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 in the Global South. I am interested in questions about why certain livelihood pathways are possible for some households, but not for others. Within this framing, my research interests include the changing relationship between land, agriculture and livelihoods; the implications of global value chains for rural development; 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 in the Global South. 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).