Paper short abstract:

Using Canadian and South African cases, this paper examines how market forces undo the reparative remit of liberal democratic land programs in advanced capitalist economies. In current form, such programs risk replacing historical 'accumulation by dispossession' with 'accumulation by reparations.'

Paper long abstract:

Redistributive land claim and land reform programs carry within them a reparative expectation or remit. This paper examines the conflicts that arise between this remit and market forces in liberal democratic, advanced capitalist economies. I draw on case studies from Canada and South Africa, two decidedly different contexts which nonetheless share two key features. First, established land claim (Canada) and land reform (South Africa) programs emergent from long histories of struggle against historical processes of dispossession at the hands of the settler colonial state. Second, well developed commercial agriculture sectors characterized by large scale farming with a productivist focus. The increasingly corporatized and financialized forms of agriculture that dominate in these settings present many barriers to land recipients eager to participate in commercial farming. At the same time, certain forms of (self-describedly) 'socially responsible' capital stand ready to 'help' these communities engage their land. What results are new forms of exploitation parasitic on land reparations: in effect, the replacement of historical 'accumulation by dispossession' processes by 'accumulation by reparations' ones. I reflect on the implications of the cases amidst proliferating demands for land, seen locally in the expropriation without compensation (South Africa) and #landback (Canada) movements, but which are also accelerating in other contexts globally.