abstract: 'Government officials and representatives of corporations and

  international organisations promoting oil palm argue this crop brings

  development by creating numerous jobs for the rural poor, even through

  large-scale plantations. This study critically assesses this narrative

  as deployed in Mesoamerica and analyses oil palm labour regimes in two

  study regions in Mexico and one in Guatemala where both smallholders and

  private sector plantations are producing oil palm. Following a political

  ecology framework, we analyse labour practices as embodied and

  political, taking into account larger processes of agrarian change.

  Based on interviews and surveys of producers and field labourers, we

  found oil palm production was characterised by low employment rates (one

  job or less for every 10 hectares of land) and flexible labour regimes

  under which field labourers face uncertain, poorly paid and risky

  circumstances at work. The palm oil industry defines development

  narrowly, as access to income without social change, while it profits

  from contemporary and historical inequalities that have turned young

  men, many of them indigenous Maya, rural women, and Guatemalan peasants

  into cheap labour. However, in oil palm production, profit oriented

  neoliberal arrangements by the private sector clash with a peasant moral

  economy that emphasise the value of physical labour and

  smallholder-worker solidarity. Despite being highly profitable, the palm

  oil industry offers limited livelihood opportunities for field

  labourers.'
affiliation: 'Castellanos-Navarrete, A (Corresponding Author), Natl Autonomous Univ
  Mexico UNAM, Ctr Multidisciplinary Res Chiapas \& Southern Bord, Maria Adelina Flores
  34, Chiapas 29230, Mexico.

  Castellanos-Navarrete, Antonio, Natl Autonomous Univ Mexico UNAM, Ctr Multidisciplinary
  Res Chiapas \& Southern Bord, Maria Adelina Flores 34, Chiapas 29230, Mexico.

  Tobar-Tomas, William V.; Lopez-Monzon, Carlos E., San Carlos Univ, Northwestern
  Res Inst CUNOROC, Aldea Chivacabe 13001, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.'
author: Castellanos-Navarrete, Antonio and Tobar-Tomas, William V. and Lopez-Monzon,
  Carlos E.
author-email: acastela@unam.mx
author_list:
- family: Castellanos-Navarrete
  given: Antonio
- family: Tobar-Tomas
  given: William V.
- family: Lopez-Monzon
  given: Carlos E.
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.08.011
files: []
issn: 0743-0167
journal: JOURNAL OF RURAL STUDIES
keywords: 'Dispossession; Moral economy; Neoliberalism; Precarisation; Rural

  Employment'
keywords-plus: 'GENDER; PLANTATIONS; EXPANSION; SMALLHOLDERS; ENVIRONMENT; GUATEMALA;

  POLICY; MEXICO'
language: English
month: OCT
number-of-cited-references: '70'
orcid-numbers: Castellanos-Navarrete, Antonio/0000-0001-5796-962X
pages: 169-180
papis_id: 36dc85c04b707f1b34560f6f91432fd1
ref: Castellanosnavarrete2019developmentchange
researcherid-numbers: Castellanos-Navarrete, Antonio/J-1077-2016
times-cited: '12'
title: 'Development without change: Oil palm labour regimes, development narratives,
  and disputed moral economies in Mesoamerica'
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000497249800016
usage-count-last-180-days: '2'
usage-count-since-2013: '12'
volume: '71'
web-of-science-categories: Geography; Regional \& Urban Planning
year: '2019'