Brokers have long featured in the anthropological literature as figures that connect disparate social worlds. Using their particular knowledge, skills and authority, they bridge gaps between populations, usually disadvantaged, and power-holders. This special issue builds on recent calls to revive the focus on brokers in anthropological analysis, most notably in relation to recent neo-liberal societal transformations and governance transitions (James 2011; Lindquist 2015). It explores the variety of brokers and dimensions of brokerage in settings characterised by rapid societal change. Focusing on brokers' work of connecting and maintaining personal ties among and across different actors, sites and rationales provides insights into development processes and generates a foundation for building theory around new social categories and changing political relationships. The contributions to this issue present studies of brokerage from South Africa, the Netherlands and Indonesia. While the specific settings range from urban to rural locales and from nature conservation initiatives to youth development programmes, all of the articles emphasise the importance of brokers as central figures who engage in blending, translating and reworking. Brokers are Janus-faced figures whose distinct faces are recognised and addressed by different actors and whose performances align with different logics and rationales. Studying the agentive practices of brokers sheds light on complex societal settings, where multiple forms of authority co-exist, statecitizen relationships are increasingly problematised and policy messages are contradictory. The brokers described in this volume shape the interactions between actors who have unequal power relations and diverging interests. They may operate as gatekeepers, representatives, liaisons, itinerant guides or coordinators, and often as combinations of these (Stovel & Shaw 2012). They may take advantage of the void left by government
This article analyzes how transformations of land governance in the new Republic of South Sudan play into processes of everyday state formation. National land tenure reforms and decentralization policies have increased polarization between local public authorities in and around Yei Town, who vie for legitimacy amongst returning refugees, internally displaced people and migrants arriving in the wake of the civil war. Ambiguously worded national policies and shifts in the composition of the population provide a structure of opportunity that works largely to the advantage of chiefs and at the expense of other, more localized customary authorities. Our analysis shows how chiefly and state power are mutually reinforcing. Evolving notions of community land rights further legitimize the centrality of the state in land governance. Highlighting the institutional competition between state and customary authorities, as well as among customary authorities, our findings emphasize the centrality of the statehowever limited its presence may bein land governance, and nuance political economy analyses that overemphasize the role of ethnicity in land contestation in South Sudan.IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, LAND CONTINUES to be central to building political authority. Land governance is a major juncture where citizens *Mathijs van Leeuwen (
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