Natacha Bruna

About

Natacha Bruna, from Mozambique, is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. Her research resonates with critical development and agrarian studies and has focused on the agrarian change brought about by the intersection of extractivism, land and resource grabbing, and environmental policies, particularly looking at the implications on global patterns of accumulation and rural livelihoods. Green Extractivism and the resulting new dynamics regarding land, labor and nature are explored in order to analyze social reproduction and implications on rural subsistence. Most recently, her research aims at further exploring land/resource rush and rural life under the context of market-based climate solutions and the growing imposition of greener land uses, production of carbon credits and the exploitation of natural resources towards a “just” energy transition.

She holds a Ph.D. in Development Studies within the Political Ecology research group at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS, The Hague) in the Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. She worked as a researcher and is still a member of a Mozambican independent research institution – Observatório do Meio Rural. She is also an associate editor of the Feminist Africa journal.

Publications

Peer-reviewed journals

• Bruna, N. (2022). A climate-smart world and the rise of Green Extractivism. The Journal of Peasant Studies, DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2022.2070482
• Bruna, N. (2022). Green extractivism and financialisation in Mozambique: the case of Gilé National Reserve. Review of African Political Economy, 49(171), 138-160.
• Borras Jr, S. M., Franco, J. C., Moreda, T., Xu, Y., Bruna, N., & Demena, B. A. (2022). The value of so-called ‘failed’large-scale land acquisitions. Land Use Policy, 119, 106199.
• Bruna, N. (2022). Gendered Terms of Incorporation and Exclusion in Rural Mozambique: Unpacking Pre-existing Inequalities and Mechanisms of Compensation. Feminist Africa, 3 (2).
• Monjane, B., & Bruna, N. (2019). Confronting agrarian authoritarianism: dynamics of resistance to PROSAVANA in Mozambique. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 1-26.
• Bruna, N. (2019). Land of Plenty, Land of Misery: Synergetic Resource Grabbing in Mozambique. Land, 8(8), 113.
• Bruna, N. (2019). Reflexões sobre o Modelo de Desenvolvimento Rural e Cooperação no Corredor de Nacala. Cadernos de Estudos Africanos, (37), 185-211.
• Bruna, N. (2017). Economia Política da Governação: Política Económica de Controle, Manutenção e Reprodução de Poder. REVISTA NERA. 38: 13-40.

Book and book chapters

• Bruna, N. (2023). The Rise of Green Extractivis: Extractivism, Rural Livelihoods and Accumulation in a Climate-Smart World. Routledge. NY.
• Bruna, N. and Mbanze, A. (2023). Towards Climate-Smart Land Policy: Land Grabbing under a Changing Political Landscape in Mozambique. Neef, A., Ngin, C., Moreda, T., & Mollett, S. (Eds.). Routledge Handbook of Global Land and Resource Grabbing. Routledge. London and NY.
• Langa, J., Bruna, N., Monjane, B., Amaral, G., Fé, E., Rafael, B., Walker, P. and Perkins, P. (2023). Extreme Climatic Events and Climate Change Policies:A Call for Climate Justice Action in Mozambique. Crawford, N., Michael, K., Mikulewicz, M. (Eds.) Climate Justice in the Majority World: Vulnerability, Resistance, and Diverse Knowledges. Routledge. London and NY.
• Bruna, N. and Monjane, B. (2023). Action Research for Climate Justice: Challenging the Carbon Market and False Climate Solutions in Mozambique. Perkins, P. (Eds.). Climate Justice and Participatory Research. University of Calgary: LCR Publishing Services. York, Canada.
• Bruna, N. (2022). Neoliberal Agrarian Policies and Terms of Incorporation in Rural Mozambique. Mwazi, F. et al. (Eds.). Capital Penetration and the Peasantry in Southern and Eastern Africa. Sam Moyo Institute of Agrarian Studies. Harare, Zimbabwe.
• Bruna, N. (2021). From a Threat to an Opportunity: Climate Change as the New Frontier of Accumulation. PLAAS (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies). YARA Working Paper series No 8. Western Cape, South Africa.

Education

• Ph.D. in Development Studies, International Institute of Social Studies (The Hague), Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• MSc. In Economics, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
• Bsc. In Economics and Management, Universidade Politécnica, Mozambique