This project was located within a broader collaborative research programme on the administration of trust relations between state and society undertaken by the School of Government and the University of Bergen in Norway, with funding from Norwegian Council of Universities’ Committee for Development Research and Education (NUFU). The PLAAS project focused on power, identity and governance issues in a rural field site where there has been significant state intervention in the areas of development, conservation and natural resource management. The community in question (the ¹Khomani San) recently won back their land through the land claims process and has entered into complex negotiations with South African National Parks over the co-ownership and co-management of natural resources. The tension between state discourses on governance and democracy and local discourses on tradition, culture and community was a central part of the analysis.