Land from Poststructuralist/Postdevelopment Perspectives

Abstract

Abstract This chapter analyzes how poststructuralist and postdevelopment studies complicate and destabilize hegemonic meanings of land as an “inert” natural resource, a means of production, and a commodity to be exploited. In doing so, these theoretical frameworks reframe land in terms of the culturally mediated articulations of biology and sociopolitical history. The analysis centers on three pivotal concepts in relation to land: territory, the “more than human,” and sovereignty, mainly bringing in examples from Latin America. The chapter ends by suggesting poststructuralist and postdevelopment theories need to envision future trajectories and research agendas toward further understanding how the socioecological crisis and the current shifting geopolitical order emerging from the rise of China are transforming the way we understand land.