Pluralising Political Forests: Unpacking “the State” by Tracing Virunga's Charcoal Chain

Esther Marijnen*, Judith Verweijen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Peering through the lens of illegal charcoal production in the forested areas of Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, this paper makes a case for disaggregating the notion of “the state” to better capture “the political” in contemporary political forests. It argues that to identify the fluctuating importance of different dimensions of “stateness”, it is crucial to acknowledge the polymorphous socio-spatial relations that produce political forests. Thus, we draw on the notions of territory, place, scale and network (TPSN) to examine how “stateness” in Virunga has transformed under the particularisation, transnationalisation, and regionalisation of authority. This approach allows us to show how these processes do not only stem from neoliberalisation, but are also driven by, inter alia, regional warfare and non-state militarisation. The resulting complexity of the regulatory landscape turns Virunga into a space marked by a plurality of partly overlapping and partly conflicting political forests.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)996-1017
Number of pages22
JournalAntipode
Volume52
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • natural resources
  • neoliberalisation
  • political forests
  • the state
  • TPSN framework

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