Caught in the Web of Bureaucracy? How ‘Failed’ Land Deals Shape the State in Tanzania

Understanding Land Deals in Limbo in Africa: A Focus on Actors, Processes, and Relationships

“…The different actors, processes, and relationships involved in making, remaking, and unmaking contemporary land deals are rooted in, and reproduce, structural asymmetries of power. The "liminality" of land deals (Chung 2020) can enable host states to consolidate and expand their power in the countryside (Moreda 2017;Kamski 2019;Schlimmer 2020). As this forum demonstrates, even when projects do not generate profits, they can also allow (white) foreign corporate actors to assert their authority over local populations, replicating racialized patterns of dispossession.…”

“…In light of this trend, researchers and activists have begun calling attention to the nature, causes, and implications of these "failed land deals" (Schönweger & Messerli 2015;GRAIN 2018;Gagné 2019;Persson 2019;Nolte 2020). However, the parameters of what counts as "failure," and for whom, are often more ambiguous than straightforward (Chung 2020;Kamski 2019;Schlimmer 2020). To the extent that land acquisitions vary considerably in their trajectories and outcomes, this forum asks: through what actors, processes, and relationships do land deals become stalled or partially implemented, and with what consequences for the various parties involved?…”