Mimicry of the legal: translating de jure land formalization processes into de facto local action in Jambi province, Sumatra

Kunz, Yvonne / Jonas Hein / Rina Mardiana / Heiko Faust
External Publications (2016)

in: Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies (ASEAS), 9 (1), 127-146

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14764/10.ASEAS-2016.1-8
Open access

In Indonesia, as in many other countries of the global South, processes to formalize rights over land have been implemented with the intention to reduce deforestation, decrease poverty and increase tenure security. Literature on de jure processes of land formalization is widely available. There is a gap, however, on the discrepancy of de jure land titling procedures and de facto strategies to legitimize land claims. Led by the theoretical concepts of “law as process” and “politics of scale”, this study closes this gap by analyzing the impact of national tenure formalization processes on de facto local patterns of land titling. Using empirical material from 16 villages in Jambi province, we show that the outcomes of the state-led land reforms and land tenure formalization processes are imitated and translated into locally feasible actions. We refer to these translation processes as “mimicry of the legal”. The land formalization endeavors fostering mimicry of the legal allow for resource exploitation and rent-seeking behavior.

About the author

Hein, Jonas

Geography

Hein

Further experts

Baumann, Max-Otto

Political Science 

Breuer, Anita

Political Scientist 

Brüntrup, Michael

Agricultural Economy 

Dick, Eva

Sociologist and Spatial Planner 

Donnelly, Aiveen

Politcal Science 

El-Haddad, Amirah

Economy 

Fasold, Maximilian

Political Economy 

Gubbini, Emily

Social Science 

Haldenwang, Christian von

Political Science 

Houdret, Annabelle

Political Scientist 

Leininger, Julia

Political Scientist 

Morare, Ditebogo Modiegi

Political Science 

Mudimu, George Tonderai

Agricultural policy economics 

Nowack, Daniel

Political Science 

Roll, Michael

Sociology 

Rukundo, Emmanuel Nshakira

Development Economics 

Sakketa, Tekalign Gutu

Agricultural / Development Economics