ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that a foundational colonial transformation, with a clear and ongoing material impact that continues to shape diverse and variegated identities, was that of enclosure. It also argues that enclosure is not just a colonial phenomenon; rather, enclosure is an ongoing process that is intrinsic to neoliberal capitalism. Private property must be understood as an often coercively-constructed political project of both the colonial and the postcolonial periods. Open-access property remains important to rural livelihoods in many parts of postcolonial Asia, Africa and Latin America. Enclosure transforms the character of social property relations through the reconfiguration of property rights. There is nothing 'natural' in this process; precolonial, colonial and postcolonial dominant elites used compulsion to seize social wealth from the subaltern and this brought about a reconfiguration of social property relations.
