Powers of Exclusion - Softcover

Derek Hall; Philip Hirsch; Tania Murray Li

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9971695413 ISBN 13: 9789971695415

Publisher: NUS Press, 2011

Synopsis

Questions of who can access land and who is excluded from it underlie many recent social and political conflicts in Southeast Asia. Powers of Exclusion examines the key processes through which shifts in land relations are taking place, notably state land allocation and provision of property rights, the dramatic expansion of areas zoned for conservation, booms in the production of export-oriented crops, the conversion of farmland to post-agrarian uses, "intimate" exclusions involving kin and co-villagers, and mobilizations around land farmed in terms of identity and belonging. In case studies drawn from seven countries, the authors find that four "powers of exclusion" - regulation, market, force and legitimation - have combined to shape land relations in new and often surprising ways.

Land debates are often presented as a conflict between market-oriented land use with full private property rights on one side, and equitable access, production for subsistence, and respect for custom on the other. The authors step back from these debates to point out that any productive use of land requires the exclusion of some potential users, and that most projects for transforming land relations are thus accompanied by painful dilemmas. Rather than counterposing "exclusion" to "inclusion", the book argues taht attention must be paid to who is excluded, how, why, and with what consequences.

Powers of Exclusion is a path-breaking book that draws on insights from multiple disciplines to map out the new contours of struggles for land in Southeast Asia. The volume provides a framework for analyzing the dilemmas of land relations across the Global South and beyond.

About this title

About the Author

Derek Hall is associate professor in the Department of Political Science and the Balsillie School of International Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Review

Powers of Exclusion combines the insights of scholars from three different fields . . . Their collaboration has produced an excellent book that serves as an inquiry into current land issues in the region. Through detailed examples and illustrations, they examine the poignant and timely issues of access to and exclusion from land. . . . Powers of Exclusion is an outstanding read with keen insights on processes of exclusion in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. . . . an accessible, empirically rich and conceptually instructive book that will be of tremendous use to those interested in researching and teaching issues of land, access, exclusion, social relations and social differentiation. (Antipode)

[This] book is a ‘must read’ for doctoral candidates and senior scholars concerned with the processes that continuously re-configure land relations and re-define ecological, economic, and socio-political conditions. (Journal of Peasant Studies)

The result is remarkably coherent and potently argued. . . . The reviewer can offer only praise for a work of nuanced analysis. (New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies)

Edition details

• Publisher: NUS Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9971695413
• ISBN 13: 9789971695415
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 266