| dc.description.abstract | This thesis argues that contemporary land grabbing in Tanzania is shaped to a significant extent by three colonial logics. These logics are formalization, unused lands, and futurity. These colonial logics help to explain some dynamics of power and knowledge that are central to processes of land grabbing today. By examining how these logics manifest both historically and in the contemporary period, this study provides insight into how colonial relations of land grabbing adapt, develop, and are challenged. The thesis presents this argument by analyzing 62 semi-structured interviews with Indigenous, pastoralist, land rights and farmers organizers, international human rights, conservation, and development organizations, and representatives of state institutions. These interviews are complemented by archival research, primary accounts, and analyses of policy documents and legislation. This thesis contributes to ongoing research on land grabbing and coloniality. First, it expands land grabbing literature by offering an in-depth analysis of the colonial dimensions of contemporary land grabbing. Second, this thesis analyses multiple driving logics of land grabbing. This includes but is not limited to the logic of capital which is the focus of much land grabbing scholarship. Third, this thesis takes a detailed look at the role of the domestic state. Specifically, it offers an analysis that goes beyond conventional understandings of the state as a facilitator of land grabs. Fourth, this thesis provides insight into the complex ways in which activists contest, resist, and negotiate land grabbing. Finally, this study contributes to the often theory-dominated scholarship on coloniality by examining how it manifests on the ground through a detailed empirical case study. | en_US |
