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Livelihoods, Land and Political Economy: Reflections on Sam Moyo’s Research Methodology

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  • Ian Scoones

Abstract

This article focuses on the methodological lessons from Sam Moyo’s scholarship. Sam’s research is characterised by a combination of detailed empirical investigation, deep knowledge of the technical and practical aspects of agricultural production and farming livelihoods, and big-picture political economy analysis and theory. Sam’s method is an insightful contemporary application of the method originally set out in Marx’s Grundrisse . Many contemporary explorations of agrarian political economy fail to sustain the important tension and dialectical debate, between diverse empirical realities and their ‘multiple determinations and relations’ and wider theorisation of the ‘concrete’ features of emergent processes of change. The implications of Sam’s methodological approach for the analysis of Zimbabwe’s land reform are discussed, especially in relation to the land occupations and the politics of agrarian reform since 2000.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian Scoones, 2016. "Livelihoods, Land and Political Economy: Reflections on Sam Moyo’s Research Methodology," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 5(2-3), pages 221-239, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:agspub:v:5:y:2016:i:2-3:p:221-239
    DOI: 10.1177/2277976016683750
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ian Scoones, 2015. "Zimbabwe's land reform: new political dynamics in the countryside," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(144), pages 190-205, June.
    2. Willems, Wendy, 2004. "Peasant Demonstrators, Violent Invaders: Representations of Land in the Zimbabwean Press," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1767-1783, October.
    3. Sam Moyo & Paris Yeros, 2007. "The Radicalised State: Zimbabwe's Interrupted Revolution," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(111), pages 103-121, March.
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