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Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2018

Between dependence and deprivation: The interlocking nature of land alienation in Tanzania

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Lund, Jens Friis; Askew, Kelly; Stein, Howard; Noe, Christine; Odgaard, Rie; Maganga, Faustin; Engstrom, Linda

Abstract

Studies of accumulation by dispossession in the Global South tend to focus on individual sectors, for example, large-scale agriculture or nature conservation. Yet smallholder farmers and pastoralists are affected by multiple processes of land alienation. Drawing on the case of Tanzania, we illustrate the analytical purchase of a comprehensive examination of dynamics of land alienation across multiple sectors. To begin with, processes of land alienation through investments in agriculture, mining, conservation, and tourism dovetail with a growing social differentiation and class formation. These dynamics generate unequal patterns of land deprivation and accumulation that evolve in a context of continued land dependency for the vast majority of the rural population. Consequently, land alienation engenders responses by individuals and communities seeking to maintain control over their means of production. These responses include migration, land tenure formalization, and land transactions, that propagate across multiple localities and scales, interlocking with and further reinforcing the effects of land alienation. Various localized processes of primitive accumulation contribute to a scramble for land in the aggregate, providing justifications for policies that further drive land alienation.

Keywords

accumulation by dispossession; agriculture; conservation; land grabbing; Tanzania

Published in

Journal of Agrarian Change
2018, Volume: 18, number: 4, pages: 806-830
Publisher: WILEY

    Sustainable Development Goals

    SDG17 Partnerships for the goals

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Economics

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12271

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/96687