About us
The Research Programme Conflicts over the countryside: Civil society and the political ecology of rural development in the Andean region at the School of Environment and Development in the University of Manchester aims to develop a coherent body of knowledge on:
- The structure and dynamics of social conflicts around the relationships between natural resource extraction, agriculture and development strategies in the Andean Region
- The factors driving the geography of NGOs and social movements as they relate to these conflicts
It also looks to develop theoretical and empirical understandings of:
- The relationships between civil society and political economy under conditions of neoliberalism
- The implications for the future of rural environments and societies
- The emergence of development alternatives and why these vary across space
Convinced that the link between research and policy making provides significant advantages for improving the ability of societies to foster equitable and fair economic, social and political change, the Programme also collaborates with non-governmental and social organizations supporting them in analyses of rural development policies and processes.
The Programme is also constituted as a space for research networking. It will host a permanent seminar, based at the University of Manchester, and will work in collaboration with research centres, non-governmental and other organizations in Latin America.
This Research Programme is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) under a Professorial Research Fellowship to Professor Anthony Bebbington (RES-051-27-0191)