Miranda Morgan
| Miranda Morgan was recently awarded a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Manchester (UK), where her research was funded by the Brooks World Poverty Institute and the Overseas Research Student Awards Scheme. She also holds a MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Policy (University of Oxford, UK) and a BA Honours in Political Studies and Development Studies (Queen’s University, Canada). Some of Miranda’s most formative professional experiences have includd working at the Democratic Dialogue Project (UNDP Guatemala), LEAD International (London, UK) and the Ministry of Community and Social Services (Ontario, Canada). Email: miranda.y.morgan@gmail.com |
Research on Land-grabbing:
Gender and protest: contesting oil palm plantation expansion in Sambas, Indonesia
This research examines if and how women and gender are implicated in resistance movements against large-scale land acquisitions in Indonesia today. Drawing from a combination of secondary literature (specifically, the fields of agrarian political economy, feminist political ecology and contentious politics) and primary data obtained during a case-specific field study in Sambas district, West Kalimantan, the research offers new analysis of who is impacted by land deals, who resists it and in what ways. Interviews conducted with a range of key actors involved in a protest against a proposed oil palm plantation in Sambas sheds light on how gender relations shape all stages and facets of protest around land deals. Gender influences everything from women’s decisions to participate in protest (by informing their motivations and political opportunities) to women’s protest activities and how women experience protest outcomes. The research also reveals how gender relations are not fixed. Rather at all stages of mobilization gender itself is shaped by and through women’s participation in protest. This study has potentially far-reaching implications not only for the future of oil palm expansion and resistance, but on womenʼs participation in protest, in politics in general and on gender relations.
