Speaker : Paul Routledge (University of Leeds). Discussant : Lorenzo Bosi (SNS)

This paper considers the politics of land occupation in Bangladesh. Contentious politics have been conceptualised as ‘societies in movement’ by Raul Zibechi, defined through their attempts to disperse power through the reconfiguration of social relations between peasants, the state and capital. Drawing upon the author’s ethnographic engagement with peasant farmer movements in Bangladesh since 2002, the paper analyses the differential powers generated in, by and through the production of relations and connections involved in land occupations. This requires a consideration of both relational and structural understandings of contentious politics. Organizational structures and dynamics, as well as the ‘resourcefulness’ of social movements (e.g. their capacities to deploy material resources, skills and knowledges) enable land occupation since these are crucial in creating and maintaining the socio-material relations necessary for political activity to be prosecuted. Drawing together these insights, the paper conceptualises land occupation as a process of ‘territorializing movement’ articulated through three interwoven spatial practices: strategic occupation, reconfiguration of social relations and territorialization of translocal solidarities.

The talk will take place at the EUI Seminar room (ground floor), Villa Pagliaiuola , Via delle Palazzine 17-19  on the 15th of May from 11:00AM to 12:30 PM