Since the 1990s, a transnational network of activists and organizations has played a critical role in new perspectives on rural development and land rights. The individuals and groups that constitute this network are linked by the issues of environmental conservation, social justice, and indigenous peoples' advocacy. This network forms a loose-knit set of overlapping alliances, which have pushed for substantial changes in how international agencies and state governments conceptualize and operationalize plans for development, especially in the developing world. This network challenges many long-held notions, including those of cultural citizenship, individual and group rights, and the state's role in social and environmental projects. Before the 1990s, dominant assumptions about the inevitability of state-led modernity meant that scholars and organizations generally accepted the role of the state as a force of assimilation and social betterment. Now, however, with a concomitant rise in indigenous identity politics and new urban-rural linkages for social justice, many academics and activists have pointed to the negative effects of state policy. In turn, a rising number of actors now champion moves for state decentralization, and the creation and expansion of community-based management. During this time of rapid change, scholars and activists have played critical roles in shaping new international configurations and have contributed to the rise of community-based rights.