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Introduction to symposium ‘Reimagining land: materiality, affect and the uneven trajectories of land transformation’

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  • Sarah Ruth Sippel

    (Leipzig University)

  • Oane Visser

    (International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam)

Abstract

Over the past decade land has again moved to the centre of resource conflicts, agrarian struggles, and competing visions over the future of food and farming. This renewed interest in land necessitates asking the seemingly simple, but pertinent, question ‘what is land?’ To reach a more profound understanding of the uniqueness of land, and what distinguishes land from other resources, this symposium suggests the notion of ‘land imaginaries’ as a crucial lens in the study of current land transformations. Political-economy, and the particular economic, financial, or political interests of various actors involved in land projects do not directly result in, or translate into, outcomes, such as dispossession and enclosure, increased commodification, financialization, and assetization, or mobilization and resistance. All these processes are informed by different imaginaries of land—the underlying understandings, views, and visions of what land is, can, and should be—and associated visions, hopes, and dreams regarding land. Drawing on a variety of case studies from across the world, crossing Global North/South and East/West, and including contemporary and historical instances of land transformation, this symposium addresses the multifaceted ways in which implicit, explicit, and emergent understandings of land shape current land transformations.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:38:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s10460-020-10152-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-020-10152-3
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Oane Visser, 2017. "Running out of farmland? Investment discourses, unstable land values and the sluggishness of asset making," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(1), pages 185-198, March.
    2. Marc Edelman & Andrés León, 2013. "Cycles of Land Grabbing in Central America: an argument for history and a case study in the Bajo Aguán, Honduras," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(9), pages 1697-1722, October.
    3. Jennifer Clapp & S. Ryan Isakson & Oane Visser, 2017. "The complex dynamics of agriculture as a financial asset: introduction to symposium," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(1), pages 179-183, March.
    4. Loconto, Allison & Rajão, Raoni, 2020. "Governing by models: Exploring the technopolitics of the (in)visilibities of land," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    5. Stefan Ouma, 2020. "This can(’t) be an asset class: The world of money management, “society†, and the contested morality of farmland investments," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(1), pages 66-87, February.
    6. Carlos Oya, 2013. "The Land Rush and Classic Agrarian Questions of Capital and Labour: a systematic scoping review of the socioeconomic impact of land grabs in Africa," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(9), pages 1532-1557, October.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Saturnino M Borras & Jennifer C Franco, 2013. "Global Land Grabbing and Political Reactions ‘From Below’," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(9), pages 1723-1747, October.
    10. Nancy Lee Peluso, 2012. "What's Nature Got To Do With It? A Situated Historical Perspective on Socio-natural Commodities," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 43(1), pages 79-104, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Liron Shani, 2025. "Make the desert bloom—imaginaries, infrastructure, and water-land entanglement in desert agriculture in Israel," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 42(1), pages 303-317, March.
    2. Julia C. D. Valliant & Marie T. O’Neill & Julia Freedgood, 2025. "Bipartisan creation of US Land Access Policy Incentives: states’ efforts to support beginning farmers and resist farm consolidation and loss," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 42(1), pages 421-439, March.
    3. Sarah Ruth Sippel, 2023. "Tackling land’s ‘stubborn materiality’: the interplay of imaginaries, data and digital technologies within farmland assetization," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(3), pages 849-863, September.

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