Keisch, Deborah

We will discuss a project that is helping to assemble a politics of relational becoming through land. Colonial capitalism and the ontology that it has imposed is largely produced through a transformation from land as a set of relationships to something that can be bought and sold. Our project aims to use a digital platform to represent and connect projects where people across what is colonially known as the United States are engaged in some form of land decommodication in order to highlight their efforts, facilitate co-learning, and situate the multitude of projects in a common imaginary of decommodification. We will present the platform and model we have selected for this mapping project, noting the limitations that are inherent to technological boundaries and that come with not all projects being “mappable” while also exploring the possibilities for ongoing expansion and connection. Examples include Land Rematriation, Community Land Trusts, Land Commoning, Ecovillages and more.