Land grabs, land control, and Southeast Asian crop booms

This paper argues that research into the dynamics of land control in the contemporary ‘land grab’ can benefit from engagement with the literature on booms in the production of crops like cocoa, coffee, fast-growing trees, oil palm, rubber and shrimp in Southeast Asia. This literature can help answer three key questions: who seeks to exercise control over land for the purpose of growing export-oriented crops under boom conditions; how would-be producers bring to bear regulatory power, market power, force, and legitimation to gain control over land; and how booms differentially affect areas with secure and insecure land control relations.

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