Struggles for land: comparing resistance movements against agro-industrial and mining investment projects
Louisa Prause, Philippe Le Billon
Abstract
Investments in large-scale land-based projects increased over the past two decades, with a concomitant rise in community-level resistance. Drawing from data on resistance movements, literature findings, and two case studies in Senegal, this paper compares movements resisting either agro-industrial or mining projects. Building on contentious politics and materialist approaches from political ecology we find that outcomes seem largely case-dependent and determined by political opportunities, while resistance motives, narratives and more confrontational practices differ across both sectors. We suggest that this can be explained through sector-specific material, discursive and institutional factors. Our findings shed light on challenges for cross-sectoral alliances.