ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a better understanding of the kinds of people-driven dynamics that are underway of which global governance could, in the best of circumstances, be supportive. The capacity of national governments to mediate negative effects of global policies and trends on their citizens, assuming they would like to do so, has been reduced with structural adjustment and trade regulations. The household is the most basic space in which people seek solutions to food problems. 'Modernization' need not take the form of 'graduating' to entrepreneurial farming. Farmer-led research conducted in Senegal demonstrates that family farms are modernizing their collective decision-making processes and management of production, marketing, and consumption choices while maintaining their multifunctional character and their social capital. The Cochabamba 'water war' drew on resistance of small farmers organizations who perceived that the monopoly provisions of the water privatization law passed by the Bolivian government threatened their traditional water rights.
