The international symposium addresses these conflicts with a focus on four thematic dimensions: spatiality; state, authority and citizenship; labor; social movements. The aim of the symposium is to bring together scholars from different fields of research, to further the exchange on conceptual approaches to conflicts over land and to compare empirical findings across world regions.
Over the past 20 years a growing demand for raw materials as well as the financial and food price crisis have until recently led to a sharp increase in prices for mining and agricultural products. These global dynamics together with national policy and legal reforms have provoked large and rapid land use changes for agro-industrial and mining purposes worldwide. Land and resources are central to social power and belonging, human (re)production, political control, environmental systems and cultural representation. Their changing use, control, distribution and representation are contested and in many cases lead to conflict.
Central questions are:
- Which relevance does space have in conflicts over land, and how can we analyze and theorize spatial dimensions of conflict?
- How do conflicts over land shape and are shaped by different authorities and patterns of domination?
- What interrelations exist between global transformations and changing labor relations in agriculture and mining?
- How can we analyze social movements and their struggles for or against mining and agro-industrial projects?
Speakers:
Michael Watts (Keynote), Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Sybille Bauriedl, Bernd Belina, Akua Britwum, Jan Brunner, Kristina Dietz, Bettina Engels, Katy Jenkins, Sarah Kirst, Detlef Müller-Mahn, Géraud Magrin, Victor Munnik, Louisa Prause, Oliver Pye, Elisabet Rasch
Time & Location
Dec 01, 2016 - Dec 02, 2016
Freie Universität Berlin,
Harnack-Haus, The Conference Venue
of the Max Planck Society
Ihnestr. 16-20
14195 Berlin
