Countering Dispossession, Reclaiming Land: A Social Movement Ethnography

Front Cover
Univ of California Press, Mar 5, 2024 - Nature - 296 pages
Two decades ago, a group of Indonesian agricultural workers began occupying the agribusiness plantation near their homes. In the years since, members of this remarkable movement have reclaimed collective control of their land and cultivated diverse agricultural forests on it, repairing the damage done over nearly a century of abuse. Countering Dispossession, Reclaiming Land is their story. David E. Gilbert offers an account of the ways these workers-turned-activists mobilized to move beyond industrial agriculture's exploitation of workers and the environment, illustrating how emancipatory and ecologically attuned ways of living with land are possible. At a time when capitalism has remade landscapes and reordered society, the Casiavera reclaiming movement stands as an inspiring example of what struggles for social and environmental justice can achieve.
 
 

Contents

Dispossession
23
Reclaiming
75
Organizing the Movement
101
Diversifying the Land 19982016
131
The Predatory Work That Remains
158
Reclaiming Solidarities
174
Going Beyond
201
Acknowledgments
215
Counter Mapping
222
References
253
Illustration Credits
267
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About the author (2024)

David E. Gilbert is a postdoctoral researcher in society and environment at the University of California, Berkeley. He is active in protest movements across three continents.