Paper short abstract:

In the context of large-scale land acquisitions, this paper explores the framing of social mobilization around two land projects in Mozambique. Findings suggest that shared diagnostic and motivational frames boost cooperation, while prognostic frames vary due to heterogeneous ideological grounds.

Paper long abstract:

Large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA) have the potential to overthrow existing production patterns in rural areas substantially. Research on this topic showed that such projects often bear social, environmental, and economic risks. As a result, local, national, and transnational social mobilizations against LSLAs occurs frequently to counter these threats. Social movements countering such LSLA are heterogeneous and thus use diverse frames to address land projects.

Building on social movement literature, the paper investigates how social mobilization unfolds around LSLA. The empirical qualitative data derives from fieldwork of resistance to two large-scale agricultural projects in Mozambique: The first is the Wanbao project run by a Chinese private company, and the second is the ProSavana project, a trilateral development cooperation between Mozambique, Brazil, and Japan.

Based on a comparative research design, the paper explores the strategies of social movements around these projects. It shows how activists form various diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational frames. The research indicates that the different actors share a common diagnostic and motivational framing and thus form coalitions to challenge large-scale land projects. Yet the prognostic framing is heterogeneous among the actors involved, mainly due to diverse ideological understandings of economic systems and development approaches.