The Political Ecology of Agrofuels

279 Pages·2014·3.397 MB·English

by  Kristina Dietz, Bettina Engels, Oliver Pye, Achim Brunnengräber

The Political Ecology of Agrofuels
This book explores the political ecology of agrofuels as an encompassing socio-
spatial transformation process consisting of a series of changing contexts, polit-
ical reconfigurations, and the restructuring of social and labour relations. It
includes conceptual chapters as well as case studies from different world regions
(North America, Europe, Latin America, sub- Saharan Africa, Asia) and levels
(local, national, transnational).
The Political Ecology of Agrofuels advances a conceptualization of agrofuels
that helps to fill existing research gaps. It covers global food regimes and agrar-
ian politics as well as political arenas such as energy, climate, transport and
trade. It reflects on the biophysical materiality of agrofuels, new forms of nature
appropriation, struggles, discursive framings, the building of hegemony, shifting
geopolitical constellations, socio-s patial configurations of power, the construc-
tion of territory, the agency of social movements and the different ways in which
agrofuels are politicized at different scales.
This book asks how patterns of mobility, emissions regulation, food and
energy production and consumption, and social relations (e.g. labour, class and
gender relations) are shaped and re- shaped by the materiality and representations
of agrofuels in both the Global South and North. The book provides tools for
thinking about the diversity of the conflicts, struggles and spatial, socio-
ecological and politico- economic reconfigurations and perpetuations engendered
by current production and consumption patterns in the agrofuel sector.
Kristina Dietz is a post doctoral Research Fellow at the International Research
Network on Interdependent Inequalities in Latin America, Berlin, Germany.
Bettina Engels is Deputy Assistant Professor for Development Politics and Pol-
itics of Africa at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.
Oliver Pye teaches Southeast Asian studies at Bonn University, Germany.
Achim Brunnengräber is Associate Professor at the Department of Political
and Social Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
Routledge ISS studies in rural livelihoods
Editorial Board:
A. Haroon Akram- Lodhi
Trent University
Saturnino M. Borras Jr
Institute of Social Studies
Cristóbal Kay (Chair)
Institute of Social Studies
and
Max Spoor
Institute of Social Studies
Routledge and the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, the Nether-
lands have come together to publish a new book series in rural livelihoods. The
series will include themes such as land policies and land rights, water issues,
food policy and politics, rural poverty, agrarian transformation, migration, rural-
oriented social movements, rural conflict and violence, among others. All books
in the series will offer rigorous, empirically grounded, cross-n ational com-
parative and inter-r egional analyses. The books will be theoretically stimulating,
but will also be accessible to policy practitioners and civil society activists.
1 Land, Poverty and Livelihoods 4 Agrarian Angst and Rural
in an Era of Globalization Resistance in Contemporary
Perspectives from developing and Southeast Asia
transition countries Edited by Dominique Caouette
Edited by A. Haroon Akram- and Sarah Turner
Lodhi, Saturnino M. Borras Jr.
and Cristóbal Kay 5 Water, Environmental Security
and Sustainable Rural
2 Peasants and Globalization Development
Political economy, agrarian Conflict and cooperation in
transformation and development Central Eurasia
Edited by A. Haroon Akram- Lodhi Edited by Murat Arsel and
and Cristóbal Kay Max Spoor
3 The Political Economy of Rural 6 Reforming Land and Resource
Livelihoods in Transition Use in South Africa
Economies Impact on livelihoods
Land, peasants and rural poverty Edited by Paul Hebinck and
in transition Charlie Shackleton
Edited by Max Spoor
7 Risk and Social Change in an 11 Rural Livelihoods, Regional
African Rural Economy Economies and Processes of
Livelihoods in pastoralist Change
communities Edited by Deborah Sick
John G. McPeak, Peter D. Little
and Cheryl R. Doss 12 Rural Development and the
Construction of New Markets
8 Public Policy and Agricultural Edited by Paul Hebinck,
Development Jan Douwe van der Ploeg and
Edited by Ha-J oon Chang Sergio Schneider
9 Social Conflict, Economic 13 The Political Ecology of
Development and the Extractive Agrofuels
Industry Edited by Kristina Dietz,
Evidence from South America Bettina Engels, Oliver Pye and
Edited by Anthony Bebbington Achim Brunnengräber
10 The Ecotourism- Extraction
Nexus
Political economies and rural
realities of (un)comfortable
bedfellows
Edited by Bram Büscher and
Veronica Davidov
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The Political Ecology of
Agrofuels
Edited by Kristina Dietz,
Bettina Engels, Oliver Pye and
Achim Brunnengräber
First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 selection and editorial material, Kristina Dietz, Bettina Engels,
Oliver Pye and Achim Brunnengräber; individual chapters, the
contributors.
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The political ecology of agrofuels / edited by Kristina Dietz, Bettina
Engels, Oliver Pye and Achim Brunnengräber.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Biomass energy–Political aspects. 2. Political ecology. I. Dietz,
Kristina, 1972–
HD9502.5.B542P65 2014
333.95'39–dc23 2014021425
ISBN: 978-1-138-01315-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-79540-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
Notes on contributors ix
Preface and acknowledgements xii
1 An introduction to the political ecology of agrofuels 1
KRISTINA DIETZ, OLIVER PYE, BETTINA ENGELS AND
ACHIM BRUNNENGRÄBER
2 The political ecology of agrofuels: conceptual remarks 16
MARKUS WISSEN
3 Territory, scale and networks: the spatial dynamics of
agrofuels 34
KRISTINA DIETZ, BETTINA ENGELS AND OLIVER PYE
4 The gendered political ecology of agrofuels expansion 53
BEN WHITE, CLARA M. PARK AND JULIA
5 Bridging the gap with agrofuels: energy hunger, energy
scarcity and climate change in the European Union 70
ACHIM BRUNNENGRÄBER
6 Agrofuels in the food regime 90
PHILIP MCMICHAEL
7 Agrofuels and land rights in Africa 115
EMMANUEL SULLE AND RUTH HALL
8 The discursive and material flexibility of Jatropha curcas 132
CAROL HUNSBERGER
viii Contents
9 Social- environmental conflicts and agrofuel crops: the case
of oil palm expansion in Colombia 148
VICTORIA MARIN- BURGOS
10 Green grabbing – the case of palm oil expansion in so- called
degraded areas in the eastern Brazilian Amazon 167
MARIA BACKHOUSE
11 Transnational space and workers’ struggles: reshaping the
palm oil industry in Malaysia 186
OLIVER PYE
12 Agrofuel networks: a case study of the regional agrodiesel
network in Chhattisgarh (India) 202
SHISHUSRI PRADHAN
13 US agrofuels in times of crisis: food, fuel, finance 218
AARON LEOPOLD
14 Immunization by neoliberalization: the strange non- death of
the win–win narrative in European agrofuel policy 236
THOMAS VOGELPOHL
Index 253
Contributors
Maria Backhouse is a sociologist and works as a research assistant at the Insti-
tute for Latin Amer ican Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. She recently fin-
ished her PhD thesis on green grabbing in the Brazilian Amazon in the
context of the state-s upported expansion of palm oil plantations. Her regional
focus is on Brazil and her disciplinary interests are political ecology, critical
development and postcolonial studies.
Achim Brunnengräber is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political
and Social Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, and coordinator of the research
project ‘Multi Level Governance-P erspective on Management of Nuclear
Waste Disposal’ at the Environmental Policy Research Centre (FFU). Key
teaching and research areas are: global and multi-l evel governance, inter-
national political economy (IPE), international environmental energy and
climate policy.
Kristina Dietz is currently a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the International
Research Network on Interdependent Inequalities in Latin America, desiguAL-
dades.net, at the Ibero-A merikanisches Institut, Berlin. Her key teaching and
research areas are: political ecology, conflicts over land and resources in Latin
America, climate and energy policy and spatial and democracy theory.
Bettina Engels is currently Deputy Assistant Professor of Development Politics
and Politics of Africa at the University of Bayreuth. Her key teaching and
research areas are: conflict over land and resources, spatial and action theory
and resistance, urban protest and social movements in Africa.
Ruth Hall is Associate Professor at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian
Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. She is
a co-f ounder and convenor of the Land Deal Politics Initiative, and coordina-
tor of the Future Agriculture Consortium’s research on land in Africa. Her
work addresses land rights, land reform, farm workers, agrarian reform, land
grabs and corporate expansion in African agriculture and food value chains.
Carol Hunsberger is Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the
University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. Her key teaching and