The Contested Production of State Land and Plantation Property in Laos

press release: Over the past two decades, the government of Laos has pursued an ambitious policy of economic development referred to as “Turning Land into Capital”. Mirroring global trends of land grabbing, the policy includes various forms of land commodification but is epitomized by the granting of long-term, large-scale land concessions to foreign enterprises for agribusiness, mining, hydropower, and infrastructure projects. Having granted 1.1 million hectares, or five percent of the national territory, government land concessions hinge on the category of “state land” that can be leased to private capital. Far from being intrinsic to a socialist state popularly understood to own all land within national borders, state land must be produced through a range of socio-material practices in advance of resource extraction projects, such as community consultation, land surveying, mapping, and land clearing (not necessarily in that order). Such practices inevitably encounter various forms of contestation when attempts to carve out “state land” run up against decades-old forms of customary land and resource use, access, and management. Mobilizing ethnographic research conducted in Southern Laos between 2013 and 2015, this presentation will highlight contested processes of producing state land for foreign agribusiness plantations in the borderlands populated by ethnic minority groups. It reflects upon how the production of private property is dependent on public forms of power that must be relationally produced vis-à-vis multiple and contested claims to land.

The Yi-Fu Lecture Series features a wide variety of U.S. and international guest lecturers from all geographic disciplines. Lecturers at these Friday seminars also often speak at brown-bag lunches, one-on-one student sessions, and breakfast meetings with student interest groups as part of their visit. Doctoral students are invited to present their final research. The lecture series was initiated by Dr. Tuan and receives enthusiastic support as a department and campus tradition.

All lectures are presented on Friday at 3:30pm in Science Hall - Rm 180 unless otherwise noted. Alumni, friends and the public are always invited to attend.