Limits to neoliberal authoritarianism in the politics of land capitalisation in Thailand: beyond the paradox

Thailand presents several paradoxes that complicate linear assumptions about capitalisation of land and consequent processes of accumulation, dispossession and concentration. These paradoxes become apparent when today's conundrums are considered in their historical contexts of commercialisation, establishment of transferable property rights and financialisation, each tempered both by state policy and by counter-movements that have maintained smallholding. Geographically, Thai capital has invested in large-scale land deals across borders rather than within its own territory. Present-day land capitalisation in Thailand is complicated by resurgent authoritarianism and competitive populism and by the gap between partial de-agrarianisation and a persistent rural identity politics.

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