Agrarian change and land dispossession linked to the armed conflict in Colombia – a review

Angela Navarrete-Cruz, Athena Birkenberg and Regina Birner

Third World Quarterly, 2023, vol. 44, issue 7, 1526-1545

Abstract: Violent conflict can accelerate the development of capitalism in rural areas, entailing the transformation of land distribution patterns. However, this transformation via land grabbing in wartime is under-addressed in the literature. This paper explores the case of land dispossession (LD) in Colombia, defined as land grabbing by taking advantage of the armed conflict, a process that affected mainly smallholders and ethnic communities. By conducting a literature review it was found that agrarian elites, networking with public servants and right-wing paramilitary militias, engaged in LD by using violence but also various symbolic devices that justified LD and assisted the legalisation of usurped land. Two main paths of LD are identified, and a typology of symbolic devices used to justify LD is proposed, showing how the armed conflict hastened agrarian capitalism through land accumulation. The opportunistic participation of civilians in the armed conflict setting, the interlaces between symbolic devices and violence, and the role of the state are highlighted as factors fostering a specific path of agrarian change in wartime characterised by the marginalisation of small-scale farming.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2023.2189582

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