TY - JOUR

T1 - Between dependence and deprivation

T2 - The interlocking nature of land alienation in Tanzania

AU - Bluwstein, Jevgeniy

AU - Lund, Jens Friis

AU - Askew, Kelly

AU - Stein, Howard

AU - Noe, Christine

AU - Odgaard, Rie

AU - Maganga, Faustin

AU - Engström, Linda

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Studies of accumulation by dispossession in the Global South tend to focus on individual sectors, for example, large‐scale agriculture or nature conservation. Yet smallholder farmers and pastoralists are affected by multiple processes of land alienation. Drawing on the case of Tanzania, we illustrate the analytical purchase of a comprehensive examination of dynamics of land alienation across multiple sectors. To begin with, processes of land alienation through investments in agriculture, mining, conservation, and tourism dovetail with a growing social differentiation and class formation. These dynamics generate unequal patterns of land deprivation and accumulation that evolve in a context of continued land dependency for the vast majority of the rural population. Consequently, land alienation engenders responses by individuals and communities seeking to maintain control over their means of production. These responses include migration, land tenure formalization, and land transactions, that propagate across multiple localities and scales, interlocking with and further reinforcing the effects of land alienation. Various localized processes of primitive accumulation contribute to a scramble for land in the aggregate, providing justifications for policies that further drive land alienation.

AB - Studies of accumulation by dispossession in the Global South tend to focus on individual sectors, for example, large‐scale agriculture or nature conservation. Yet smallholder farmers and pastoralists are affected by multiple processes of land alienation. Drawing on the case of Tanzania, we illustrate the analytical purchase of a comprehensive examination of dynamics of land alienation across multiple sectors. To begin with, processes of land alienation through investments in agriculture, mining, conservation, and tourism dovetail with a growing social differentiation and class formation. These dynamics generate unequal patterns of land deprivation and accumulation that evolve in a context of continued land dependency for the vast majority of the rural population. Consequently, land alienation engenders responses by individuals and communities seeking to maintain control over their means of production. These responses include migration, land tenure formalization, and land transactions, that propagate across multiple localities and scales, interlocking with and further reinforcing the effects of land alienation. Various localized processes of primitive accumulation contribute to a scramble for land in the aggregate, providing justifications for policies that further drive land alienation.

KW - Tanzania

KW - accumulation by dispossession

KW - agriculture

KW - conservation

KW - land grabbing

U2 - 10.1111/joac.12271

DO - 10.1111/joac.12271

M3 - Journal article

VL - 18

SP - 806

EP - 830

JO - Journal of Agrarian Change

JF - Journal of Agrarian Change

SN - 1471-0358

IS - 4

ER -