Dynamics of land commodification and struggle for land recognition in Malino Uplands, South Sulawesi

This research aims to investigate the dynamics of land control and commodification that affect agrarian transformation and how rural villagers mobilize counter-exclusion to defend access to land. With the increasing pressure on land, the struggle for land recognition is of relevance for local farmers to secure the right for land access. Examining complexity of land contestation, it employs a framework of ‘commodification’ in capitalist development with the support of territorialisation of nature, analysing agrarian transformations and agrarian movement formed by such dynamics. The study was conducted by examining the case of Batulapisi, Malino Upland, Gowa, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. This area has had significant territorialisation since the colonial period which intensified with the state control during the ‘developmentalism era’ of the New Order regime. I examine that the intensification of market relations, with the increasing involvement in horticulture crops and with the boom of tourism has significantly accelerated land contestation amongst the actors and created differentiated rural communities.In response to the land expulsion, the peasant community then engaged in counter exclusion through the struggle for land recognition with the support of the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA). It is argued that the struggle for land recognition could be crucial for ensuring land security for rural communities to avoid dispossession. However, the analysis of class position within the peasant community and technicalisation of such process of legalisation would result in the tendency of ‘petty reformism’. Thus, this study contributes to understanding interconnection of commodification of land, agrarian transformation, and agrarian movement against the process of exclusion in the ground. In doing so, it applies a qualitative method using primary data collection from semi-structured interviews and participant observations supported with secondary data and literature