The Politics of Possession

<i>The Politics of Possession</i> investigates how struggles over access to resources and political power constitute property and authority recursively. Such dynamics are integral to state formation in societies characterized by normative and legal pluralism. <ul> <li>Includes some of the latest theoretical work on the dynamics of access and property and how they are joined to questions of power and authority</li> <li>Explores how access to resources is often contested and rife with conflict, particularly in post-colonial and post-socialist countries</li> <li>Offers a thought-provoking approach to the study of everyday processes of state formation</li> <li>Shows how the process of seeking authorization for property claims works to legitimize the authorizers, and the efforts undertaken by politico-legal institutions to gain legitimacy underpin and undermine various claims of access and property</li> <li>Contributors explore from a wide empirical compass of original research spanning Latin America, Africa, South-East Asia, and Eastern Europe</li> </ul>