Access-Authority Nexus in Farmer-Herder Conflicts (AAN)

Project summary:
Access-authority nexus in farmer-herder conflict (AAN) investigates the dynamic processes of formation and erosion of access, identities and political institutions in a spatial and historical perspective. Through a theoretical lens guided by political ecology and in particular concepts of frontiers and territorialization, it understands the conflict as a dynamic process whereby people seek access and try to legitimize their claims as property and become, or vanish as, right holders. Governing institutions (statutory, customary and others) compete over the validation of claims and as a consequence constantly build, maintain, or lose their authority. This is state-building in the making. The approach taken in AAN offers a novel way of investigating natural resource conflicts with huge implications for our understanding of state building.

IFRO coordinator: Christian Lund

Amount: 3.830.668 DKK

Financing source: FFU (Danida Fellowship Centre)