Framing frontier governance through territorial processes in the Brazilian Amazon

The policy intervention to enforce property rights and control deforestation frontiers is often undermined in the Brazilian Amazon, and this intervention problem is considered to be stemming from weak frontier governance. However, little has been understood how this governance can be strengthened in the context of social change. Drawing on a literature review of the Amazon development and sociological studies of space, this article argues that frontier governance is characterised by the co-generation of two territorial processes: the official settlement implementation (physical spacing) and the spontaneous settlers' shaping of the vernacular community (production of place). The co-generation process opens new deliberative space where both state and non-state actors claim authority over the intervention. Therefore, strengthening frontier governance involves empowering this emerging authority to be able to promote public engagement with sustainable development on the frontier. The article uses the regional history and ethnographic material collected in the southeast of Pará to illustrate the discussion.