Resisting Legibility: State and Conservation Boundaries, Pastoralism, and the Risk of Dispossession through Geospatial Surveys in Tanzania

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2019). Resisting Legibility: State and Conservation Boundaries, Pastoralism, and the Risk of Dispossession through Geospatial Surveys in Tanzania. Rural Landscapes: Society, Environment, History, 6(1) Stockholm University Press 10.16993/rl.53

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This article illustrates how the introduction of modern geospatial surveying technology in Tanzania has failed to resolve a boundary conflict between the state and nature conservation authorities on one side and a rural community of pastoralists on the other. Far from fixing a contested geography by resurveying its boundaries and facilitating stakeholder participation for conflict resolution, digital cartography has made visible and reanimated the buried history of mismatched and conflicting logics between state-led territorial administration and conservation, and pastoral land use practices. The article shows how state and conservation officials have relied on the insights from fact-finding exercises to dismiss rural land use practices that are not represented in official maps. Pastoralists resist these state- and conservation-centred cartographic practices of fixed boundaries to maintain a historical, vital geography of seasonal access to pastures and water. By way of conclusion, this article highlights the pitfalls of geospatial land surveys and fact-finding exercises that unearth and lay bare a boundary conflict previously hidden from the state’s view. Through enhanced legibility, rural communities may become visible to the state, risking dispossession and evictions.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Social Anthropology

UniBE Contributor:

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
900 History > 910 Geography & travel
900 History > 960 History of Africa

ISSN:

2002-0104

Publisher:

Stockholm University Press

Language:

English

Submitter:

Jevgeniy Bluwstein

Date Deposited:

06 Feb 2023 11:42

Last Modified:

06 Jul 2023 08:17

Publisher DOI:

10.16993/rl.53

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/177729

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/177729

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