IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v57y2025i2-3p203-222.html

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

Author

Listed:
  • Danish Khan

    (Department of Economics, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, USA)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Danish Khan, 2025. "Reformulating theories of ‘accumulation by dispossession’: ‘Contested accumulations through displacement’ in postcolonial Punjab, Pakistan," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 57(2-3), pages 203-222, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:57:y:2025:i:2-3:p:203-222
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X241311426
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X241311426
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X241311426?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Susanne Soederberg, 2018. "Evictions: A Global Capitalist Phenomenon," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(2), pages 286-301, March.
    2. Stuart Hodkinson, 2012. "The new urban enclosures," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(5), pages 500-518, October.
    3. Eiman O. Zein-Elabdin, 2009. "Economics, postcolonial theory and the problem of culture: institutional analysis and hybridity," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 33(6), pages 1153-1167, November.
    4. Vamsi Vakulabharanam, 2005. "Growth and Distress in a South Indian Peasant Economy During the Era of Economic Liberalisation," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(6), pages 971-997.
    5. Derek Hall, 2013. "Primitive Accumulation, Accumulation by Dispossession and the Global Land Grab," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(9), pages 1582-1604, October.
    6. Aasim Sajjad Akhtar & Ammar Rashid, 2021. "Dispossession and the militarised developer state: financialisation and class power on the agrarian–urban frontier of Islamabad, Pakistan," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(8), pages 1866-1884, July.
    7. Wendy Wolford & Saturnino M. Borras Jr. & Ruth Hall & Ian Scoones & Ben White & Wendy Wolford & Saturnino M. Borras Jr. & Ruth Hall & Ian Scoones & Ben White, 2013. "Governing Global Land Deals: The Role of the State in the Rush for Land," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 44(2), pages 189-210, March.
    8. Wendy Wolford, 2005. "Agrarian Moral Economies and Neoliberalism in Brazil: Competing Worldviews and the State in the Struggle for Land," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(2), pages 241-261, February.
    9. Sai Balakrishnan, 2019. "Recombinant Urbanization: Agrarian–urban Landed Property and Uneven Development in India," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 617-632, July.
    10. Jamie Peck, 2020. "Cities beyond Compare?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(1), pages 160-182, July.
    11. Nancy Folbre, 2020. "Manifold exploitations: toward an intersectional political economy," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 78(4), pages 451-472, October.
    12. Nicola Banks & Melanie Lombard & Diana Mitlin, 2020. "Urban Informality as a Site of Critical Analysis," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(2), pages 223-238, February.
    13. Danish Khan, 2022. "Political Economy of Expulsionary Urbanization: Subsumption and Estrangement of Spaces in Pakistan," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 461-478, December.
    14. Shami, Mahvish, 2012. "The Impact of Connectivity on Market Interlinkages: Evidence from Rural Punjab," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 999-1012.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Woods, Kevin M., 2020. "Smaller-scale land grabs and accumulation from below: Violence, coercion and consent in spatially uneven agrarian change in Shan State, Myanmar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    2. Beacon Mbiba, 2017. "Idioms of Accumulation: Corporate Accumulation by Dispossession in Urban Zimbabwe," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 213-234, March.
    3. Bennett, Nathan James & Govan, Hugh & Satterfield, Terre, 2015. "Ocean grabbing," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 61-68.
      • Wehner, Nicholas & Bennett, Nathan & Govan, Hugh & Satterfield, Terre, 2015. "Ocean grabbing," MarXiv bm6pf, Center for Open Science.
    4. Karita Kan, 2019. "Accumulation without Dispossession? Land Commodification and Rent Extraction in Peri‐urban China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 633-648, July.
    5. Sarah Ruth Sippel & Oane Visser, 2021. "Introduction to symposium ‘Reimagining land: materiality, affect and the uneven trajectories of land transformation’," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(1), pages 271-282, February.
    6. Helga Leitner & Eric Sheppard, 2018. "From Kampungs to Condos? Contested accumulations through displacement in Jakarta," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(2), pages 437-456, March.
    7. Russo Lopes, Gabriela & Bastos Lima, Mairon G. & Reis, Tiago N.P. dos, 2021. "Maldevelopment revisited: Inclusiveness and social impacts of soy expansion over Brazil’s Cerrado in Matopiba," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    8. Gavin Shatkin, 2022. "Mega-urban politics: Analyzing the infrastructure turn through the national state lens," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(5), pages 845-866, August.
    9. Vorbrugg, Alexander (Форбруг, Александр), 2018. "Not about land, not quite a grab: Dispersed dispossession in rural Russia [Не Только О Земле И О Ее Захватах: Дисперсное Лишение Прав В Сельской России]," Russian Peasant Studies, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 3, pages 19-47.
    10. Fulong Wu, 2016. "China's Emergent City-Region Governance: A New Form of State Spatial Selectivity through State-orchestrated Rescaling," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1134-1151, November.
    11. Sander van Lanen, 2023. "Structural Transformations and Everyday Spatial Consequences in Austerity Ireland: An Embedded Comparative Approach," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 289-300.
    12. Ligita Gasparėnienė & Rita Remeikienė & Colin C. Williams, 2022. "Unemployment and the Informal Economy," SpringerBriefs in Economics, Springer, number 978-3-030-96687-4, April.
    13. Sara Balestri & Mario A. Maggioni, 2021. "This Land Is My Land! Large-Scale Land Acquisitions and Conflict Events in Sub-Saharan Africa," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 427-450, May.
    14. le Polain de Waroux, Yann & Kronenburg García, Angela, 2025. "“Dream brokers” and the moral economy of frontier investments," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    15. Hunsberger, Carol & Work, Courtney & Herre, Roman, 2018. "Linking climate change strategies and land conflicts in Cambodia: Evidence from the Greater Aural region," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 309-320.
    16. Branislav Machala & Jorn Koelemaij, 2019. "Post-Socialist Urban Futures: Decision-Making Dynamics behind Large-Scale Urban Waterfront Development in Belgrade and Bratislava," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 6-17.
    17. Kevin Ward & Timothy Bunnell, 2021. "Reflections on five years of the Summer Institute in Urban Studies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(4), pages 863-878, March.
    18. Pagare, Dewang & Biswas, Indranil & Agrahari, Amit & Ghosh, Sriparna, 2023. "A small farmer’s market choice in the presence of multiple markets: The Indian case," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(2), pages 739-753.
    19. Lejla H Pihljak & Maria Rusca & Cecilia Alda-Vidal & Klaas Schwartz, 2021. "Everyday practices in the production of uneven water pricing regimes in Lilongwe, Malawi," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(2), pages 300-317, March.
    20. Nolte, Kerstin & Voget-Kleschin, Lieske, 2014. "Consultation in Large-Scale Land Acquisitions: An Evaluation of Three Cases in Mali," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 654-668.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:57:y:2025:i:2-3:p:203-222. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.