The Politics of Possession: Property, Authority, and Access to Natural ResourcesISBN: 978-1-4051-9656-7
Paperback
224 pages
January 2010, Wiley-Blackwell
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James Fairhead, University of Sussex
'Who gets to determine the legitimacy of claims and rights
over property and resources? Any answer to this question must
be sensitive to the varied forms by which societies organize and
institutionalise access to and control over resources whether this
be among peasant communities in Indonesia forests or in the
slumworld of Mumbai or Lagos. But equally important is a full
accounting of the forms of authority by which rights are conferred
and relatedly how these forms of authority have limits and are
invariably contested, fought over (often violently), disputed
and reformed (even overturned). The ways in which authority,
power and property are always inseparably linked strikes to the
heart of Politics of Possession. Sikor and Lund have drawn
together the leading theorists working on the property and natural
resource question. The chapters are a brave and innovative mix of
conceptual innovation, thick description and comparative insight. A
pathbreaking and foundational book.'
Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley