Ugly Stories of the Peruvian Agrarian Reform

Bibliographic Data

ID2688872
AuthorsEnrique Mayer (0000-0002-5509-4580), Irene Silverblatt, Sonia Saldivar-Hull, Walter Mignolo
Year2009
Pages299
Publication date2009-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueUgly stories of the Peruvian agrarian reform (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/9780822390718
WikidataQ57234363
OpenAlexW2106122695
Open LibraryOL24043772M
ISBN9780822390718
LanguageEN
Citations received42

Enrique Mayer's *Ugly Stories of the Peruvian Agrarian Reform* examines the complex and often contradictory outcomes of Peru's mid-20th-century agrarian reform. Moving beyond simplistic narratives of success or failure, Mayer presents a nuanced ethnographic account based on extensive fieldwork in the Mantaro Valley. He explores how the reform, intended to redistribute land and empower peasant communities, unfolded in diverse and unexpected ways, often generating new forms of inequality and conflict. The book highlights the importance of local context, social relations, and power dynamics in shaping the reform's impact, revealing the "ugly stories" that official accounts often obscured. Through detailed case studies, Mayer demonstrates how the reform's implementation was influenced by political maneuvering, bureaucratic processes, and the agency of local actors, leading to outcomes that ranged from empowerment and improved livelihoods to dispossession and violence. He argues that understanding these complexities is crucial for comprehending the long-term consequences of agrarian reform and its legacy in contemporary Peru

Agrarian reform · Agrarian society · Agrarian system · Agriculture · Economic history · Expropriation · Land reform · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · History · Land Rights and Reforms · Law · 20th century · Agriculture, Cooperative · Anthropology · cooperative · Cooperative Agriculture · Land tenure · Peru · South America