IMAGES OF COMMUNITY - DISCOURSE AND STRATEGY IN PROPERTY RELATIONS

This article argues that divergent images of community result not from inadequate knowledge or confusion of purpose, but from the location o f discourse and action in the context of specific struggles and dilemm as. It supports the view that 'struggles over resources' are also 'str uggles over meaning'. It demonstrates the ways in which contests over the distribution of property are articulated in terms of competing rep resentations of community at a range of levels and sites. It suggests that, through the exercise of 'practical political economy', particula r representations of community can be used strategically to strengthen the property claims of potentially disadvantaged groups. In the polic y arena, advocates for 'community based resource management' have repr esented communities as sites of consensus and sustainability. Though i dealized, such representations have provided a vocabulary with which t o defend the rights of communities vis-a-vis states. Poor farmers, dev elopment planners, consultants and academics can also use representati ons of community strategically to achieve positive effects, or at leas t to mitigate negative ones. Most, but not all, of the illustrations i n this article are drawn from Indonesia, with special reference to Cen tral Sulawesi.