Classifying Like a State: Land Dispossession on Eastern Crete’s Contested Mountains

Abstract

Despite the widespread attention to capital investments in land and property around the globe, the active re‐regulating role of the neoliberal state in processes of “accumulation by dispossession” remains underexplored. Through an in‐depth look at the dispossession of highly fragmented and loosely regulated private land for windfarm investments on Crete’s eastern corner, Sitia, this paper re‐affirms the political nature of the forcible appropriation of land for large‐scale investments; dissects the specific mechanisms in which the state dispossesses land on behalf of investors and promotes the forcible appropriation of land from below; and problematises the dialectic relationship of both rupture and continuity between crisis and inherited, path‐dependent relations embedded in land. The transformation of Sitia’s loosely regulated, informal relations on land is made possible through the mobilisation of the state’s bureaucratic and normalising powers, which redefine the concept of forest and dispossess through classifying land as such.

LANDSCAPES ON HOLD: Opening up Monopoly Rent Gaps on Crete's Cape Sidero

“…Minoan Group's first investment plan was based on a Local Spatial Plan which, drafted in close consultation with the investors themselves, was essentially designed to accommodate the company's initial plans in the region (Melissourgos, 2008) years before the crisis burst. Similarly to what Krijnen (2018a) describes in regard to Beirut's rent gap, this reflects the power of informal and illegal tactics which, long established in Greek cities as well as the countryside as part of the state's diachronic laissez‐faire attitude towards land and property (see Hadjimichalis, 2014b; Korfiati, 2020), are employed both by the poor (seeking to occupy space for use‐value) and the powerful (seeking to exploit space for exchange‐value) (Roy, 2011). Crucial changes to the hierarchical structure of planning as part of the post‐2008 aggressive reforms, however, have had a tremendous effect on legalizing the new project and reinforcing its ability to resist legal appeals.…”

Les dépossessions du paysage. Injustices paysagères, clivages locaux et mécanismes d’exclusion dans le géoparc de Sitia (Crète)

“…Cela en fait une destination touristique alternative relativement attractive, attirant les randonneurs et plus largement un tourisme axé sur la nature. Au cours des vingt dernières années, la zone a été soumise à des pressions externes pour des projets de développement controversés tels que des projets d'énergie renouvelable à grande échelle et des propositions de résidences de golf, auxquels une partie de la population locale s'est opposée, polarisant la communauté locale pendant plus de deux décennies (Korfiati, 2020).…”

“…» L'État a joué un rôle crucial dans la classification des terres privées en tant que forêts, dont la gestion a été transférée à l'État, et qui ont été louées à des investisseurs dans le domaine des énergies renouvelables (ibid.). Les habitants y relèvent une grande injustice, en raison non seulement des dommages visuels causés au paysage (figures 9 à 11), mais aussi du sentiment de dépossession de leurs terres, pour un rendement négligeable et des avantages limités pour la population locale car pratiquement aucun emploi n'a été créé(Korfiati, 2020).…”