Reformulating theories of ‘accumulation by dispossession’: ‘Contested accumulations through displacement’ in postcolonial Punjab, Pakistan

The reformulation of Harvey’s seminal theory of ‘accumulation by dispossession’ (ABD) has sparked a robust debate within the heterodox political economy literature. On one hand, there’s an argument that ‘extra-economic’ coercion should be the defining characteristic of ABD. On the other hand, Leitner and Sheppard have demonstrated that both forced evictions and consensual sales of land rights are integral processes of ABD. This paper contributes to this debate by expanding Leitner and Sheppard’s framework of ‘contested accumulations through displacement’ in two key ways. Firstly, the paper unbundles the postcolonial state and illustrates that its role is more nuanced than merely the ‘expropriation’ of land within the process of ABD. Based on theoretically grounded empirical research in the context of Sheikhupura, Punjab (Pakistan), the paper shows that the postcolonial state engineers new ground rents and facilitates land speculation through selective provision of road infrastructure, favouring certain areas while excluding others. In Sheikhupura, the uneven provision of road networks has enhanced the connectivity and accessibility of some places (connected villages) over others (isolated villages). Consequently, large landholders in ‘connected villages’ have been incentivized to extract high ground rents by converting farmland to gated housing enclaves (real estate development). This process has resulted in the loss of farm-based livelihoods and displacement for landless and small peasants. This illustrates that ABD does not necessarily require violent forms of expropriation in the age of neoliberal capitalism, as infrastructural development can lead to changes in land use, causing displacement and further marginalization of historically disadvantaged groups like landless and small peasants. Secondly, the paper introduces the concept-phenomenon of ‘economic-hybridity’ in the context of ABD which makes visible the dual and often contradictory nature of socio-economic and legal impulses in postcolonial social formations. Further, economic-hybridity helps in unravelling the intricate connections between place, property and power within processes of ABD.