Illegality in Settlement Heterotopias

A Study of Frontier Governance in the Brazilian Amazon

Bibliographic Data

ID4874704
AuthorsKei Otsuki (0000-0003-1346-240X, Institute for Sustainability and Peace, United Nations University, 5-53-70 Jingumae, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo 150-8925, Japan, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume30
Issue5
Pages896-912
Publication date2012-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1068/d17510
OpenAlexW1972893080
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited33

It is often argued that various forms of illegality persist in the Brazilian Amazon because of weak frontier governance. However, very little is understood about how this governance can be strengthened in the context of social and spatial change in a way that will counter illegality. Drawing on the concept of heterotopias, as discussed by Michel Foucault, and the life history of an illegal logger in an agrarian reform settlement project in the state of Pará, this paper approaches frontier governance by conceptualising the 'settlement heterotopia' as a real, lived-in place in which the space that makes up various state and nonstate actors' sites of action interact and continually rearrange power relations. This rearrangement process may or may not work to legitimise illegality and, therefore, strengthening frontier governance involves a process by which collaborative power relations emerge and residents decide to work with the state instead of alongside illegality

Agrarian society · Amazon rainforest · Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Corporate governance · Economics · Economy · Frontier · Geography · Governmentality · Heterotopia (medicine · Management · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Settlement (finance · Sociology · State (computer science · State formation · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Law · Water Governance and Infrastructure