Paper short abstract:

It is common knowledge today that property and citizenship are closely related. This paper addresses the question what the driving forces are that shape the dynamics of the property - citizenship - identity nexus and how do actors negotiate within this nexus?

Paper long abstract:

It is common knowledge today that property and citizenship are closely related. This paper addresses the question what the driving forces are that shape the dynamics of the property – citizenship – identity nexus and how do actors negotiate within this nexus? I suggest that these processes not only occur in different contexts but also have to be understood as unfolding at different, interlocking scales. At each of these scales we find different constellations of actors that pursue different issues and interests. And the interests that dominate at one scale may not be so important at other scales where other issues may be more central. I also suggest that the dynamics are to an important degree shaped by law, but that the relevant laws may differ at each of the scales. This not only concerns legal regulations of state institutions at different levels. Property relations and citizenship are often subject to plural legal orders that in turn claim validity at different scales. In Post Suharto Indonesia the laws of the state at different levels coexist with, with international law, religious law and local laws, and to some extent transnational law that comes in through development cooperation and transnational corporations. Struggles over property in important ways have been struggles over which law is the valid frame of reference for determining legitimate categories of property holders and their rights and obligations, and for defining citizenship to polities and other social formations that in turn may be defined in a variety of ways by different legal orders. I shall suggest that the particular systemic character of these plural legal orders and the property regimes of each of the component legal orders shape not only property struggles, but that this also has implications for identity politics that in turn affect notions and practices of citizenship, which feed back into property relations. The paper will argue that land has been a central issue from colonial times until the very present, subject of intense power struggles of local population groups with the state, and a core issue for citizenship.