‘Nothing about us, without us’: Reflections on the challenges of building Land in Our Hands, a national land network in Myanmar/Burma

Doi Ra*, Khu Khu Ju

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)
36 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The transition from military dictatorship to an electoral regime has opened limited political spaces for social activism in Myanmar. Some have called the unfolding situation a ‘transition to democracy’. But this is far from the reality for some, if not most, of Myanmar’s ‘rural working people’. This paper explores the trajectory of the national land network called Land in Our Hands (LIOH or Doe Myay), which came into formal existence in 2014. This paper attempts to lay out a more comprehensive account of the historical legacies and internal and external pressures that have been shaping LIOH as a movement building initiative, and in relation to three key dimensions: its identity politics; its ideology and class base; and its political work.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)497-516
Number of pages20
JournalJournal of Peasant Studies
Volume48
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Feb 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
In addition, for Doi Ra, final stages of research for and writing of this article was in part done as a doctoral researcher at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Hague, and has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union?s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement [834006]), under the ERC Advanced Grant project RRUSHES-5. Khu Khu Ju and Doi Ra would like to thank first and foremost the editorial team members of the Myanmar Special Forum who have unwaveringly supported and encouraged us to finish this paper. We acknowledge the project support from the Transnational Institute (TNI) for the research and writing of this article. Last but not least, we thank the anonymous reviewer for critical yet constructive comments which has helped to improve the article further.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

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