This thesis examines land reclamation as an increasingly significant form of land grabbing and control. Its focus is coastal reclamation in south Bali, Indonesia, particularly in and near the culturally, economically, and ecologically important Benoa Bay. Like elsewhere in Asia and around the world, the remaking of landscapes and seascapes in Indonesia through reclamation has numerous, interconnected material, ecological, and social impacts. In south Bali, coral, mangrove, and seagrass meadows have been degraded, fishers’ livelihoods decimated, and communities’ spiritual and other connections to place disrupted. Benoa is a particularly productive case to analyze, as there have been instances of both historical and recent reclamation projects, as well as a proposed mega-project that has successfully been resisted for nearly a decade. The thesis seeks to make multiple contributions in analyzing reclamation, primarily in Bali and elsewhere in Indonesia. First, despite its quickening pace and widening extent, there is a need for greater empirical attention to reclamation’s spatiality and its entwined social, ecological, and material effects. This case study is attentive to the historical and conjunctural specificities of Bali (including the tourist-centric economy that provides capital with unique imaginaries and circulations for a spatial fix and the Balinese-Hinduism that subtends legal pluralism), but also attempts to trace trends and dynamics of reclamation more widely. Second, examining reclamation as an assemblage enables us to better understand its political economy, by identifying the many financial, technological, legal, discursive and other elements that must be made to cohere. Analyzing cases of resistance, or other failures to cohere, reveal potential weak seams and chokepoints in reclamation’s assemblage. Third, analysis of reclamation enables us to see reclaimed land as “manufactured,” and different not just theoretically from emplaced land, but distinct in its behaviors. Manufactured land behaves like a true (not pseudo) commodity. Seeing land in a commodity chain further reveals its political economy as well as opportunities to disrupt its manufacture.

La demande croissante pour l’alimentation, l’énergie et les ressources naturelles, combinée à la limitation des ressources et à la libéralisation du commerce sont parmi les facteurs ayant entrainé une nouvelle « ruée sur les terres agricoles » observée depuis quelques années. Alors que certains ont exprimé des inquiétudes sur les implications potentielles de ces projets sur les droits et les moyens de subsistance des populations rurales des pays en développement, d’autres ont souligné le potentiel de ces opportunités dans la lutte pour la sécurité alimentaire et le développement rural que constituait ces annonces d’investissements dans un secteur longtemps négligé. Cette thèse interroge la complexité économique, institutionnelle et sociale des investissements fonciers à grande échelle et leur capacité à engendrer des restructurations agraires et un changement du modèle de développement agricole au Mozambique. En raison de leur fort taux d’échec et des difficultés d’implantation des projets, il apparait que les investissements fonciers à grande échelle n’ont pas entrainé une rupture dans les structures agraires locales marquée par un changement des caractéristiques des exploitations majoritairement productrices dans le secteur agricole national. En revanche, l’intérêt des investisseurs étrangers tend à influencer les autorités nationales vers une réactivation du modèle de développement agricole qui prévalait après l’Indépendance, c’est-à-dire un secteur agricole dual avec des agriculteurs familiaux marginalisés d’une part et des exploitations agricoles à grande échelle établies avec des investissements étrangers de l’autre. Ainsi, non seulement la grande majorité des agriculteurs familiaux ne bénéficient pas de la dynamique actuelle de projets d’investissement, mais les politiques agricoles et foncières et les mesures de soutien tendent à se détourner d’eux au profit de la facilitation des investissements à grande échelle. Nos résultats remettent en cause la capacité des projets actuels à enclencher une trajectoire de développement agricole capable de répondre aux défis des économies africaines. / The growing demand for food, energy and natural resources, combined with the limited stock of natural resources available and the process of trade liberalization are among the factors that have triggered a new rush for land observed in the last years. Despite an extensive literature, most analyses of large scale land based investment are politically and ideologically anchored, reflecting strong opposing stances. On one hand, some have expressed some concerns on the potential implications of these projects on peasants’ land rights and livelihood. On the other hand, some other researchers have argued that these projects should be seen as opportunities in the struggle for food security and rural development. This thesis questions the economic, social and institutional complexity of large scale land based investment including their differentiated evolutionary dynamics and implications in terms of agricultural development and agrarian change in Mozambique. Because of a high failure rate and difficulties to establish the production structures, it appears that large scale land based investments haven’t led to a shift from small scale farming to large scale farming as the main farming organization in Mozambique. However, the rising interest of foreign investors tend to influence national authorities in rehabilitating the post-Independence agricultural development model, which was characterized by a dual system composed of marginalized subsistence farmers on one hand and foreign owned large scale farms. So, not only do smallholders benefit little from present agricultural investment dynamics, but also agricultural policies and support measures tend to shift away from the former towards the facilitation of large-scale investment. Our results questions the capacity of actual large scale land based investments to trigger a trajectory of agricultural development able to meet African economies challenges.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Public Administration)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / Refer to document