Land Grabbing

Citation:

Federici, Silvia. 2014. “Women, Land-Struggle and Globalization: An International Perspective.” In Grabbing Back: Essays Against the Global Land Grab, edited by Alexander Reid Ross, 115–124. New York: AK Press.

Author: Silvia Federici

Topics: Gender, Women, Land Grabbing

Year: 2014

Citation:

Perry, Keisha-Khan Y., and Ana Cristina da Silva Caminha. 2014. “Black Women on the Edge: A Conversation on the Gendered Racial Struggle for Urban Land in Salvador, Brazil.” 2014. In Grabbing Back: Essays against the Global Land Grab, edited by Alexander Reid Ross, 147–157. New York: AK Press.

Authors: Keisha-Khan Y. Perry, Ana Cristina da Silva Caminha

Topics: Land Grabbing, Race Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Brazil

Year: 2014

Citation:

Author: Leny G. Ocasiones

Abstract:

Land grabbing has been present in the Philippines for the past decades. It occurs when local communities and individuals lose access to land that they previously used, thus threatening their lives and livelihood. Civil society organizations that are skeptical toward the growing trend of large-scale acquisitions by foreign corporations, however, argue that land grabbing can be committed by domestic actors and sometimes in cooperation with foreign actors. Land grabbing raises important questions about the welfare, livelihood, and land security of farmers in the Philippines. Using archival sources, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions, this study investigates women's experiences of land grabbing and resistance among farmers of Aloguinsan, Cebu. This study reveals that land grabbing has profound impacts on the lives of the farmers and that women farmers are affected differently than men because women are generally considered a vulnerable group. Further, land grabbing generated fierce resistance from farmers, especially from women who developed creative ways to defend their lives, land and community. The study concludes that the resistance put up by the Aloguinsan farmers is gendered, and serves as a case of the feminization of resistance.

Keywords: land grabbing, feminization, resistance, women

Topics: Civil Society, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 2018

Citation:

Author: Gideon Kofi Agbley

Abstract:

Keywords: land grabs, equity, efficiency, participation, sustainability

Topics: Development, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana

Year: 2019

Citation:

Joshi, Saba. 2020. “Working Wives: Gender, Labour and Land Commercialization in Ratanakiri, Cambodia.” Globalizations 17 (1): 1–15.

Author: Saba Joshi

Abstract:

In Ratanakiri province, home to a large share of Cambodia's indigenous minorities, land commercialization involving large-scale land transfers and in-migration has led to shrinking access to land for indigenous households. Drawing on qualitative interviews and a household survey conducted in Ratanakiri, this paper explores the links between social reproduction and agrarian production in the current phase of agrarian transition through the lens of everyday gendered experiences. It argues that while wage labour is becoming an essential component of agrarian livelihoods for land-poor indigenous households, gendered hierarchies mediate access to local wage labour opportunities due to the incompatibilities between care work and paid labour. This paper contributes to the literature by exposing locally-specific processes through which gender- differentiated impacts are produced under multiple modes of dispossession. It also illuminates the links between dispossession and social reproduction and the tensions between capitalist accumulation and care activities in agrarian trajectories following land commercialization.

Keywords: Cambodia, land grabs, care labour, wage labour, indigenous peoples, gender

Topics: Agriculture, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Households, Indigenous, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Cambodia

Year: 2020

Citation:

Tyagi, Niharika, and Smriti Das. 2020. “Standing up for Forest: A Case Study on Baiga Women’s Mobilization in Community Governed Forests in Central India.” Ecological Economics 178 (November). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106812.

Authors: Niharika Tyagi, Smriti Das

Abstract:

The forest history in India is fraught with struggles between the forest dwelling communities and the state. While the state usurped power over forests, excluding the communities and privileging commercial interests; the alienation of communities from their own land and homes resulted in mobilization across different sites. The movement for protection of forest commons assumed significance through the decade of 1970s that saw the famous Chipko movement in Uttarakhand and other forms of resistance across the country. The demand upon the forests that had intensified with subsistence, commercial and urbanization pressures, further enhanced with pressures of globalization. The consequent environmental degradation and dispossession of the communities of their resources resulted in varieties of environmentalism. In the arena of environmental conflict, Central India has been a hotbed of contest with forcible evictions, increasing base of extractive industries and steady militarization. The tribal communities in Central India faced serious threat from a monolithic state as it prioritized ‘national development’ goals over social equity and environmental justice. Rooted in this inequity was widespread discontent and social mobilization across the forested landscape. The local mobilization in Baiga Chak area of Central India clearly marked recognition of their socio-cultural embeddedness in their natural setting, particularly forest. What was unique in this movement was the uprising of Baiga women to assert their rights over the forest contrary to their traditionally defined role. It gradually led to collectivization of demand for recognition of Baiga communities’ historical relationship and claims over forest resource. Using the framework of Feminist Political Ecology, this paper examines Baiga women’s movement against Forest Department’s unlawful practices in Baiga Chak region of Central India. Using a case-based approach, the paper addresses the following questions: What factors led to the feminized grassroots environmental movement? How have women’s bargaining power and gender relations evolved at the local level consequently? What effect does women’s resistance have on community governed forest systems? In response to state usurpation that threatened the livelihood and household well-being, Baiga women collectively struggled to regain control over local forest resources. The analysis of this gendered environmental movement establishes an intersection between local structural, economic and ecological concerns and signals possibility of several gendered social movements in contested resource geographies.

Keywords: women's movements, feminist political ecology, gender roles and relations, forest commons

Topics: Environment, Extractive Industries, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Gender Roles, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Indigenous, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods, Rights, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2020

Citation:

Chung, Youjin B. 2020. “Gender and Land Grabbing.” In Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture, edited by Carolyn E. Sachs, Leif Jensen, Paige Castellanos, and Kathleen Sexsmith. Abingdon: Routledge.

Author: Youjin B. Chung

Abstract:

In the wake of food, fuel, and financial crises of 2007/8, there has been a surge in large-scale land acquisitions in the global South, a phenomenon which became popularly known as a “global land grab.” The early literature on the topic focused broadly on making sense of what was happening when, where, how, and why. Since mid-2012, there has been a growing body of empirical research on contemporary land deals that foreground gender and other forms of social difference. This chapter provides an overview of five thematic issues on gender and land grabbing, emerging from scholarship in feminist political ecology, critical agrarian studies, feminist economics, rural sociology, and related fields. These themes include: a) consultation and negotiation; b) access to land and livelihoods; c) compensation and resettlement; d) labor relations; and e) political reactions from below and above. The chapter concludes with an invitation for continued feminist inquiry into these interconnected issues, while opening up new questions and concerns for consideration.

Topics: Economies, Feminist Economics, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods

Year: 2020

Citation:

Levien, Michael. 2017. “Gender and Land Dispossession: A Comparative Analysis.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 44 (6): 1111–34.  

Author: Michael Levien

Abstract:

This paper seeks to advance our understanding of the gendered implications of rural land dispossession. It does so through a comparative analysis of five cases of dispossession that were driven by different economic purposes in diverse agrarian contexts: the English enclosures; colonial and post-colonial rice irrigation projects in the Gambia; large dams in India; oil palm cultivation in Indonesia; and Special Economic Zones in India. The paper identifies some of the common gendered effects of land dispossession, showing in each case how this reproduced women’s lack of independent land rights or reversed them where they existed, intensified household reproductive work and occurred without meaningful consultation with—much less decision-making by—rural women. The paper also demonstrates ways in which the gendered consequences of land dispossession vary across forms of dispossession and agrarian milieu. The most important dimension of this variation is the effect of land loss on the gendered division of labour, which is often deleterious but varies qualitatively across the cases examined. In addition, the paper illustrates further variations within dispossessed populations as gender intersects with class, caste and other inequalities. The paper concludes that land dispossession consistently contributes to gender inequality, albeit in socially and historically specific ways. So while defensive struggles against land dispossession will not in themselves transform patriarchal social relations, they may be a pre-condition for more offensive struggles for gender equality.

Keywords: land grabs, gender, dispossession, displacement, enclosure

Topics: Agriculture, Caste, Class, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Patriarchy, Households, Land Grabbing, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, West Africa, Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Gambia, India, Indonesia

Year: 2017

Citation:

Tenango, María de los Ángeles, Verónica Vázquez García, María Eugenia Chávez Arellano, y Miguel Jorge Escalona Maurice. 2017. “Territorialidad y desterritorialización en Atenco, Estado de México. Un análisis desde las mujeres.” Clivajes: Revista de Ciencias Sociales, no. 8, 25-46.

Authors: María de los Ángeles Tenango, Verónica Vázquez García, María Eugenia Chávez Arellano, Miguel Jorge Escalona Maurice

Abstract:

Keywords: ejido, dominio pleno, aeropuerto, urbanización, territorio

Topics: Gender, Women, Land Grabbing, Land Tenure Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Mexico

Year: 2017