dr. MR (Mark) Vicol

I am an Assistant Professor of Agrarian Sociology in the Rural Sociology Group. My research and teaching focuses on the everyday political economy of agrarian change. I am interested in questions about why certain livelihood pathways are possible for some households/individuals, but not for others. In other words, how do class processes manifest in everyday agrarian life?Within this framing, my research interests include the changing relationship between land, agriculture and livelihoods; the implications of global value chains for rural development; labour regimes and labour politics; the politics of agricultural value chain development interventions; the political economy of contract farming; the everyday political economy of food insecurity and nutrition; and broader political economy questions about the future of farming. I often use commodities as an entry point to research, and have studied specialty coffee in Indonesia, potato contract farming in India, and elephant foot yam value chains in Myanmar. In a new research line I am studying the everyday political economy of labour in alternative agriculture in Europe. 

I hold a PhD in human geography from the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney. My PhD thesis, titled Potatoes, Peasants and Livelihoods: A Critical Exploration of Contract Farming and Agrarian Change in Maharashtra, India, explores the implications of contract farming for rural livelihoods and agrarian change in India. Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney (2016-2018) and the University of Sydney's inaugural New Generation Network Scholar for India (2018).

I am a co-founder of the Contract Farming Initiative, a network for researchers and activists interested in the dynamics and political economy of contract farming, rural livelihoods and agrarian change (contractfarminginitiative.org). I am the co-coordinator of the Critical Agrarian Studies research cluster at CSPS, Wageningen.