For those who participated and those who missed the first episode of Agrarian Conversations — a webinar series in critical agrarian studies & scholar-activism: What can we learn from the world of pastoralism for wider agrarian struggles? January 27, 2021 featuring Ian Scoones, Maryam Rahmanian, and Rahma Hassan. The video recording of the first episode is now available on YouTube in English and Arabic:

There was a total of 983 who registered for the webinar. It was a huge success in many ways: the huge number of participants from all regions of the world, and among academic researchers and civil society activists. The conversation was engaging and vibrant, even when there was not enough time to address all questions from the participants. We can also improve on some aspects of the format, especially on the Q&A part, in the forthcoming episodes.

As mentioned, the Agrarian Conversations webinar series is a collective initiative of CASAS, TNI, PLAAS, ICAS, YARA, ERPI, PASTRES, RRUSHES-5 and Journal of Peasant Studies. It aims to address strategic and urgent issues in and in relation to the rural world today. It is located in the interdisciplinary field of critical agrarian studies, pursues a progressive pluralist tradition in scholar-activism, and committed to diversity. It is internationalist in orientation, with a significant perspective and representation from the Global South. Despite logistical challenges, we will aspire to run each episode always in multiple languages, and the combination of language will vary depending on the theme. The format is conversational: a brief input from the main speaker, brief intervention from a panel of discussants, and the rest of the time is open plenary (Q&A) discussion. A background paper will be provided in advance to help facilitate a conversational format. All episodes will be recorded and will be uploaded on Youtube. 

For those who missed the information about the background paper for the first episode, the paper by Ian Scoones is available free here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2020.1802249

Two papers mentioned during the webinar is one on pastoralists and jihadism, available free access until 31 January here: 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2018.1474457; and a grassroots voices type of paper, free access: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2020.1808969

And a newly released book on pastoralism: https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/GabbertLands

If you have queries, please feel free to contact any of co-organizers:

TNI — Katie Sandwell (c.sandwell@tni.org) or Jenny Franco (jennycfranco@tni.org)

CASAS – Tania Martinez (tania.e.martinez.cruz@gmail.com)

PLAAS – Ruth Hall (rhall@uwc.ac.za)

YARA – Cyriaque Hakizimana (chakizimana@plaas.org.za)

ICAS – Sergio Coronado (sergioandrescoronado@gmail.com)

ERPI -Natacha Bruna (natachabruna89@gmail.com)

PASTRES – Ian Scoones (I.Scoones@ids.ac.uk) 

RRUSHES-5 – Tsegaye Moreda (tsegayemoreda@yahoo.com)

Journal of Peasant Studies – Annie Shattuck (annieshattuck@gmail.com) or Jun Borras (junborras5@gmail.com)

*****