Land matters, gender, and de facto authority in (un)expected places

A prominent international agenda for land governance reform has a particular focus on making land governance more gender equal, and situating land governance within communities. Research on land governance reform suggest that the process is rife with contestation, specifically involving de facto authority. Rather than assume that de facto authority operates in preexisting, bounded spaces, this article considers how de facto authorities create spaces that challenge reforms for gender equality. Liberia offers a clear example of a place where this international agenda is being pursued. The article explores how two de facto authorities construct spaces that limit gender equality provisions. One of these was used to subvert the expectation that newly formed land governance bodies would resolve disputes in open community meetings, rather than ‘the bush’ (a site women are excluded from). Another is that of ‘community development associations,’ which span geographic space between ‘the community’ and the capital city. Through considering how these de facto authorities constitute the community in space and time, this paper shows the limitations to thinking ‘the community’ as a bounded space for land governance, and rather shows it as made up of several overlapping spaces, some of which uphold gendered exclusions.