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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Local State (State Formation Through the Local Production of Property and Citizenship)

Teaser

Summary

The main issue to be investigated is how property rights and citizenship rights are connected to public authority as a social contract, in places where statutory government is not the only significant political institution. While consolidated states exhibit a pattern where rights flow from state institutions, so to say, in weak or polycentric states, the pattern of social contracts between rights and authority is different. Here peopleâ€™s demands for land rights and political rights are addressed not just to statutory institutions but to all kinds of power holders. These demands institute power in the institutions. We examine how political power consolidates through demands for authorization of claims.

This is important for society because it may reveal a fundamental pattern of constitution of power, and it may allow us a more serious examination of what is often referred to as â€˜weak statesâ€™.

The overall objective is to establish an analytical repertoire that allows us to capture the constitution of social contracts even in situation where they are ephemeral, tentative and provisory.

Work performed

After recruitment, the work of the research group consisted in the preparation and execution of the first rounds of fieldwork for each full-time member (post-docs and PhDs). Fundamentally, all projects explore the social contracts of recognition between claims to property and citizenship, on the one hand, and public authority, on the other. It was important for all researchers to find locations where it was not just the state that issues property and citizenship rights which re-confirm the authority of the state; all projects were looking for locations where people institute authority in local institutions which then exercise authority.

I parallel to the initial fieldwork, the group has held a series of workshops to discuss individual research design, research ethics, draft papers and publications. Especially, the group has held two summer-labs in 2017 and 2018, where ongoing work has been discussed in the group and with invited guests. The idea of inviting guests with whom we collaborate has been pursued a bit further. Hence, we have hosted Dr. Liliana Figueroa from Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina, and Prof. Frederic le Marcis from the University of Lyon for 3-6 weeks. We further plan to host Dr. Muriel CÃ´te from the University of Zurich for a month in the coming year.

The first achievement of the project has been to verify that the conceptual framework of the project had proved relevant in a range of very different contexts. In all the contexts, fieldwork has demonstrated that the questions of property rights and political identity interconnect in dynamic ways, and that neither property nor citizenship can be meaningfully understood in isolation. Instead, it must be understood as part of a specific social contract.

Final results

We have published a large number og publications dealing with different aspects of the research issue. It is too early to say how we progress beyond the state of the art, However, the first achievement of the project has been to verify that the conceptual framework of the project had proved relevant in a range of very different contexts. In all the contexts, fieldwork has demonstrated that the questions of property rights and political identity interconnect in dynamic ways, and that neither property nor citizenship can be meaningfully understood in isolation. Instead, it must be understood as part of a specific social contract.