Tania Li - Why are plantations so destructive?

This month we were delighted to be joined on the podcast by Tania Murray Li. Dr. Li is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto (). Her work explores questions of land, labor, class, capitalism, development, resources, and indigeneity. In this episode she gave us insight into her most recent co-authored book, Plantation Life: Corporate Occupation of Indonesia’s Oil Palm Zone, which was published in 2021 by Duke University Press. The conversation centers on the impacts to existences when plantations are established over existing landscapes. We got insights into the feel of the space on the plantation and the rhythms of life under plantation rule.

If you would like to hear more from Dr. Li and the impacts of infrastructural violence, she was recently a keynote speaker at the FSDR Development Days 2022 conference. Here is a link to her keynote speech. You can read more about Dr. Li’s work on her blog.