Flex crops neverland: finding access to large-scale land investments?

This paper explores a neglected aspect of the financialization of land grabbing. Whereas financialization is a multifaceted phenomenon, a straightforward link has been established between financialization and land grabbing. On the one hand, market-oriented views claim that large-scale land investments benefit both the agrifood industry and small-scale farmers. On the other hand, structuralist scholarship explains how financialization creates new ways to accumulate profits by dispossessing small-scale farmers. We build on the call for a more nuanced account of large-scale land investments’ impact on land access by considering the crops involved. While finance’s attraction for flex crops has already been touched upon, we reverse the perspective by exploring whether flex crops influence the way financialization in agriculture unfolds in three areas: megamergers, contract farming, and land commodification. Building on Allaire’s concept of quality, we argue that flex crops can exacerbate unequal power relations and limit access to land for small-scale farmers.     

An assessment of work-integrated learning for public relations in an open distance learning context

Education institutions are increasingly required to ensure the employability of their students through quality and relevant educational programmes. Organisational change, in response to current global challenges, is not a new occurrence and impacts on all levels and functions of the organisation. This is of particular relevance to the field of public relations as an organisational function and it is therefore essential to match theoretical learning with practice, to ensure that the function operates effectively in the broader organisational context. It, moreover, re-establishes the need for the continuous assessment of educational programmes to ensure competent and employable public relations students.