Postscript : A theory of access revisited

The articles in this volume conceptually and empirically engage and extend our ‘theory of access’ (Ribot and Peluso 2003) through theoretically informed grounded analysis. The articles nuance our repertoire of access mechanisms, suggesting ways to think more deeply and broadly with the concept. They provide an array of new applications and scales at which the analysis of access pertains under changing political economic and environmental circumstances. This helps clarify the origins of environmental problems and conflicts. Several show how the analysis of access helps us understand patterns of resource distribution, sites of struggle over power and authority, and ways that our notion of “webs of power” could be more effectively structured and defined. In this essay we reflect on how this special issue expands our thinking on power and authority, access maintenance and control, distinctions between access and property, and scales of analysis.