Forging the nation: land struggles in Myanmar's transition period

In Forging the nation SiuSue Mark provides a detailed analysis of the relationship between Myanmar's fractured transition to democracy and the politics of land. Drawing on more than a decade of experience working in Myanmar as both a scholar and practitioner, Mark examines the tensions and contradictions embedded within national and subnational struggles over land rights and how they interacted with broader political and economic changes. The book is divided into two parts: the first section focuses on how land politics played out at the national level, through changes in state–society relations, the peace process and the opening of markets to increased foreign investment. The second section draws on research in the Ayeyarwady Delta, Chin State and Karen State, to show how these national-level processes played out in different ways. One of the main threads running throughout the book is the importance of civil society in building democratic institutions and mechanisms that hold political elites to account. According to Mark, while pressure from the grass roots did achieve some success in influencing land reforms, their impact varied across the country.