Between expulsion and incorporation: variegated forms of processes and outcomes of land grabs

Much of the land grab literature is dominated by accounts of land deals involving large tracts of land, acquired through questionable mechanisms, often involving the violent expulsion of local populations or the latter’s adverse incorporation into emerging enterprises, usually involving military or police force for the purpose of installing highly-mechanized mono-culture plantations. Such land deals usually occur in land-abundant, low income societies with ‘weak governance’. The case that is examined in this Research Paper tells a different story. In the small country of Costa Rica, the situation is not one of land abundance, weak governance, nor low income- yet, recent land deals have pushed the expansion of the pineapple sector that is radically altering social life in rural areas. The dichotomous outcome of either expulsion or incorporation does not adequately paint a picture of the processes of change occur-ring in many of these areas. The characteristics of pineapple sector expansion do not correspond with nearly any of the dominant features of what defines a land grab- namely the scale, process, setting, outcomes, or use of extra-economic coercion. This paper explains that the narrow ‘land grab’ definition and the research that builds on such, misses important empirical conditions such as the ones in Costa Rica, with significant implications for scientific studies and policy and political debates and actions. With Costa Rica, exploitation of laborers, con-tract farming and leases, limited access to equal incentives for small holders, and environmental contamination are all engendering further penetration of agribusiness in rural areas as well as opening up opportunities for profound control of not only land but other re-sources, like water and forests. We see ‘environmental contamination’ act, deliberate or otherwise, as a form of extra-economic coercion, with the insidious effects of sickening every-thing in close proximity and deeming other livelihoods unviable-driving locals to relocate or suffer the consequences. We see the state implicated and incorporated into the agribusiness expansion, as it struggles to balance facilitating capital accumulation and maintaining political legitimacy. The findings have theoretical, methodological, political, and policy implications as the land grab analysis continues to be a major part of the debates on international development.