Young people are increasingly turning away from agriculture in many parts of the global South, even where agriculture remains the backbone of livelihoods and the rural economy. This tendency among rural youth has become a critical research and public concern given that mass youth un (der)employment has emerged as a defining feature in many countries. In this paper, we interrogate and depart from the dominant narrative of the youth-agriculture disconnect by focussing on socio-economic conditions that shape diverse patterns of youth livelihood in rural areas. Our empirical evidence draws on ethnographic studies conducted in rural parts of Nepal with in-depth interviews with young people complemented by key informant interviews with local leaders and community workers who shared their experiences and local narratives of the links among youth, agriculture and migration. Findings show that youth aspiration to leave agriculture is hard to deny, although this is heavily mediated by economic status, caste and gender in rural contexts. Given the chronic livelihood insecurity and the structural barriers rooted in class, caste and gender, we find that youth from underprivileged backgrounds do not have the luxury of considering an ‘exit’ from agriculture despite their mobility aspirations. When a longer-term livelihood trajectory is considered, youth aspirations to transition out of agriculture show some degree of temporality regardless of their background, suggesting their re-engagement in agriculture later in their life.

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Ito, Takeshi

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Full Reference

Sunam, R., Sugden, F., Kharel, A., Sunuwar, T. R., & Ito, T. (2024). Unpacking youth engagement in agriculture: Land, labour mobility and youth livelihoods in rural Nepal. Journal of Agrarian Change, e12611. https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12611

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私たちが住む地球で見られる社会現象を理解するには、どのような視点が必要なのであろうか。近年声高に叫ばれているのは、グローバルな視点の必要性である。「そこにあるものはここにもあり、ここにあるものはそこにもある」と言う表現が的確に示すように、グローバル化によって進んだコネクティビティ、空間と時間の再構成、そして高度なモビリティは、グローバリゼーションの特徴を如実に示す現象である(Steger and Wahlrab 2016)。国境を越えてヒト・モノ・カネが行き交う21世紀の国際社会を私たちが生きるために必要なのは、これまでのある特定な場所に根付いた価値観や行動規範に囚われない自由で柔軟な視点であると考えられている。それは、国民国家を単位とするこれまでの社会形成と国際秩序のモデルが依拠する前提の再考を迫るものであった。こうした趨勢の中で起こる社会現象をしっかり読み解くために1990年代後半以降に体系化された研究分野であるグローバル・スタディーズであった。本論では、グローバルな視点とは何を意味するのかを、グローバル・スタディーズが発展してきた背景と合わせて考えてみたい。そうすることで、グローバル・スタディーズが、社会科学の中の既存の学問分野（例：社会学、人類学、政治学、経済学）と、学問的な親密性がありながらも、よりクリティカルな研究分野として発展してきたことを明らかにする。

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Ito, Takeshi

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Full Reference

Ito, Takeshi. 2021. “Towards Critical Global Studies.” (クリティカル・グローバル・スタディーズに向けて) In Y. Ashiwa and J. Lewis eds. Challenges for Global Studies: To Be Critical and Radical. Tokyo: Sairyusha 「グローバル・スタディーズの挑戦：クリティカルに、ラディカルに」東京：彩流社 https://sairyusha.co.jp/collections/shinkan/products/978-4-7791-2751-9 

Citizenship has gained currency as a key concept in the global strategy to promote and deepen democracy. For a strong and well-functioning democracy, the argument goes, ordinary people should be willing and able to participate in the decision making process that affects their lives as rights-bearing citizens. For donors and international aid agencies leading this democracy drive, ‘traditional’ and ‘vertical’ social relations – including patron – client relations – are deemed to be incompatible with democracy. Subjects need to be transformed into rights-bearing citizens. Citizenship, understood in this manner, is often uncritically linked to specific configurations of institutions and framed within the rhetoric of liberal democracy, with political and civil rights that realize citizen participation and deliberation. Perhaps, because of this normative bias, there is a relative dearth of research on the actual experience and practice of citizenship.

 

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Ito, Takeshi

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Full Reference

Ito, Takeshi. 2016. "Everyday citizenship in Village Java." In  W. Berenschot, H.G.C. Schulte Nordholt and L. Bakker eds. Citizenship and Democratization in Southeast Asia Leiden: Brill: 51-67.

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The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) in Papua, Indonesia, is a state-led mega-project to transform local agriculture through large-scale corporate investment in food crops and biofuels for foreign markets. The project has led to extensive land dispossession, accompanied by devastating social and ecological impacts. This contribution analyzes how discourse regarding food and energy crises has been employed to release land from customary tenure to a coalition of state, corporate and local elite actors. The interests of these actors have converged on the state-led mega-project to transform local agriculture through large-scale corporate investment in food crops and biofuels in the name of national food security.

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Ito, Takeshi

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Full Reference

Ito, T., Rachman, N. F., & Laksmi A. S. (2014). Power to make land dispossession acceptable: A policy discourse analysis of the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE), Papua, Indonesia. Journal of Peasant Studies. 41(1): 29-50. 10.1080/03066150.2013.873029. 

 

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The devolution of power to subnational governments and the involvement of civil society in policy decisions and implementation are the twin pillars of neoliberal governance reforms in post-authoritarian Indonesia. Yet, for the poor, these reforms have failed to bring about downward accountability and popular participation. Based on a political ethnography in the Priangan highlands of West Java, this article explores how a civil society approach to decentralization has compromised local democracy. Drawing on state-society relations, state formation, and institutional choice literatures, and focusing on power relations, social structures, and historical experiences in Indonesia, the article illustrates the complicity of civil society in the failure of decentralization to benefit the poor. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

 

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Ito, Takeshi

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Full Reference

Ito, Takeshi. 2011. Historicizing the power of civil society: A perspective from decentralization in Indonesia. Journal of Peasant Studies 38(2): 413-433. 10.1080/03066150.2011.559015. 

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Conservatives within the central government and experts on democratic theory

insisted that Indonesian people (let alone people in the regions) are “not yet ready for

democracy.” Contrary to the statement, quite a few innovations in local governance have

appeared during the process of Indonesia’s democratic decentralization. Among them,

the district (kabupaten) government of Bandung, West Java Province has put in place two

reform initiatives participatory development and village empowerment despite the

long tradition of centralized control and the military’s involvement in local politics.

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How did reform initiatives emerge from the old political landscape in the first place?

Who are the key actors in local governance reform? What are the impediments to local

governance reform and how can these be removed? And what is meant by “deepening

democracy?” This paper explores these questions by focusing on the process of local

governance reform upon which the district government of Bandung has embarked.

How did reform initiatives emerge from the old political landscape in the first place?

Who are the key actors in local governance reform? What are the impediments to local

governance reform and how can these be removed? And what is meant by “deepening

democracy?” This paper explores these questions by focusing on the process of local

governance reform upon which the district government of Bandung has embarked.​​

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Link to KASA authors

Ito, Takeshi

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Full Reference

Ito, Takeshi. (2006). The dynamics of local governance reform in decentralizing Indonesia: Participatory planning and village empowerment in Bandung, West Java. Asian and African Area Studies. 5(2): 137-183. 

 

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