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- Convenors:
-
Michela Marcatelli
(Stellenbosch University)
Lerato Thakholi (Wageningen University and Research)
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- Stream:
- Sociology
- Location:
- Chrystal McMillan, Seminar Room 5
- Sessions:
- Thursday 13 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel aims to reflect on how new processes of rural dispossession and displacement are (re)producing surplus populations in Africa today. It will do so by interrogating the connections between these dynamics and land and green grabbing, environmental change, and capital accumulation.
Long Abstract:
Contemporary land and green grabbing, both accelerated by global environmental challenges and capitalism's response to them, have brought about a new phase of dispossession and displacement in Africa. These dynamics are highly uneven and context-specific. In some places, they are better understood in connection with the colonial past, whereas in others they represent ruptures within broader processes of rural and environmental change. The consequences on the rural poor differ too, but there is evidence of relative surplus populations emerging, with serious effects on these people's access to land, natural resources, labour, and livelihoods - while the neoliberal socio-economic system often does not provide any alternatives.
This panel aims to reflect on how the complementary processes of dispossession and displacement are unfolding across present-day Africa. We welcome both theoretical contributions that point out common logics underpinning these phenomena and rich empirical case studies that highlight local differences. We seek to bring together contributors from different disciplines and especially encourage scholars working in the fields of critical agrarian studies, political ecology, and sociology of development to submit their proposals.
The panel intends to address the following questions, among others:
• What are the connections between dispossession, displacement, environmental change, and capital accumulation in times of land and green grabbing?
• Who is being made surplus, how, and to what?
• How are dispossession and displacement affecting rural populations and their social reproduction?
• What discourses are employed to justify these processes?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 13 June, 2019, -Paper short abstract:
In Mozambique, surplus populations are produced through involuntary resettlement following mega projects (mining, agriculture, conservation). We discuss how government discourse, corporate rhetoric, and community consultation meetings legitimate this as an opportunity for (sustainable) development.
Paper long abstract:
Mozambique's economy is increasingly geared toward the extractive industry and large scale plantation agriculture. One of the direct consequences of this is the displacement of rural people from their homes and lands, a process referred to as involuntary resettlement. Drawing on the work of Tania Li (2010), we regard resettlement as one of the key ways in which surplus populations are produced in Mozambique, as (often) rural and already vulnerable people lose access to their lands, while being relocated to marginal or already-crowded 'alternative lands' without being substantially incorporated into the job markets that these mega projects (such as mining, agriculture, conservation) create. Based on our ethnographic research in different parts of the country, across several sectors, and at different project stages, we provide comparative insight into how surplus populations are produced through resettlement processes in the context of mega projects in Mozambique. Subsequently we show how resettlement is continuously framed and thereby legitimated in government discourse, corporate rhetoric, and community consultation meetings as an opportunity for (sustainable) development and as a concern of national interest.
Paper short abstract:
This paper will discuss the continuous production of surplus populations in South Africa, with a specific focus on the Northern Cape Karoo. It will do so by looking at processes of accumulation and social reproduction within the context of sustainable development initiatives.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will discuss the continuous production of surplus populations as a crucial dynamic of rural and agrarian change in post-apartheid South Africa. In my presentation, I will focus on elements of continuity and change between the forced removal of surplus people during apartheid and farm evictions in the post-apartheid order, by looking particularly at the Karoo region as a prime site of sustainable development initiatives. I intend in fact to consider surplus populations in relation to major land-use changes, such as astronomy, private nature conservation, and renewable energy production, which are highly visible in the Karoo. As an exploratory paper, it will aim at identifying key issues around the intertwined concepts of accumulation and social reproduction. For instance, to what extent and how are surplus people instrumental in sustaining accumulation and, on the other hand, how does social reproduction change for those (mainly ex-farm workers and dwellers) living on the margins of small rural towns?
Paper short abstract:
Through archival documents and life histories I demonstrate that the development of a private agrarian economy in the lowveld region of South Africa in the 1920s was contingent on the expulsion of black people from their land. Moreover, that this process created a racialized division of labour from which private conservation continues to benefit.
Paper long abstract:
The working conditions of conservation labourers demonstrate how deplorable housing conditions, poor salaries, and long expensive commutes to work are all invisibly bound to conservation commodities. Furthermore, by presenting the “nature” that the tourist consumes as pristine and wild, conservationists render the time and energy expended by the labourer invisible. In this paper, I explore how this type of conservation labour was produced in the lowveld region of South Africa. Following Ramutsindela’s call to interrogate the production of nature conservation labour, I analysed archival documents and life histories to demonstrate that the development of a private agrarian economy in the lowveld in the 1920s was contingent on the expulsion of black people from their land. Moreover, I show that conservation was not just a benefactor of a racialized property and labour regime. Rather, the proclamation of private nature reserves was only made possible by the absence of black people from the farm. Finally, I highlight how private nature reserves drew from the labour pool that had been created through the ejection of black people, thereby maintaining a racialized division of labour from which it continues to benefit.
Paper short abstract:
This work analyzes the socio-economic dynamics generated around the 'extractive boom' and the development programs in the province of Cabo Delgado from a historical perspective. It also tries to provide some keys in order to (re)think future alternatives for the province and its citizens.
Paper long abstract:
The history of Mozambique is full of episodes where different kinds of conflicts, natural resources exploitation dynamics and development initiatives have coexisted with greater or lesser fortune. In the last decades, after more than 25 years since the end of the civil war, several social, economic and political transformations have taken place in the country. These range from relative improvements in some basic development indicators, to high rates of economic growth as well as the increasing attraction of foreign investment, infrastructures rehabilitation etc. All of this has coexisted with a progressive reduction of donor aid dependency, high rates of poverty and low levels of governance and transparency in public management.
One of the most significant changes behind these realities is linked to the massive exploration and exploitation of mineral resources in recent decades, which includes ruby, graphite and gas investing and extraction operations in the province of Cabo Delgado. The new scenario has generated huge expectations of improvement in the living conditions among the local population, as well as frustration and different kind of violence(s) related to the breach of these expectations.
This work analyzes the socio-economic dynamics generated around the 'extractive boom' and the development programs in the province of Cabo Delgado from a historical perspective. Lastly it tries to provide some keys in order to (re)think future alternatives for the province and its citizens.