Losing land in times of peace: post-war agrarian capitalism in Colombia and Côte d'Ivoire

Abstract : Recent scholarly interest in the implementation of land policies in post-conflict settings has been focused on ‘best practices'. Yet defining land tensions as a risk for stability conceals the contribution of peace-making to the transformations of capitalism. This contribution links the analysis of post-conflict conjunctures to the renewal of developmentalist policies. I argue that peace-making policies contribute to differentiate the economy from the political sphere, and to define land as an economic problem, not a political matter. This produces what I call post-war agrarian capitalism. This proposition is put into application through a comparative analysis of Colombia and Côte d’Ivoire.