The Politics of Possession

The Politics of Possession investigates how struggles over access to resources and political power constitute property and authority recursively. Such dynamics are integral to state formation in societies characterized by normative and legal pluralism. Includes some of the latest theoretical work on the dynamics of access and property and how they are joined to questions of power and authority Explores how access to resources is often contested and rife with conflict, particularly in post-colonial and post-socialist countries Offers a thought-provoking approach to the study of everyday processes of state formation Shows how the process of seeking authorization for property claims works to legitimize the authorizers, and the efforts undertaken by politico-legal institutions to gain legitimacy underpin and undermine various claims of access and property Contributors explore from a wide empirical compass of original research spanning Latin America, Africa, South-East Asia, and Eastern Europe

The Politics of Possession investigates how struggles overaccess to resources and political power constitute property andauthority recursively. Such dynamics are integral to stateformation in societies characterized by normative and legalpluralism.* Includes some of the latest theoretical work on the dynamics ofaccess and property and how they are joined to questions of powerand authority* Explores how access to resources is often contested and rifewith conflict, particularly in post-colonial and post-socialistcountries* Offers a thought-provoking approach to the study of everydayprocesses of state formation* Shows how the process of seeking authorization for propertyclaims works to legitimize the authorizers, and the effortsundertaken by politico-legal institutions to gain legitimacyunderpin and undermine various claims of access and property* Contributors explore from a wide empirical compass of originalresearch spanning Latin America, Africa, South-East Asia, andEastern Europe

Notes on Contributors.1. Access and Property: A Question of Power and Authority(Thomas Sikor, University of East Anglia and Christian LundRoskilde University, Denmark).2. Property, Authority and Citizenship: Land Claims, Politicsand the Dynamics of Social Division in West Africa (Sara BerryJohns Hopkins University).3. Rubber Erasures, Rubber Producing Rights: Making RacializedTerritories in West Kalimantan, Indonesia (Nancy Lee PelusoUniversity of California, Berkeley).4. Ruling by Record: The Meaning of Rights, Rules andRegistration in an Andean Comunidad (Monique Nuijten, WageningenUniversity and David Lorenzo, Roskilde UniversityDenmark).5. Authority over Forests: Empowerment and Subordination inSenegal's Democratic Decentralization (Jesse C. RibotUniversity of Illinois).6. Recategorizing 'Public' and 'Private'Property in Ghana (Christian Lund, Roskilde UniversityDenmark).7. Land Access and Titling in Nicaragua (Rikke B. BroegaardDanish Institute for International Studies).8. Negotiating Post-Socialist Property and State: Struggles overForests in Albania and Romania (Thomas Sikor, University of EastAnglia; Johannes Stahl, University of California, Berkeley; andStefan Dorondel, Humboldt University Berlin).9. Property and Authority in a Migrant Society: BalineseIrrigators in Sulawesi, Indonesia (Dik Roth, WageningenUniversity).Index.