Paper short abstract:

International Large Scale Land Acquisitions are overrepresented in the literature, more research is needed on the local dynamics of dispossession. Researching local elite coalitions for dispossession can illuminate both local-based and international dispossession processes.

Paper long abstract:

Interest in Large-Scale Land Acquisitions (LSLA) and land grabs in the Global South has focused largely on international dynamics and Global North-South relations. The local actors, their coalitions for dispossession and the institutions that enable them have been less studied and are only now beginning to be understood. This paper uses a case study of small-scale farmers threatened with displacement from their customary land by a coalition of local elites in Zimbabwe to explore the institutions of home-grown dispossession. The study finds that elite coalitions for dispossession combine political elites, business elites and the security apparatus. The state encloses and devalues land to make it available for the private sector, the business elites invest in the project and benefit from the arbitrage between market value and compensation value as well as cheap labour while the security apparatus intimidates, threatens, abducts and kills resistors and quells any rebellion. Such dispossessions tend to occur in the countryside, among marginalized minorities and attract less international attention and condemnation and therefore make it difficult for the dispossessed to find elite allies in the international community to support their resistance. Their struggles are a multifaceted mixture of demanding new institutions and legislation as well as demanding the rule of law and enforcement of existing legislation. There is a greater need for networking and sharing of resources between different groups that are fighting dispossession as well as a better appreciation of the local dynamics of dispossession