We invite abstract submissions for the ‘Re-centring land conflicts in the post-globalisation order’ mini-conference (MC11), as part of the SASE 2026 Conference in Bordeaux (1-3 July).
In this mini-conference, we are seeking to have a critical debate about land struggles over sovereignty, resources and means of survival. We are inviting folks to submit abstracts (no more than 1000 words) which raise land as the main object of analysis of power in a ‘post-globalisation order’. By seeking to re-centre the Land Question in contemporary socio and political economic debate and scholarship, we aim to illuminate how land and the power it confers shape institutions, create and mediate conflicts, and determine possibilities for both domination and resistance in an era marked by ecological crisis and geopolitical realignment.
We are particularly interested in hearing about research which speaks to one of our key themes:
1. Land conflicts and new imperialisms
2. Extractivism and resource conflicts
3. Digital infrastructure and the material internet
4. Institutions and power in the regulation of land
5. Consequences of urban and rural land concentration
6. Land rent and heterodox economics
Please see the full mini-conference description on the SASE website:
https://sase.org/events/2026-bordeaux/#mini-conferences
Also take care to read the SASE submission guidelines in full before applying:
https://sase.org/events/2026-bordeaux/#submissions.
You will need to sign in to Oxford Abstracts to access the Abstract Submissions form.
The hard deadline for submissions is 16th December.
Mini-conference outline:
Re-centring land conflicts in the post-globalisation order
“How does land and the institutions, actors and states that control, contest and exploit it shape the wider dynamics of power and conflict in a post-Globalisation order?” This is the question that animates this mini-conference. In doing so, it seeks to re-centre the Land Question in contemporary socio and political economic debate and scholarship.
This mini-conference contends that land is the foundational factor structuring political and economic power in the emerging post-Globalisation order. By re-centering land and raising it as the main object of analysis, we aim to illuminate how land and the power it confers shapes institutions, creates and mediates conflicts, and determines possibilities for both domination and resistance in an era marked by ecological crisis and geopolitical realignment.
The globalisation era promoted narratives of integrated economies, borderless worlds, and footloose capital, yet these visions obscured rather than eliminated the materiality of territory. As nation-states reassert sovereign control and new forms of territorial competition emerge, we witness a re-politicisation of land and the rediscovery of land as the ultimate source of power and wealth. This re-territorialisation, however, differs fundamentally from pre-globalisation land politics. Contemporary land struggles are occurring within increasingly artificial processes shaped by decades of neoliberal transformation, such as novel forms of financialisation, datafication, and ecological commodification.
By re-centering land in our analysis of post-globalisation conflicts, this mini-conference aims to generate insights into emerging power structures and possibilities for alternative futures. Land is not merely the stage upon which social dramas unfold but an active force shaping institutional possibilities, political imaginaries, and material life chances. Understanding land's role in contemporary conflicts - from housing crises to climate breakdown, from food security to digital sovereignty - is essential for grasping the dynamics of our historical moment and imagining more just and sustainable territorial arrangements. We welcome papers on any topic that seek to re-centre land in socio-economic and political analysis. Topics may include (but should not necessarily be limited to) the following:
1. Land Conflicts and New Imperialisms
We invite papers examining how territorial expansion and control legitimate contemporary imperial projects. How do states and corporations deploy narratives of development, security, or environmental protection to justify land grabs? What role does land play in projects like the ‘Gaza Riviera’, where territorial conquest intersects with real estate speculation? What role is climate change having in these dynamics, as it alters the value and viability of territories, creating new geographies of habitability and abandonment?
2. Extractivism and Resource Conflicts
As we approach peak oil and face critical mineral shortages for green transitions, land-based resources become flashpoints for conflict. We seek contributions analysing the political economy of extraction in both Global South and North contexts. How do extractive industries reshape governance structures and social relations? What new forms of resistance emerge from communities defending their territories?
3. Digital Infrastructure and the Material Internet
Despite narratives of virtual worlds and cloud computing, digital capitalism depends fundamentally on land-intensive infrastructures. We invite papers examining topics such as the territorial footprint of data centres, the geopolitics of submarine cable routes, and conflicts over sites for renewable energy to power digital systems. How does control over the land hosting digital infrastructure translate into new forms of power? What are the implications of AI's massive energy and spatial requirements for territorial politics?
4. Institutions and Power in the Regulation of Land
As legal and policy frameworks determine who controls land and for what purposes, land regulatory systems become flashpoints for conflict. We seek contributions examining how planning laws, property registration and environmental protections mediate competing territorial claims between states, markets, and communities. How do these architectures embody political choices about land access and use? What happens when indigenous rights clash with development strategies, or when democratic participation conflicts with technocratic expertise?
5. Consequences of Urban and Rural Land Concentration
The rise of property wealth inequalities and the associated erosion of mass homeownership have enabled new forms of rent extraction by those accumulating land and property, with clear implications for the distribution of populations over urban space. These tensions are also found in the global rush to acquire agricultural land, which puts local populations and livelihoods at risk. How are these conflicts between the landed and the landless mediated by regulatory, fiscal and cultural norms? What are their implications for housing markets as well as the organisation of production across Global South and Global North contexts?
6. Land Rent and Heterodox Economics
With the (partial) retreat of liberal economics, there has been renewed recognition of the imperfect features of land as an essential factor of production (spatial fixity, finitude and heterogeneity), and the scope this opens up for land bubbles and busts and for landowners to exert market and structural power in variegated mechanisms of rent extraction. What can heterodox economics tell us about the role of power, uncertainty and speculation in land markets? Or about how the resulting problems of valuation, whose models are rooted in neoclassical assumptions, impact the subsequent power dynamics of treating land as a financial asset?
We hope that the mini-conference will bring together diverse scholars from different sub-disciplines who might not otherwise recognise their shared concern with land as power. By creating a dedicated space for examining land conflict across multiple dimensions - financial, legal, ecological, urban and political - we can develop more integrated theoretical frameworks and develop a diverse scholarly community. Abstract submissions should be made via the SASE website by 16 December. If accepted, please note that a full paper submission is recommended. Deadlines and timescales are provided on the SASE website.
