Doctoral Dissertation Research: Ethnicity, Difference and the Feasibility of Spatial Exclusion Policies in Resolving Land Conflicts

Ohio State University, The, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

This research seeks to understand the conditions under which the identity of small farmers - as "indigenous" or not - shapes land conflicts. In many frontier regions, violent land conflicts often pit indigenous people against non-indigenous farmers who are newly arrived at the frontier. These migrants are often landless and have been displaced from other settings. They are also commonly blamed for land conflicts, and accused of invading indigenous lands and destroying forests. Most efforts to solve land conflicts recommend the expulsion of migrants, especially when they are settling on indigenous land. This research focuses on migrant expulsion and other policies of spatial exclusion to explore the degree to which, in their conceptualization and practice, they "blame the victim". The research posits that such strategies obscure the ability to address the broader political-economic processes that contributed to displacement and migration of non-indigenous people to indigenous territories in the first place. The researchers will test the idea that such policies are likely to do more harm than good by not addressing these broader issues. Such research is vital, because migrant expulsion policies, while still relatively new, are being considered by multiple countries as a means of adjudicating land disputes in land- and resource-rich frontiers. This research thus aims to make a direct contribution to the high-stakes debate on the feasibility of such policies. At the local level, the researchers cooperate closely with local universities to contribute to institution-building and academic training. Moreover, collaboration with indigenous and non-indigenous communities at all stages of the research process ensures that their data and research needs are incorporated into the research design. The project provides support to a PhD student to complete dissertation research. The research is novel in highlighting the viewpoints of non-indigenous migrants. The work is grounded in literatures in political ecology and cultural politics and draws on critical race theory in new ways. Migrant expulsion is conceptualized as an instance of difference-making, resulting from the dominance of neoliberal modes of governance and market-based approaches to environmental conservation. It ignores the often shared experiences of marginalization and dispossession and the multiple identities within the non-indigenous group. The researchers suggest that challenging these facile categorizations requires attention to how local people articulate and negotiate their identities in relation to land. Toward this end, building on prior interviews with policy makers and ongoing analysis of census data, the co-PI will analyze territorial conflicts and their possible solutions through oral histories, group interviews, and a household survey with non-indigenous and indigenous Mayangna communities on Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast. The multiple methods are designed to answer the core questions: 1) What conditions and motivations propel non-indigenous migration to indigenous territories? 2) How are rights to land understood, and how are they constructed through specific forms of ethnic ascription? 3) How are migrant expulsion and other exclusionary policies perceived on the ground?