes ‘the continued existence in the countryside, in a substantive sense, of obstacles to an unleashing of accumulation in both the countryside itself and more generally — in particular, the accumulation associated with capitalist industrialisation’ (Byres, 2004a).Byres’ definition demonstrates the historical contribution of LR to develop capitalist economies. It was LR that unleashed the forces of production necessary for a ‘primitive accumulation’ by eroding feudal and semi-feudal relations of production and replacing them with a class of capitalist farmers and one of wage labourers. The resolution of the AQ was achieved in a variety of ways, ‘from above’, as in the case of nineteenth century Prussia, where a land owning class metamorphosed into an agrarian capitalist class, or ‘from below’ in America, where peasants differentiate themselves over time into classes of agrarian capital (Ibid, 2004a). To destroy the power of pre-capitalist property class, LR is required. The function of LR in this context, therefore, lies in its contribution as the promoter of capitalism in pre-capitalist areas. Contemporary AQ, however, is centred on the crisis of the reproduction of increasingly fragmented classes of labour within a capitalist system (Bernstein, 2009). Here, the desirability of LR is argued on the basis of securing the livelihood of peasants. Land is seen as ‘a basic livelihood asset, the principal form of natural capital from which people produce food and earn a living’ (Cousins et al 2010:32). Land also ‘provides a supplementary source of livelihoods for rural workers and the urban poor’ and ‘as a heritable asset, land is the basis for the wealth and livelihood security of future rural generations’ (Ibid, 2010:33). Moreover, Kay (1988) buttresses LR by arguing that small-scale farming is multiplier-rich. LR enhances growth for the overall economy because family farmers spend more of their incomes in the locally produced goods than do larger farms, creating a positive relationship between family farms and non-farm incomes in the loca l economy. In China, for instance, access to land enabled peasants to take increased risk and move into non-farm activities which produced the boom in small-scale entrepreneurship (Bramall, 2004). From a Marxist perspective henceforth, desirability of LR not only results in capital accumulation but in improved prospects for the livelihood security of differentiated classes of labour, for whom farming may be only one source of income. So far we have considered the desirability of LR entirely from an economic perspective. Leaving this aside, LR has also major socio-political implications – buttressing the desirability argument. Advocates of political LR, appreciate, for instance, the dissolution of feudal relationships of production and excessively concentrated and exploitative elite power structures (Bhaduri, 1973). While the main goal of land reformers is to enhance the rural poor’s access to land, it is also to reduce poverty, inequality, and to increase liberty (Sen, 2001). Having land on their own, the poor rely less on non-farm employment, emergency loans, or trade with local ‘rural tyrants’ (Hall, 2004) who are almost always major land controllers, but often also employers, landlords, lenders with interlocking market power over things that the local poor can neither live without nor, in many cases readily get elsewhere. Political LR, also include the creation of political stability and peace. In post-conflict situations, this would suggest a focus on provision of land to war-veterans and people displaced by war. In Zimbabwe, for instance, LR focused on white-owned farms and exempted black owners from expropriation (Jacobs, 2000). In post-colonial situations, the political LR also included correcting the racial imbalance in land ownership (Algeria, East-Southern Africa) and empowering members of the new elite (Kenya and Zimbabwe) (Lipton, 2004). Therefore LR, apart from having economic benefits, contributes to unlock many of today’s rural societies from quasi-feudalism. LR – its desirability and possibility – has been hotly debated among various economic ideologies. Yet, in a world of continuing poverty and inequality, slow agricultural growth, changing economic structures, rapid urbanisation, profound challenges of climate structures, and rapid urbanisation, institutions, policies and pressures concerning access to and use of land are as important as ever. In the past century, LR played a central role in the time-paths of rural and national poverty, progress, freedom, conflict, and suffering. Arguing that LR is ‘passe’- is therefore erroneous. And such thinking underrates the reach of LR. LR, like education or tax reform, is a thrust towards more equitable and efficient distribution. The thrust weakens or strengthens with economic situations and power balances, but does not become impossible. For the next half-century at least, where agriculture continues central to the lives of the poor, the role of LR will not decline. Indeed growing populations, scarcer land, and the low and falling employment intensity of non-farm growth may well increase pressures for and resistance to LR. Although, it carries the potential for severe land conflicts, it nevertheless permits huge gains, in terms of liberty and peace as well as growth and reduced inequality. Bibliography Akram-Lodhi, A.H., Borras, M. Jr, Kay,C., and McKinley, T. (2007), Land, poverty and livelihoods in an era of globalization.London: Routledge. Bernstein, H. (2009), ‘Agrarian questions from transition to globalization’, in A Haroon Akram Lodhi and C Kay (eds), Peasants and Globalization. Political economy, rural transformation and the agrarian question, London: Routledge. Bernstein, H. (2003), ‘Land Reform in Southern Africa in World-Historical Perspective’, Review of African Political Economy, vol.30, no.96. Bhaduri, A. (1973), ‘A study in economic backwardness under semi-feudalism’. Economic Journal vol.5, no.83. Binswanger-Mkhize, H. P (2009), Agricultural Land Redistribution. Towards a Greater Consensus. Washington, D.C: World Bank. Bloch, M. (1964), Feudal Society: The growth of ties of dependence. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Borras, S., Kay C., and Lahiff E. (2007), ‘Market-Led Agrarian Reform: Policies, Performance and Prospects’, Third World Quarterly, vol.28, no.8. Borras, S., and Franco, J. (2010), ‘Contemporary Discourses and Contestations around Pro-poor Land Policies and Land Governance’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol. 10, no.1. Borras, S. (2010), ‘The Politics of Transnational Agrarian Movements’, Development and Change, vol. 41, no.5. Bramall, C. (2004), ‘Chinese Land Reform in Long-Run Perspective and in the Wider East Asian Context’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol.4, no 12. Byres, T.J. (2004a), ‘Neo-Classical Neo-populism 25 Years On: Deja vu and Deja Passe. Towards a Critique ’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol. 4, no.12. Byres, T.J. (2004b), ‘Introduction: Contextualizing and Interrogating the GKI Case for Redistributive Land Reform’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol. 4, no 12. Chimhowu, A. and Woodhouse, A. (2006), ‘Customary vs. Private Property RightsDynamics and Trajectories of Vernacular Land Markets in Sub-Saharan Africa’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol.6, no.3. Cousins, B. and Scoones I. (2010), ‘Contested paradigms of ‘viability’ in redistributive land reform: perspectives from Southern Africa’. Journalof Peasant Studies, vol. 37, no. 1. Deininger, K. (1999), ‘Making Negotiated Land Reform Work: Initial Experience from Columbia, Brazil and South Africa’, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, Washington D.C: World Bank. Deininger, K. (2003), Land Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction. Washington, D.C: World Bank. Dyer, G. (2004), ‘Redistributive Land Reform: No April Rose. The Poverty of Berry and Cline and GKI on the Inverse Relationship’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol.4., no12. De Janvry, A. and Sadoulet, E. (1989), ‘Path dependent policy reforms: from land reform to rural development in Columbia’, in Hoff et al., 2003, the Economics of Rural organisation: Theory, practise, and Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Griffin, K., Khan, R., and Ickowitz, A.(2002), ‘Poverty and the Distribution of Land’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol. 2, no.3 Griffin, K., Khan, A.R., and Ickowitz, A. (2004), ‘In Defence of Neo-Classical Neo-Populism’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol. 4, no 3. Hall, R. (2004), ‘A Political Economy of Land Reform in South Africa’, Review of African Political Economy, vol.100, Herring, R. (2003) Carrots, Sticks and Ethnic Conflict: Rethinking Development Assistance. Michigan: University of Michigan Press. Jacobs, S. (2000), ‘Zimbabwe: Why Land Reform is a Gender Issue’, Sociological Research Online, vol. 5, no.2. Johnston, D. and Le Roux, H. (2007), ‘Leaving the Household out of Family Labour: The Implications for the Size-Efficiency Debate’, European Journal of Development Research. Kay, C. (1998), ‘Latin Americas agrarian reform: lights and shadows’. Land reform, Land Settlement and Co-operatives, vol.2, no.7. Kevane, M. and Gray, L.C. (1999), ‘A Woman’s Field is Made at Night: Gendered Land Rights and Norms in Burkina Faso’, Feminist Economics, vol. 5, no.1. Khan, M.H. (2004), ‘Power, Property Rights and the Issue of Land Reform: A General Case Illustrated with Reference to Bangladesh’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol.4, no 12. Lipton M. (2009), Land Reform in Developing Countries. Property rights and property wrongs. London: Routledge. Manji, A. (2003), ‘Capital, Labour and Land Relations in Africa: A Gender Analysis of the World Bank’s Policy Research Report on Land Institutions and Land Policy’, Third World Quarterly, vol. 24, no.1. Olsen, M. (1971), The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Peters, P. (2004), ‘Inequality and Social Conflict Over Land in Africa’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol.4, no.3. Rashid, S. and Quibria, M. (1995), Critical Issues in Asia Development: Theories, Experiences and Policies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Schultz, T. (1964) Transforming Traditional Agriculture. New Haven: Yale University Press. Sen, A. K. (1997), ‘Radical Needs and Moderate Reforms’, in J. Dreze and A.K Sen (eds), Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sen, A. K. (2001), Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sender, J. and Johnston, D. (2004), ‘Searching for a Weapon of Mass Production in Rural Africa: Unconvincing Arguments for Land Reform’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol. 4, no.12. Vergera-Camus, L. (2009), ‘The MST and the EZLN struggle for land: new forms of peasant rebellions’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol. 9, no.3. Walker, C. (2002). ‘Agrarian Change, Gender And Land Reform: A South African Case Study’, UNRISD Social Policy Development Programme, Paper no 10. Woodhouse, P. (2003), ‘African Enclosures: A Default Mode of Development’, World Development vol.31, no.10. How to cite Political economy of agrarian change, Essay examples

Political economy of agrarian change Free Essays

string(77) " implementation far exceeds benefits of reform \(Rashid and Quibria, 1995\)\." Introduction Are redistributive land reforms possible and if so are they desirable today? Land reform (LR) is defined as a ‘legislation intended and likely to redistribute ownership of current farmland, and thus benefit the poor by raising their absolute and relative status, power, and/or income, compared with likely situations without the legislation’ (Lipton, 2009:124). Thus, land-based wealth and power are transferred from the monopoly control of private landed class to landless working poor. This, however, is far from being universal. We will write a custom essay sample on Political economy of agrarian change or any similar topic only for you Order Now LR has had a rollercoaster ride in the toolbox of development strategies from a panacea that would cure all ills and help replicate the successes of Japan and Korea, to venom that destroys property rights and creates unviable production units that lead to agricultural decline and urban migration as it has purportedly done in Latin America. The issue of LR is indeed complex and nuanced. A deeper understanding of LR, therefore, is imperative. This essay discusses the desirability and possibility of LR. On one spectrum, it will argue for the desirability of land reform in terms of efficiency and poverty reduction. On the other spectrum, it will venture arguments for the possibility of LR. It concludes that LR remains alive, active and acts as a beacon of hope for those with limited or no access to land. This essay begins assessing the possibility of LR in contemporary developing countries. It argues that LR is not only possible but an ongoing battle. It is back on the policy agenda of international development institutions since the 1990s and has not disappeared since then (Borras, 2010). It was in the mid-1990s when land struggles caught the attention of the world. Three of these were the most important, the Chiapas uprising in Mexico, the state-investigated land invasions by black landless poor of white commercial farms in Zimbabwe, and the resurgence of militant peasant land occupations in Brazil reminiscent of the actions by the peasant land of the 1950s but much greater in scale and political sophistication (Akram-Lodhi et al, 2007). While the international development community grappled with the meanings and implications of such complex conflicts, trans-national agrarian movements (TAMs) emerged (Borras, 2010). La Via Campesina (VC) is to be mentioned, beside the Internationa l Federation of Agricultural Producers and the IPC for Food Sovereignty. VC, for example, is an international movement of poor peasants and small farmers from the global South and North, which was established in 1993 as a critical response to neoliberalism and which is still very much active today (Ibid, 2010). VC validates what Ronald Herring (2003) observed, namely that LR was taken off the ‘policy agenda’ of national and international agencies in the 1980s, but never left the ‘political agendas’ of the peasants and their organisations. Herring explained that ‘even dead LR are not dead; they become nodes around which future peasant mobilisations emerge because promises unkept keep movements alive’ (Ibid, 2003: 123). Today, as in the case 50 years ago, severe poverty remains mainly rural with extreme land inequalities. As the World Bank study in 2003 shows 17.8% of the population in East and South East Asia live under 1.25$. The figure however is much higher for Latin America (38.6%) and drastic in Sub-Saharan Africa (50.3%). Further, though the LR thrust weakened from the mid-1970s, observers (de Janvry and Sadoulet,1989) saw factors tending to revive it. First, form the mid-1980s, spreading democracy and political organisation led to civil-society activism, including land invasions to press for enforcement of unimplemented LR laws (Binswanger-Mkhize, 2009). Second, growth of new markets induced many giant, near-feudal haciendas to become commercial farms; turned tied workers from feudal workers into casual, part-time employees, who are freer to press for LR (Bernstein, 2003). Third, in faster-growing countries, urban growth shifted visible poverty priorities at national levels from farms towards cities (Lipton, 2009). Thus, internal dynamics – urbanisation, unequal land and power distribution, and the expansion of democratic-consciousness among the rural population – supported, rather than kill, LR in twenty-first century. Since the Mexican revolution of 1910, internal dynamics decide whether LR slows, pauses, resumes or accelerates. Sometimes it was seen as complete, either having reached its limits or succumbed to limitations, mainly underperformance and unpopularity due to collectivist rather than distributives approaches (Olsen, 1971). But in no country did LR quite die or became impossible rather it has resumed or speeded up. Indeed in some countries LR sputtered on with many stops and starts. The timing of slowdowns or reversals varied, from 1910 in Mexico or 1973 in Chile. The timing of resumption or acceleration also varied, from the early 1990s in Brazil to 2006-08 in Bolivia and Venezuela (Sen, 1997). Many huge farms have partly transformed from haciendas to partly modernised commercial farms but gross, growth-inhibiting, and largely inherited land inequality remains unaddressed – making LR vital and crucial as ever. LR, therefore, is not impossible. Much had happened; some is happening now; more remains relevant and likely. Globally, LR recedes and advances, is fulfilled or abandoned, inspires new pressures and programmes or becomes dormant with old ones. Since LR is still not only possible today but also a burning issue, the question now is whether it is also desirable. Opponents of LR, for example, Lipton (2008) argue that with increased expansion of capitalism, large farms become more suitable than small farms – rendering LR superfluous. Worldwide, rapid technical change and globalisation confront farmers with transformed processing and marketing arrangements, often impinging on production. Larger farms are considered under these circumstances as more efficient, thus advantages of smallness are reversed by economic development, globalisation and supermarkets. Moreover, it is argued that LR is internally inconsistent often due to loopholes inserted by lawmakers under pressure from large landowners (Ibid, 2008). LR, so argued, gives ‘too’ much power to the state so that the goal of putting control of land in the hands of the poor is subverted, and the reform abused to extract enforced surplus from rural people, in cluding the poor. Also argued is that LR is politically infeasible because political and social costs of implementation far exceeds benefits of reform (Rashid and Quibria, 1995). You read "Political economy of agrarian change" in category "Essay examples" Yet, all these arguments considered are as amiss. There are two different discourses arguing in favour of LR. The one is Marxist, positivist, evolutionist, the other, neo-liberal and technocratic (Borras et al, 2010). The one has developed in Eastern and Central Europe during the late nineteenth century; the other after World War II in the technocratic language of development policy. Both traditions have resonances in today’s LR debate, however with competing political ideologies, reasoning, and conclusions. While it must be acknowledged that the debate about LR also includes institutional economics or livelihood economics, a further inquiry thereof is beyond the scope of this essay (Cousins et al., 2010). The main neo-liberal argument for LR lies in the inverse-relationship paradigm (IR) (Deiniger, 1999). The rationale is that small scale farmers are residual claimants to profits and have an incentive to provide greater efforts in the process of production. The reason for this is the following: small farms have advantages in managing labour, but larger farms in managing capital. Capital and large-farm advantage loom larger as a source of higher land productivity in developed, labour scarce rural areas; labour, and small-farm advantage, count for more in developing, capital scarce countries. Griffin, Khan and Ickowitz (2002) conclude that since the ratio of interest rates to wages is relatively low in large farms with access to credit, they tend to adopt relatively more capital intensive method of production. Small farmers on the other hand, so argued, tend to have worse access to capital and therefore tend to economize on it by adopting relatively more labour intensive technology. Sma ll farmers, therefore, generate more employment. Since the factor proportions are typically skewed in favour of labour as the abundant, small farms utilize resources more efficiently. Following this line of reasoning, there appears to be a clear policy outcome; economic policies should be geared towards reallocating land away from large farm holdings to small family farms since it is the most effective means of boosting efficiency and output. The desirability of LR based on IR, however, is disputable. Today, it is assumed that the connection between size and productivity is fallacious – even among neo-liberal economists. While the World Bank supported the IR in 1975, it now claims that ‘land ownership ceiling have been generally ineffective†¦to facilitate the break-up of big farms, and instead have led to red tapes, spurious subdivisions, and corruption’ (Binswanger-Mkhize, 2009). To argue further, IR paradigm suffers from methodological shortcomings – semantic relativism. What is a ‘small’ farmThere is no general consensus on this and it varies with each case study on IR. For example, Van Zyl (1996) conducted a study into South African agriculture in which he stated that, ‘significant efficiency gains can be made if farm sizes in the commercial sector become smaller (in Sender and Johnston, 2004:152). However, the definition of a ‘small farm’ used in this st udy was one with over 500 hectares. To argue that a 500 hectare farm is a ‘small’ scale farm is preposterous when compared to a small farm in Bangladesh which normally counts for 1-2 hectare (Khan, 2004). The term ‘small’ is used ambiguously in many investigations into agriculture and productivity. Therefore, until there is a clear definition of what constitutes a ‘small’ farm, it is difficult to accept evidence about higher productivity on ‘small’ farms without a pinch of salt. Second, IR suffers from theoretical limitations. IR ignores peasant differentiation and differences in land quality (Byres, 2004b). Small peasants are not heterogeneous. In each size group, some farms are run and worked by kin, others by employees; some are remote, others peri-urban; some have favourable land, others not, some are well-managed, others not. Simple measures, which regress annual farm output per hectare against farm size, miss out these factors. In statistics term, the ‘bivariate’ IR hides ‘missing variables’, and thus hides ‘unobserved heterogeneity’ within farm size-groups (Dyer, 2004). Moreover, smaller farms may have higher output per hectare, not because of its smallness, but because of its higher land-water quality (Ibid, 2004). Small farm land with poor soil quality can not be a guarantee for higher agricultural output. The desirability of LR from a Marxist perspective, however takes a different stance. According to political economists, LR’s desirability lies in its contribution to the resolution of the agrarian question (AQ). The AQ constitutes ‘the continued existence in the countryside, in a substantive sense, of obstacles to an unleashing of accumulation in both the countryside itself and more generally — in particular, the accumulation associated with capitalist industrialisation’ (Byres, 2004a).Byres’ definition demonstrates the historical contribution of LR to develop capitalist economies. It was LR that unleashed the forces of production necessary for a ‘primitive accumulation’ by eroding feudal and semi-feudal relations of production and replacing them with a class of capitalist farmers and one of wage labourers. The resolution of the AQ was achieved in a variety of ways, ‘from above’, as in the case of nineteenth century Prussia, where a land owning class metamorphosed into an agrarian capitalist class, or ‘from below’ in America, where peasants differentiate themselves over time into classes of agrarian capital (Ibid, 2004a). To destroy the power of pre-capitalist property class, LR is required. The function of LR in this context, therefore, lies in its contribution as the promoter of capitalism in pre-capitalist areas. Contemporary AQ, however, is centred on the crisis of the reproduction of increasingly fragmented classes of labour within a capitalist system (Bernstein, 2009). Here, the desirability of LR is argued on the basis of securing the livelihood of peasants. Land is seen as ‘a basic livelihood asset, the principal form of natural capital from which people produce food and earn a living’ (Cousins et al 2010:32). Land also ‘provides a supplementary source of livelihoods for rural workers and the urban poor’ and ‘as a heritable asset, land is the basis for the wealth and livelihood security of future rural generations’ (Ibid, 2010:33). Moreover, Kay (1988) buttresses LR by arguing that small-scale farming is multiplier-rich. LR enhances growth for the overall economy because family farmers spend more of their incomes in the locally produced goods than do larger farms, creating a positive relationship between family farms and non-farm incomes in the loca l economy. In China, for instance, access to land enabled peasants to take increased risk and move into non-farm activities which produced the boom in small-scale entrepreneurship (Bramall, 2004). From a Marxist perspective henceforth, desirability of LR not only results in capital accumulation but in improved prospects for the livelihood security of differentiated classes of labour, for whom farming may be only one source of income. So far we have considered the desirability of LR entirely from an economic perspective. Leaving this aside, LR has also major socio-political implications – buttressing the desirability argument. Advocates of political LR, appreciate, for instance, the dissolution of feudal relationships of production and excessively concentrated and exploitative elite power structures (Bhaduri, 1973). While the main goal of land reformers is to enhance the rural poor’s access to land, it is also to reduce poverty, inequality, and to increase liberty (Sen, 2001). Having land on their own, the poor rely less on non-farm employment, emergency loans, or trade with local ‘rural tyrants’ (Hall, 2004) who are almost always major land controllers, but often also employers, landlords, lenders with interlocking market power over things that the local poor can neither live without nor, in many cases readily get elsewhere. Political LR, also include the creation of political stability and peace. In post-conflict situations, this would suggest a focus on provision of land to war-veterans and people displaced by war. In Zimbabwe, for instance, LR focused on white-owned farms and exempted black owners from expropriation (Jacobs, 2000). In post-colonial situations, the political LR also included correcting the racial imbalance in land ownership (Algeria, East-Southern Africa) and empowering members of the new elite (Kenya and Zimbabwe) (Lipton, 2004). Therefore LR, apart from having economic benefits, contributes to unlock many of today’s rural societies from quasi-feudalism. LR – its desirability and possibility – has been hotly debated among various economic ideologies. Yet, in a world of continuing poverty and inequality, slow agricultural growth, changing economic structures, rapid urbanisation, profound challenges of climate structures, and rapid urbanisation, institutions, policies and pressures concerning access to and use of land are as important as ever. In the past century, LR played a central role in the time-paths of rural and national poverty, progress, freedom, conflict, and suffering. 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