Land and Territory: Meanings of Land between Modernity and Tradition

Abstract

The recent ‘land rush’ reinforces the historical struggles for land and territory in the fight for a place to dwell and work, beyond the questions of land exchange value and price. The resistance of peasants and traditional communities against processes of expropriation give rise to new theoretical challenges and perspectives in the discussion of the importance of land and territory. Along with it, recent changes in the representations of space (and time) have established new relations between the local and global dimensions, and have yielded new meanings to these historical struggles for land in connection with territorial rights. The present article seeks to understand the processes of reinventing rural space, which are taking place in the struggle for land as a place to be, to dwell and to work in the Brazilian countryside.