The Role of Migration and Absentee Ownership in Pastoral Territorialisation in Tunisia

这项研究旨在了解在新自由主义背景下，畜牧业是一种积累资本的方式，在新自由主义背景下，社会流动性已经受到限制，但各种形式的缺席牲畜所有权在那里运作，超越了“社区”和“资本”的有限概念。2011年突尼斯的革命始于南部农村、边缘、磷酸盐矿区的抗议活动。这些地区与重要的牧区不谋而合，突尼斯87%的牧场都位于那里，70%的家庭以饲养小反刍动物为生。革命后，突尼斯南部旱地牧区正经历着大量农村地区的迁出，汇款用于克服当地对社会流动性的限制和不断贬值的突尼斯第纳尔。此外，自2011年以来，随着权力下放和新政府重新配置农村地区的权力关系，牲畜和土地投资者，特别是来自沿海地区的投资者，正在抓住机会，这再次影响了积累的轨迹。尽管作为农业转型特征的移民和投机投资在突尼斯并不是一个新现象，但到目前为止，革命后农业转型中的这些转型只在农业环境中进行了部分探索，而很少有研究试图理解这些转型在牧区环境中的变化。这项研究问：2011年突尼斯革命后，不同形式的缺席牲畜和土地所有权如何影响牧区社区内的社会分化模式？移民和外部投资者在学术或政策导向的话语中都可以被视为“缺席者”，典型的--但并不总是--一个定义特征是通过中间人或通过其他形式的合同关系管理牲畜或土地。总体而言，这项研究试图通过关注移民和外部投资者，以及他们与突尼斯南部牧区的关系，来揭示“旷工”的概念。尽管缺席者可能不在牲畜或土地投资所在地区，或不在当地居住，但他们仍在很大程度上参与影响资源分配和农村生计。旷工非但不“缺席”，反而可能成为快速变化的田园经济中的重要参与者，导致新的土地和劳资关系、牲畜和牧场管理以及新的资本和投资来源；特别是考虑到多地区空间中社会分化模式的日益复杂。

This research aims to understand the ways in which livestock is a means to accumulate capital in neoliberal contexts where social mobility is already constrained, but where various forms of absentee livestock ownership operate; beyond bounded conceptions of "communities" and "capital".Tunisia's revolution in 2011, began with protests in the rural, marginal, phosphate mining areas of the south. These regions coincide with important pastoral zones, where 87% of Tunisia's rangelands are located, and where 70% of households hold small ruminant flocks for their subsistence. Following the revolution, Tunisia's southern dryland pastoral areas are experiencing high levels of out-migration from rural areas, with remittances used to overcome local constraints to social mobility and the depreciating Tunisian dinar. Furthermore, since 2011, livestock and land investors, particularly from coastal regions, are seizing opportunities as decentralization and the new government are reconfiguring power relations in rural areas, again affecting trajectories of accumulation. Although migration and speculative investments, as features of an agrarian transition, are not a new phenomenon in Tunisia, to date, these transformations within a post-revolution agrarian transition have only been partly explored in agricultural settings while little research has sought to understand these transformations in pastoral settings.This research asks: How do different forms of absentee livestock and land ownership, following the 2011 revolution in Tunisia, influence patterns of social differentiation within pastoral communities?Both migrants and outside investors, may be considered as 'absentees' in academic or policy-oriented discourses where, typically - but not always - a defining feature is of managing livestock or land through an intermediary or through other forms of contractual relationships. Broadly, this research seeks to unpack the notion of 'absenteeism' by focusing on migrants and outside investors, and their relations with areas of pastoral production in southern Tunisia. Although absentees may not be physically present, or not-resident, in the area where the livestock or land investment is being made, they are still very much involved in shaping resource distribution and rural livelihoods. Far from being 'absent', absentees may be vital players in fast-changing pastoral economies, resulting in new land and labour relations, livestock and rangeland management, and new sources of capital and investment; particularly given the deepening complexity of patterns of social differentiation in multilocal spaces.