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The Different Meanings of Land in the Age of Neoliberalism: Theoretical Reflections on Commons and Resilience Grabbing from a Social Anthropological Perspective

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  • Tobias Haller

    (Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bern, 3000 Berne, Switzerland)

Abstract

Recent debates in social anthropology on land acquisitions highlight the need to go further back in history in order to analyse their impacts on local livelihoods. The debate over the commons in economic and ecological anthropology helps us understand some of today’s dynamics by looking at precolonial common property institutions and the way they were transformed by Western colonization to state property and then, later in the age of neoliberalism, to privatization and open access. This paper focuses on Africa and refers to the work of critical scholars who show that traditional land tenure was misinterpreted as customary tenure without full property rights, while a broader literature on the commons shows that common-pool resources (pasture, fisheries, wildlife, forestry etc.) have been effectively managed by locally-developed common property institutions. This misinterpretation continues to function as a legacy in both juridical and popular senses. Moreover, the transformation of political systems and the notion of customary land tenure produced effects of central importance for today’s investment context. During colonial times a policy of indirect rule based on new elites was created to manage customary lands of so-called native groups who could use the land as long as it was of no value to the state. However, this land formally remained in the hands of the state, which also claimed to manage common-pool resources through state institutions. The neoliberal policies that are now demanded by donor agencies have had two consequences for land and land-related common-pool resources. On the one hand, states often lack the financial means to enforce their own natural resource legislation and this has led to de facto open access. On the other hand, land legally fragmented from its common-pool resources has been transformed from state to private property. This has enabled new elites and foreign investors to claim private property on formerly commonly-held land, which also leads to the loss of access to land related common-pool resources for more marginal local actors. Thus, the paper argues that this process does not just lead to land grabbing but to commons grabbing as well. This has furthermore undermined the resilience and adaptive capacity of local populations because access to common-pool resources is vital for the livelihoods of more marginal groups, especially in times of crisis. Comparative studies undertaken on floodplains in Botswana, Cameroon, Mali, Tanzania and Zambia based on a New Institutional Political Ecology (NIPE) approach illustrate this process and its impacts and show how institutional transformations are key to understanding the impacts of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA) and investments in Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Tobias Haller, 2019. "The Different Meanings of Land in the Age of Neoliberalism: Theoretical Reflections on Commons and Resilience Grabbing from a Social Anthropological Perspective," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-22, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:8:y:2019:i:7:p:104-:d:243642
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Steven Tadelis & Oliver E.Williamson, 2012. "Transaction Cost Economics [The Handbook of Organizational Economics]," Introductory Chapters,, Princeton University Press.
    2. Kristina Lanz & Jean‐David Gerber & Tobias Haller, 2018. "Land Grabbing, the State and Chiefs: The Politics of Extending Commercial Agriculture in Ghana," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(6), pages 1526-1552, November.
    3. Ribot, Jesse C. & Agrawal, Arun & Larson, Anne M., 2006. "Recentralizing While Decentralizing: How National Governments Reappropriate Forest Resources," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1864-1886, November.
    4. Ruth Hall, 2011. "Land grabbing in Southern Africa: the many faces of the investor rush," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(128), pages 193-214, June.
    5. Franziska Marfurt & Fabian Käser & Samuel Lustenberger, 2016. "Local Perceptions and Vertical Perspectives of a Large Scale Land Acquisition Project in Northern Sierra Leone," Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 261-279, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Manda, Simon & Banda, Lizzy, 2023. "Seeing like the state? Customary land pressures and fracturing tenure systems in rural Zambia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. Sonja Merten & Tobias Haller, 2023. "Interwoven Landscapes: Gender and Land in the Kafue Flats, Zambia," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-19, August.
    3. Marii Rasva & Evelin Jürgenson, 2022. "Europe’s Large-Scale Land Acquisitions and Bibliometric Analysis," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-13, June.
    4. Lisa Alvarado, 2019. "Institutional Change on a Conservationist Frontier: Local Responses to a Grabbing Process in the Name of Environmental Protection," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-17, November.
    5. Tobias Haller & Fabian Käser & Mariah Ngutu, 2020. "Does Commons Grabbing Lead to Resilience Grabbing? The Anti-Politics Machine of Neo-Liberal Agrarian Development and Local Responses," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-7, July.

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