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Articles by Giulio Iocco
Sociologia Ruralis, 2020
This article contributes to the debate on the rural dimensions of the current global surge of rig... more This article contributes to the debate on the rural dimensions of the current global surge of right‐wing populism through an analysis and genealogy of the political discourse of Matteo Salvini’s Lega on agriculture and migrant farm labour. In 2018‐2019, this party emerged as one of the most successful radical right populist parties in Italy and Western Europe. After a description of the Italian political debate in the fields of agriculture and migration over the last two decades, we analyse how the issues of agriculture, food and migrant farm labour are articulated in the Lega’s discourse in relation to the ideological features of nativism, authoritarianism, populism as well as neomercantilism and corporatism. We argue that agriculture and food are central in the representation of the ‘Italian’ cultural identity as proposed by the Lega. Moreover, we contend that the Lega has disarticulated and rearticulated ‘old’ ideas – such as the protection of ‘Made in Italy’ food – in a ‘new’ nativist discourse. The article is based upon a discourse analysis of speeches and documents produced by this party since 2013.
Review of African Political Economy, 2020
This article introduces a special Forum on Land, politics and dynamics of agrarian change and res... more This article introduces a special Forum on Land, politics and dynamics of agrarian change and resistance in North Africa featuring three original articles on the politics of land and agrarian change in post-revolutionary Egypt. In this introductory article, we revisit the land question in North Africa – and especially in Egypt and the Maghreb – to bridge two separate debates that have so far proceeded separately from each other: the debate on land-grabbing, carried out within the field of critical agrarian studies, and that on land in North Africa, led by experts on the region. We first analyse the recent literature on ‘global’ land-grabbing in North Africa to then review the literature on the land question in North Africa. Third, we introduce the articles featured in the Forum by highlighting their contributions. We conclude by identifying what seems to us most relevant for future critical research on land issues and land-grabbing in North Africa.
Mondi Migranti, 2019
In the literature on the construction of nested markets (NM), the issues of labour and the role o... more In the literature on the construction of nested markets (NM), the issues of labour and the role of waged workers appear understudied. This article aims at contributing to this debate by focusing on southern Italy's areas of intensive agriculture, where the issue of the exploitation of migrant labour is compelling. Through the theoretical lens of NM, two experiences of alternative agriculture are analysed: such experiences involve peasants, migrant and native workers, and activists; the construction of the NM has been central for the experimentation of new forms of agricultural labour organization, which can offer an alternative to migrant labour exploitation. The article focuses on two main issues. First. it shows how migrant and native waged labourers have been among the promoters of such Nms, and the role played by the issue of labour in such construction. Second, it describes to what extent such experiences have fostered processes of endogenous rural development. The empirical material has been collected by the authors during their active participation in such projects.
Il Mulino, 2018
Licenza d'uso L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente priv... more Licenza d'uso L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personale, senza scopo di lucro e senza fini direttamente o indirettamente commerciali. Salvo quanto espressamente previsto dalla licenza d'uso Rivisteweb,è fatto divieto di riprodurre, trasmettere, distribuire o altrimenti utilizzare l'articolo, per qualsiasi scopo o fine. Tutti i diritti sono riservati.
SOS Rosarno, an association of farmworkers, farmers and activists in Calabria, Italy, represents ... more SOS Rosarno, an association of farmworkers, farmers and activists in Calabria, Italy, represents an innovative response from below to the extreme exploitation and precarity of migrant farmworkers in the Mediterranean region, as well as to the retailer-driven crisis of small-scale farming.
Book Chapters by Giulio Iocco
In: Döner, F.N., Figueiredo, E., Rivera, M. J. (Eds.), Crisis and Post-Crisis in Rural Territories: Social Change, Challenges and Opportunities in Southern and Mediterranean Europe, 2020
This contribution analyzes the effects of the crisis in terms of a respatialization of migrations... more This contribution analyzes the effects of the crisis in terms of a respatialization of migrations in rural areas, following multiple crises and connected processes. It highlights how migrant labourers' experience different working and living conditions in rural areas, depending on the specific forms of reorganization that have occurred in the agri-food chains in which they are employed. Tackling a gap on foreign migrants in the literature on new rurality, the chapter specifically focuses on agri-food projects emerged since the crisis from the convergences of social mobilisations for an alternative agri-food systems and against migrant labour exploitation in agriculture. Illustrating how the experiences and meanings of alternative agri-food projects vary for the different subjects involved in them, the chapter aims at pluralizing the concept of new rurality and at maintaining that new emerging ruralities are highly differentiated.
Reports by Giulio Iocco
Siegmann, K.A. and G. Iocco (2017). CIRI Forum on Worker-driven Innovation in the Globalized Economy – Learning from Encounters [Forum report]. The Hague: Institute of Social Studies of the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, 2017
While worker precariousness is widespread, we are also witnessing encouraging examples where work... more While worker precariousness is widespread, we are also witnessing encouraging examples where workers and labour organizations, jointly with allies, have successfully challenged the economic, political and social structures that marginalize them. These initiatives offer a glimpse of the potential power of workers to (re-)establish rights and improve working conditions. Their strategic use of transnational networking, lobbying in international forums and norm diffusion can also inspire scaling up of worker-driven innovation in the globalized economy.
This Forum started from the assumption that worker-driven innovation in a globalized economy can benefit from encounters between workers’ organizations, their allies in other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academia for mutual inspiration, learning, critical dialogue and networking. It engaged with the following questions: Which factors promote worker-driven innovation? What particular conditions make organizing/strategizing more favourable? How can worker-driven innovation be made effective in the long-term? How can upscaling of worker-driven innovation be achieved in the globalized economy? This report analyses the main outcomes of the discussions that took place during the Forum.
Short Articles by Giulio Iocco
Conference Papers by Giulio Iocco
Iocco, G., Lo Cascio, M. and Perrotta, M. (2018) Agriculture and migration in rural southern Italy in the 2010s: new populisms and a new rural mutualism. The Hague: Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative, 2018
In this paper we take up Scoones et al.’s (2018) challenge to analyse the new political momentum ... more In this paper we take up Scoones et al.’s (2018) challenge to analyse the new political momentum underway characterized by the emergence of various forms of authoritarian populism .We explore what features it assumes in Italy, analysing the politics of centre-left Italian governments in the 2010s (2013-2018) and their attempt to build a new consensus based on a combination of old and new populist and neoliberal traits. In particular, we explore two issues: 1. a struggle for hegemony over the representations of Italian agriculture; 2. the “military-humanitarian” management of the “migration crisis” and its consequences for migrant farm labour. Both of these emerged as responses to two profound “crises”: in the domain of agriculture, the crisis of Italian small- and medium-scale farming, due to farmers' incorporation into a neoliberalizing food regime since the 1980s; in the domain of migration, the “migration/refugee crisis” started with the “Arab springs” in 2011. After a description of the four “great transformations” that have characterized Italian agriculture and rural areas since the 1980s in the context of the transition towards a new, neoliberalizing regional food regime, we analyse how the representation of Italian agriculture is apparently dominated by the rhetoric of the “Made in Italy” food, with its features of “quality”, “ties with the territory”, “peasantness”, “biodiversity”, and, interestingly, a growing attention to the protection of (migrant) farm workers' rights. Then, we detail how this new discourse concerning the protection of farm labourers' rights developed in a new phase for migratory processes interesting rural southern Italy , started in 2011, and managed by the Centre-Left governments through a “military-humanitarian” approach. We argue that the policies of such governments in the 2010s failed to tackle the structural roots of both small-scale farmers’ marginality and the “migrant crisis”. These failures contributed to the defeat of the Centre-Left coalition in the political elections of 2018, probably paving the way towards a new era of authoritarian populism. In the last section of our paper, we discuss a possible political alternative “from below” to both the Centre-Left politics and the emerging authoritarian populism. We focus on new forms mutualism revolving around experiences of peasant farming, animated by small-scale farmers, local and migrant precarious workers and activists, emerged in southern Italy since 2011. We argue that they offer a glimpse of hope, as concrete exemples of how a new emancipatory rural politics tackling the huge challenges facing rural labour and its advocates. Nonetheless, we observe how these experiences raise crucial and urgent questions in need of further research and discussion by critical scholars and activists.
Sociologia Ruralis, 2020
This article contributes to the debate on the rural dimensions of the current global surge of rig... more This article contributes to the debate on the rural dimensions of the current global surge of right‐wing populism through an analysis and genealogy of the political discourse of Matteo Salvini’s Lega on agriculture and migrant farm labour. In 2018‐2019, this party emerged as one of the most successful radical right populist parties in Italy and Western Europe. After a description of the Italian political debate in the fields of agriculture and migration over the last two decades, we analyse how the issues of agriculture, food and migrant farm labour are articulated in the Lega’s discourse in relation to the ideological features of nativism, authoritarianism, populism as well as neomercantilism and corporatism. We argue that agriculture and food are central in the representation of the ‘Italian’ cultural identity as proposed by the Lega. Moreover, we contend that the Lega has disarticulated and rearticulated ‘old’ ideas – such as the protection of ‘Made in Italy’ food – in a ‘new’ nativist discourse. The article is based upon a discourse analysis of speeches and documents produced by this party since 2013.
Review of African Political Economy, 2020
This article introduces a special Forum on Land, politics and dynamics of agrarian change and res... more This article introduces a special Forum on Land, politics and dynamics of agrarian change and resistance in North Africa featuring three original articles on the politics of land and agrarian change in post-revolutionary Egypt. In this introductory article, we revisit the land question in North Africa – and especially in Egypt and the Maghreb – to bridge two separate debates that have so far proceeded separately from each other: the debate on land-grabbing, carried out within the field of critical agrarian studies, and that on land in North Africa, led by experts on the region. We first analyse the recent literature on ‘global’ land-grabbing in North Africa to then review the literature on the land question in North Africa. Third, we introduce the articles featured in the Forum by highlighting their contributions. We conclude by identifying what seems to us most relevant for future critical research on land issues and land-grabbing in North Africa.
Mondi Migranti, 2019
In the literature on the construction of nested markets (NM), the issues of labour and the role o... more In the literature on the construction of nested markets (NM), the issues of labour and the role of waged workers appear understudied. This article aims at contributing to this debate by focusing on southern Italy's areas of intensive agriculture, where the issue of the exploitation of migrant labour is compelling. Through the theoretical lens of NM, two experiences of alternative agriculture are analysed: such experiences involve peasants, migrant and native workers, and activists; the construction of the NM has been central for the experimentation of new forms of agricultural labour organization, which can offer an alternative to migrant labour exploitation. The article focuses on two main issues. First. it shows how migrant and native waged labourers have been among the promoters of such Nms, and the role played by the issue of labour in such construction. Second, it describes to what extent such experiences have fostered processes of endogenous rural development. The empirical material has been collected by the authors during their active participation in such projects.
Il Mulino, 2018
Licenza d'uso L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente priv... more Licenza d'uso L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personale, senza scopo di lucro e senza fini direttamente o indirettamente commerciali. Salvo quanto espressamente previsto dalla licenza d'uso Rivisteweb,è fatto divieto di riprodurre, trasmettere, distribuire o altrimenti utilizzare l'articolo, per qualsiasi scopo o fine. Tutti i diritti sono riservati.
SOS Rosarno, an association of farmworkers, farmers and activists in Calabria, Italy, represents ... more SOS Rosarno, an association of farmworkers, farmers and activists in Calabria, Italy, represents an innovative response from below to the extreme exploitation and precarity of migrant farmworkers in the Mediterranean region, as well as to the retailer-driven crisis of small-scale farming.
In: Döner, F.N., Figueiredo, E., Rivera, M. J. (Eds.), Crisis and Post-Crisis in Rural Territories: Social Change, Challenges and Opportunities in Southern and Mediterranean Europe, 2020
This contribution analyzes the effects of the crisis in terms of a respatialization of migrations... more This contribution analyzes the effects of the crisis in terms of a respatialization of migrations in rural areas, following multiple crises and connected processes. It highlights how migrant labourers' experience different working and living conditions in rural areas, depending on the specific forms of reorganization that have occurred in the agri-food chains in which they are employed. Tackling a gap on foreign migrants in the literature on new rurality, the chapter specifically focuses on agri-food projects emerged since the crisis from the convergences of social mobilisations for an alternative agri-food systems and against migrant labour exploitation in agriculture. Illustrating how the experiences and meanings of alternative agri-food projects vary for the different subjects involved in them, the chapter aims at pluralizing the concept of new rurality and at maintaining that new emerging ruralities are highly differentiated.
Siegmann, K.A. and G. Iocco (2017). CIRI Forum on Worker-driven Innovation in the Globalized Economy – Learning from Encounters [Forum report]. The Hague: Institute of Social Studies of the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, 2017
While worker precariousness is widespread, we are also witnessing encouraging examples where work... more While worker precariousness is widespread, we are also witnessing encouraging examples where workers and labour organizations, jointly with allies, have successfully challenged the economic, political and social structures that marginalize them. These initiatives offer a glimpse of the potential power of workers to (re-)establish rights and improve working conditions. Their strategic use of transnational networking, lobbying in international forums and norm diffusion can also inspire scaling up of worker-driven innovation in the globalized economy.
This Forum started from the assumption that worker-driven innovation in a globalized economy can benefit from encounters between workers’ organizations, their allies in other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academia for mutual inspiration, learning, critical dialogue and networking. It engaged with the following questions: Which factors promote worker-driven innovation? What particular conditions make organizing/strategizing more favourable? How can worker-driven innovation be made effective in the long-term? How can upscaling of worker-driven innovation be achieved in the globalized economy? This report analyses the main outcomes of the discussions that took place during the Forum.
Iocco, G., Lo Cascio, M. and Perrotta, M. (2018) Agriculture and migration in rural southern Italy in the 2010s: new populisms and a new rural mutualism. The Hague: Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative, 2018
In this paper we take up Scoones et al.’s (2018) challenge to analyse the new political momentum ... more In this paper we take up Scoones et al.’s (2018) challenge to analyse the new political momentum underway characterized by the emergence of various forms of authoritarian populism .We explore what features it assumes in Italy, analysing the politics of centre-left Italian governments in the 2010s (2013-2018) and their attempt to build a new consensus based on a combination of old and new populist and neoliberal traits. In particular, we explore two issues: 1. a struggle for hegemony over the representations of Italian agriculture; 2. the “military-humanitarian” management of the “migration crisis” and its consequences for migrant farm labour. Both of these emerged as responses to two profound “crises”: in the domain of agriculture, the crisis of Italian small- and medium-scale farming, due to farmers' incorporation into a neoliberalizing food regime since the 1980s; in the domain of migration, the “migration/refugee crisis” started with the “Arab springs” in 2011. After a description of the four “great transformations” that have characterized Italian agriculture and rural areas since the 1980s in the context of the transition towards a new, neoliberalizing regional food regime, we analyse how the representation of Italian agriculture is apparently dominated by the rhetoric of the “Made in Italy” food, with its features of “quality”, “ties with the territory”, “peasantness”, “biodiversity”, and, interestingly, a growing attention to the protection of (migrant) farm workers' rights. Then, we detail how this new discourse concerning the protection of farm labourers' rights developed in a new phase for migratory processes interesting rural southern Italy , started in 2011, and managed by the Centre-Left governments through a “military-humanitarian” approach. We argue that the policies of such governments in the 2010s failed to tackle the structural roots of both small-scale farmers’ marginality and the “migrant crisis”. These failures contributed to the defeat of the Centre-Left coalition in the political elections of 2018, probably paving the way towards a new era of authoritarian populism. In the last section of our paper, we discuss a possible political alternative “from below” to both the Centre-Left politics and the emerging authoritarian populism. We focus on new forms mutualism revolving around experiences of peasant farming, animated by small-scale farmers, local and migrant precarious workers and activists, emerged in southern Italy since 2011. We argue that they offer a glimpse of hope, as concrete exemples of how a new emancipatory rural politics tackling the huge challenges facing rural labour and its advocates. Nonetheless, we observe how these experiences raise crucial and urgent questions in need of further research and discussion by critical scholars and activists.