The Journal of Peasant Studies

A leading journal in the field of rural politics and development, The Journal of Peasant Studies ( JPS) provokes and promotes critical thinking about social structures, institutions, actors and processes of change in and in relation to the rural world. It fosters inquiry into how agrarian power relations between classes and other social groups are created, understood, contested and transformed. JPS pays special attention to questions of ‘agency’ of marginalized groups in agrarian societies, particularly their autonomy and capacity to interpret – and change – their conditions.

The Journal welcomes contributions on a wide range of contemporary and historical questions and perspectives related to rural politics and development; on issues that confront peasants, farmers, rural labourers, migrant workers, indigenous peoples, forest dwellers, pastoralists, fisherfolk and rural youth – both female and male – in different parts of the world.

JPS was founded in 1973 on the initiative of Terence J. Byres and its first editors were Byres, Charles Curwen and Teodor Shanin who are among the most important agrarian political economists.