André Magnan

Professor
PhD (University of Toronto); MA (University of Regina); BSc Honours (University of Saskatchewan)

Office: CL 234
E-mail: Andre.Magnan@uregina.ca
Phone: 306-585-4863
Fax: 306-585-4815
Pronoun(s): he/him

Research interests

  • Sociology of agri-food systems
  • Financialization
  • Agrarian change

André Magnan is Professor of Sociology and Social Studies at the University of Regina. His research and teaching interests include the sociology of agri-food systems, globalization and development, and sociological theory. Dr. Magnan is currently leading a multi-year research project on digitalization, financialization, and consolidation in the Canadian food sector, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The project critically examines how technological change is converging with the growing influence of financial and corporate actors in agriculture to restructure food and farming. The research team includes Annette Aurélie Desmarais (University of Manitoba), Sarah Rotz (York University), and postdoctoral fellow Emily Duncan (University of Regina).

 

In previous research Dr. Magnan has documented how financial investors of different stripes are buying prairie farmland on a large scale, with implications for family farmers, rural communities, and the agricultural industry. He has also examined the history and politics of grain marketing on the Canadian prairies, in particular, the rise and fall of the Canadian Wheat Board, one of Canada’s most important agricultural institutions. Dr. Magnan’s research on the history of the Canada-UK wheat trade and the CWB was published in 2016 as a book entitled, When Wheat was King, by UBC Press.
 
Selected publications

 

Duncan, Emily, and André Magnan. 2023. “Exploring the growing links between digital agriculture, finance capital, and farmland investors and managers in North America.” International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 29(2): 1–14. https://doi.org/10.48416/ijsaf.v29i2.557

 

Beingessner, Naomi, André Magnan, and Mengistu Wendimu. 2022. “'Land imaginaries' in Western Canada: (financial) neoliberalism, agrarianism, and the contemporary politics of agricultural land." Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 41(4): 637-655. https://doi.org/10.1177/23996544221144168

 

Magnan, André, Melissa Davidson, and Annette Aurélie Desmarais. 2022. “‘They call it progress, but we don’t see it as progress’: farm consolidation and land concentration in Saskatchewan, Canada.” Agriculture and Human Values, 40: 277–290 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-10353-y

 

Magnan, André, Mengistu Wendimu, Annette Aurélie Desmarais, and Katherine Aske. 2022. “‘It’s the Wild West Out Here’: Prairie farmers’ perspectives on farmland investment and land concentration.” Canadian Food Studies/ La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation, 9(3) : 36-60. https://canadianfoodstudies.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cfs/article/view/518

 

Duncan, Emily, Sarah Rotz, André Magnan, and Kelly Bronson. 2022. “Disciplining Land through Data: The Role of Agricultural Technologies in Farmland Assetization.” Sociologia Ruralis, 62(2): 231-249. https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12369

 

Bjorkhaug, Hilde, André Magnan, and Geoffrey Lawrence, editors. 2018. The Financialization of Agri-Food Systems: Contested Transformations. Routledge. Magnan, André.

 

Magnan, André. 2016. When Wheat was King: The Rise and Fall of the Canada-UK Grain Trade. Vancouver: UBC Press.