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The Politics of Dispossession

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  • Michael Levien

Abstract

While struggles over land dispossession have recently proliferated across the developing world and become particularly significant in India, this paper argues that existing theories of political agency do not capture the specificity of the politics of dispossession. Based on two years of ethnographic research on anti-dispossession movements across rural India, the paper argues that the dispossession of land creates a specific kind of politics, distinct not just from labor politics, but also from various other forms of peasant politics that have been theorized in the social sciences. It illustrates how the process of land dispossession itself shapes the targets, strategy and tactics, organization, social composition, goals, and ideologies of anti-dispossession struggles. It concludes with reflections on why land conflicts are less easily institutionalized than labor conflicts and may therefore constitute a significantly disruptive force in the emerging centers of global capitalism for the foreseeable future.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Levien, 2013. "The Politics of Dispossession," Politics & Society, , vol. 41(3), pages 351-394, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:41:y:2013:i:3:p:351-394
    DOI: 10.1177/0032329213493751
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Levien, Michael, 2015. "Social Capital as Obstacle to Development: Brokering Land, Norms, and Trust in Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 77-92.
    2. 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.
    3. Kenneth Bo Nielsen & Heather Plumridge Bedi, 2017. "The regional identity politics of India’s new land wars: Land, food, and popular mobilisation in Goa and West Bengal," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(10), pages 2324-2341, October.
    4. Rea, Christopher, 2016. "Theorizing command-and-commodify regulation: the case of species conservation banking in the United States," SocArXiv f6ux4, Center for Open Science.
    5. Alkon, Meir, 2018. "Do special economic zones induce developmental spillovers? Evidence from India’s states," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 396-409.
    6. David Mosse & Sundara Babu Nagappan, 2021. "NGOs as Social Movements: Policy Narratives, Networks and the Performance of Dalit Rights in South India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(1), pages 134-167, January.
    7. Manuel Rosaldo, 2022. "The Antinomies of Successful Mobilization: Colombian Recyclers Manoeuvre between Dispossession and Exploitation," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(2), pages 251-278, March.
    8. Thomas Cowan, 2021. "UNCERTAIN GROUNDS: Cartographic Negotiation and Digitized Property on the Urban Frontier," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 442-457, May.
    9. Koelble, Thomas A., 2018. "The politics of violence and populism in post-colonial democracy: The role of political society in South Africa," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Democracy and Democratization SP V 2018-102, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    10. Michael Levien, 2014. "Social Capital as Obstacle to Development: Brokering Land,Norms, and Trust in Rural India," IEG Working Papers 341, Institute of Economic Growth.
    11. Manjusha Nair, 2020. "Land as a Transactional Asset: Moral Economy and Market Logic in Contested Land Acquisition in India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(6), pages 1511-1532, November.
    12. Karita Kan, 2020. "The social politics of dispossession: Informal institutions and land expropriation in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(16), pages 3331-3346, December.
    13. Julien Mercille & Enda Murphy, 2017. "What is privatization? A political economy framework," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(5), pages 1040-1059, May.
    14. A. L. Ashni & R. Santhosh, 2019. "Catholic Church, Fishers and Negotiating Development: A Study on the Vizhinjam Port Project," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 24(2), pages 187-204, December.
    15. Temper, Leah & Martinez-Alier, Joan, 2013. "The god of the mountain and Godavarman: Net Present Value, indigenous territorial rights and sacredness in a bauxite mining conflict in India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 79-87.
    16. Xuefei Ren, 2017. "Land acquisition, rural protests, and the local state in China and India," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(1), pages 25-41, February.
    17. Aditya Ray, 2020. "IT-Oriented Infrastructural Development, Urban Co-Dependencies, and the Reconfiguration of Everyday Politics in Pune, India," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 371-383.
    18. Asabu Sewenet Alamineh & Getachew Fentahun Workie & Nurlign Birhan Moges, 2021. "The political-economy of land acquisition and privatization of Birr and Ayehu Farms in Amhara Region, North-West Ethiopia," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, December.

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