Failed land deals and the invisibilization of land grabbing in Mozambique

This paper argues that failed land deals are a key piece of the puzzle about global land grabbing. Co-constitutive of operational land deals, failed land deals profoundly impact social relations in affected communities and ecology, which are important to understand. Based on this, we argue that one impact of combined operational and non-operational or failed land deals is the ‘normalization’ of land grabbing through routinization and institutionalization of mechanisms and processes of land control grabbing. The proliferation of failed land deals, and the normalization of land grabbing through routinization and institutionalization, combined, result in the invisibilization of land grabbing. Meaning, land grabbing continues, driven by the state and capital alliance, but is no longer seen publicly as such. This conclusion is drawn, in part, by examining the Mozambican case.