ABSTRACT
In this chapter, four key concepts are explored, namely, degradation, diminution, digitalization and dispossession. The treatment of degradation in this chapter comes from the interdisciplinary lens of Critical Agrarian Studies, and as such, it recognizes the relevance of the conventional ideas that are from natural sciences and complement this with a focus on political economy and political ecology for a much broader conceptualization of the term. Dispossession is central in any discussion of land politics, and that is reaffirmed in this chapter, but is paired with the key term of diminution. Diminution builds on the discussion on access (also in this book) to show that losing such access can come in different forms and is a matter of degree. It is useful when we try to attempt to understand the politics of land in production/social reproduction connected whole (also in this book). Digitalization of land is one of the most recent twists in global land politics and is briefly explored in this chapter.
