Abstract

This paper analyses contrasting discourses of climate-smart agriculture' (CSA) for their implications on control over and access to changing resources in agriculture. One of the principal areas of contestation around CSA relates to equity, including who wins and who loses, who is able to participate, and whose knowledge and perspectives count in the process. Yet to date, the equity implications of CSA remain an under-researched area. We apply an equity framework centred on procedure, distribution and recognition, to four different discourses. Depending on which discourses are mobilised, the analysis helps to illuminate: (1) how CSA may transfer the burden of responsibility for climate change mitigation to marginalised producers and resource managers (distributive equity); (2) how CSA discourses generally fail to confront entrenched power relations that may constrain or block the emergence of more pro-poor' forms of agricultural development, adaptation to climate change, or carbon sequestration and storage (procedural equity); (3) how CSA discourses can have tangible implications for the bargaining power of the poorest and most vulnerable groups (recognition). The paper contributes to work showing the need for deeper acknowledgement of the political nature of the transformations necessary to address the challenges caused by a changing climate for the agricultural sector.

Keywords

political economy; triple wins; climate-smart agriculture; climate change; discourses

Published in

Journal of Peasant Studies
2018, Volume: 45, number: 1, pages: 150-174
Publisher: ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

SLU Authors

• Rosén, Linus

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Nightingale, Andrea

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG1 End poverty in all its forms everywhere
SDG2 End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
SDG13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
SDG16 Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels


UKÄ Subject classification

Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalization Studies)


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2017.1351433

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/93992