Journal of Agrarian Change· 2026Q1
Insurgent Citizenship for Ancestral Rights: Pastoralists' Resistance to Land Dispossession in Madagascar
- 1citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Malagasy pastoralists resisting a biofuel project assert 'insurgent citizenship' by claiming rights based on both universal citizenship and ancestral rule, challenging state-backed land acquisition that deems their territory legally empty.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Malagasy pastoralists are resisting land dispossession by a biofuel and afforestation project.
- The project operates through frontier dynamics, classifying pastoral territory as legally empty and inhabitants as less than legal subjects.
- Affected communities engage in 'insurgent citizenship' by asserting rights based on universal citizenship and ancestral rule.
- This resistance grounds claims to both land and citizenship at extractive frontiers.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
ABSTRACT By examining the enduring resistance of Malagasy pastoralists to a large‐scale biofuel and afforestation project, this paper explores how the dispossession of agrarian populations reflects and shapes citizenship regimes and practices from below. Drawing on fieldwork and documentary analysis spanning 2010–2026, it shows how a State‐backed corporate land acquisition operates through frontier dynamics, classifying pastoral territory as legally empty and its inhabitants as less than legal subjects. In refusing this erasure and asserting alternative sources of rights and legitimacy, affected communities engage in what Holston calls ‘insurgent citizenship’. They assert political subjectivity and the right to territory on two simultaneous grounds: as citizens contesting universal rights violations and as territorial authorities demanding recognition of ancestral rule and intergenerational stewardship. The paper contributes to debates on citizenship and agrarian change by showing how territorial governance and ancestral belonging can ground claims to both land and citizenship at extractive frontiers.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of Agrarian Change, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
General Agricultural and Biological SciencesAgricultural and Biological Sciences