Arrays and algorithms: Emerging regimes of dispossession at the frontiers of agrarian technological governance

Abstract

Emerging technologies in food and energy systems present unique problems of resource governance. Here, we present distinct case studies to examine two emerging technologies in energy and food systems; solar parks in India and precision agriculture technologies in the US. We ask the following question: How do existing modes of governance of new and emerging technologies create physical and virtual dispossessionary enclosures for rural producers? We argue that emerging technologies for sustainability in energy and food systems present unique problems of resource governance, insofar as the neoliberal state enables energy and agritech firm hegemony at the expense of local producers. Albeit unevenly, such technological interventions have brought some social and environmental benefits to people and the environment. However, we contend that the constellation of institutions, policies and regulatory approaches that govern these technologies in agrarian spaces constitute regimes of dispossession—socially and historically specific political apparatuses for coercively redistributing resources.

Keywords

• Precision agriculture
• Big data
• Solar
• Governance
• Regimes of dispossession