Scales of dispossession: Institutionalizing resource access at the frontier

Abstract

Institutions and frontier dynamics describe apparent opposites, yet they are mutually constitutive. While institutions are characterized by rules, regulation, and order, frontier dynamics represent destruction of existing rules, the elimination of established authorities, and the active redacting of prior social contracts. We argue that frontier dynamics are characterized by a rupture of scale, which breaks down local institutional arrangements and dislocates power and decision-making. The new resources emerging in frontiers are relevant, valuable, and commodified outside of their original locales. The scalar disjuncture between the physical resource and its institutional control effectively enables the dispossession of local communities, producing frontier spaces by reshaping the visibility of rights subjects, redrawing the boundaries between property and theft, and re-embedding places in narratives of progress and development. We look at three constitutive elements of the institutionalization of resource access and control by examining performative representation, discussing the drawing of jurisdictional boundaries, and engaging the languages of legalization and legitimation. We develop the argument through the cases of fracking in Argentina and palm oil plantations in Indonesia.