Ordering Discourse and Counter-Discourse on Land Between The State and The Peasant Movement

Abstract

This research investigates the production, definition, and representation of state discourse on land rights, as well as contestation over the meaning of land rights between the state and small-scale farming movements. Results are that the state defines land through a property rights system prioritizing maximum economic returns from land use and designates zones for its own benefit. Thus, land becomes a speculative commodity and small-scale agriculturalists are systematically excluded from land ownership. In response, small-scale farming movements have mobilized collective action, scrutinized state actions, and advocated for community-based land reform. They do so by exercising constitutional community rights to reallocate land under the collective ownership system of community land title deeds. The land is life concept is used as a counter-discourse, emphasizing the importance of land to sustain humans and other living beings, and asserting the fundamental right of all individuals to access land.