The drama of the grabbed commons: anti-politics machine and local responses

Gerber, Jean-David; Haller, Tobias (2020). The drama of the grabbed commons: anti-politics machine and local responses. The journal of peasant studies, 48(6), pp. 1304-1327. Routledge 10.1080/03066150.2020.1758673

[img] Text
Gerber & Haller 2020 - The drama of the grabbed commons. Anti-politics machine and local responses.pdf - Published Version
Restricted to registered users only
Available under License Publisher holds Copyright.

Download (1MB)

This article explores the nexus between old and new commons, antipolitics, and Corporate Social Responsibility measures in the context of on-going land grabbing. Detailed case studies in Ghana, Malawi, Morocco, and Tanzania show that powerful discourses of development, women’s empowerment, and wasteland productivity increase serve as anti-politics machines that hide the fact that winners are few and losers many. Despite differential bargaining power mediated by class, age, lineage, or gender, some actors manage to take advantage of the situation: contrary to the often used tragedy metaphor, we argue that we are faced with an open-ended ‘drama of the commons’ which is still unfolding.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Human Geography > Unit Political urbanism and sutainable spatial development
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Social Anthropology
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography
11 Centers of Competence > Center for Regional Economic Development (CRED)

UniBE Contributor:

Gerber, Jean-David, Haller, Tobias

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
900 History > 910 Geography & travel

ISSN:

1743-9361

Publisher:

Routledge

Language:

English

Submitter:

Stephan Armin Kägi

Date Deposited:

14 Jul 2020 15:51

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:39

Publisher DOI:

10.1080/03066150.2020.1758673

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.145174

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/145174

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback