Congratulations to Yunan Xu who successfully defended her PhD thesis on The political economy of industrial tree plantations in the era of global land rush: the case of Guangxi, China.
In her thesis she explored the dynamics of the industrial tree plant sector and its expansion in Southern China.
She showed that China is both a country of origin and a destination country of foreign land investments. Her study also revealed that villagers are not necessarily excluded by a massive crop boom in their area: indeed villagers exhibit diverse adaptive livelihood responses, are affected differently by it and thus express various political reactions.
Photos and video of the defence
Take a look at some photos taken during the public defence
And below you can watch the recording of Yunan Xu's opening statement.
