Politics Of Land Research Articles

Subaltern Modernity in Context: The Politics of Land in the Life Narrative of Seleena Prakkanam

Subaltern Modernity in Context: The Politics of Land in the Life Narrative of Seleena Prakkanam

Kalanga culture and the nature of resistance against the Native Land Husbandry Act of 1951 in colonial Zimbabwe

In this article the nature of resistance to the implementation of the Native Land Husbandry Act of 1951 (NLHA), popularly known as amagandiya in Bulilimamangwe, in colonial Zimbabwe is explored. It looks at two Kalanga chiefs, Madlambuzi Ncube and Masendu Dube, who were deposed by colonial administrators in the 1950s and replaced by an Ndebele chief, Mpini Ndiweni. It is argued that the implementation of the Act, the demotion of the two Kalanga chiefs and the subsequent imposition of Chief Mpini Ndiweni can be perceived as the imposition of a type of cultural hegemony which was then resisted by the two Kalanga chiefs and their subjects by the reassertion of their own culture and identity in colonial Zimbabwe. It demonstrates how it was not violent or military resistance but rather cultural resistance, which was expressed through various modes, which took the centre stage in challenging both the white colonial government and Ndebele hegemony over the Kalanga. In contributing to the argument over the use of cultural resistance against the NLHA, the article draws from oral interviews which were conducted in Bulilima and Mangwe districts, on archival research and on secondary literature to demonstrate that this cultural resistance drew on a variety of signifiers of Kalanga identity such as Kalanga history, the politics of land, ideas around Kalanga chieftainship, Mwali/Ngwali religion and the possession of cattle.

Colonial Policy, Chieftaincy and Land Politics in Ghana: The Case Study of Gyaman

The partition of Africa in the late nineteenth century destabilized some societies in Africa. In West Africa, the imaginary territorial boundaries divided the Nzema between Ivory Coast and Ghana, the Dagaaba between Burkina Faso and Ghana, and the Ewe between Togo and Ghana. The partition exercise also caused protracted disputes and neglect of existing ethnic groupings. Using information from oral, archival and secondary sources, this article examines the impact of the partition of Africa on Gyaman, a traditional ethnic setting in modern Ghana in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The paper blames current Gyaman problems on the Partition exercise.

Liberating the River: Land and Politics in Tagore’s Plays

In matters of development and progress, it has always been a question of the acquisition of land. As history shows, control over land—extendable to different metaphors—and its resources has been instrumental in the development and destruction of human civilisation. Tagore’s Muktadhara dwells on the principle of identifying how the manipulation of a river-course could change the destiny of two neighbouring states and establish the rule of one man over others. So, in the character of Abhijeet, a typical Tagore-protagonist, one who breaks the dam to put an end to the authoritarian regime, a prototype of modern day environmental activists could be seen. The text goes beyond a mere pantheistic and humanist quest for the freedom of man as Tagore politicises the concept of land into a geopolitical space, and relates it to the imperialist policies and hegemonic propaganda that he experienced personally in his travels across Europe, Japan and America during this time.
 From Muktadhara (1922) to Raktakarabi (1924), Tagore seems to continue with this politics of land. If the former text represents the appropriation of nature for political benefit, the latter shows how industrialisation destroys the agricultural base, forces migration, and how these steps would be the only logical progress of the economy that advocates rampant capital accumulation. Interestingly, a play set in a mine uses a theme song about ‘pous’—a month of cultivation and opulence. The essays written by Tagore during this period, like his Introduction to Elmhirst’s ‘The Robbery of the Soil’, also reveal his vision of a sustained and inclusive human development.

The politics of uneven smallholder cacao expansion: A critical physical geography of agricultural transformation in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

This article reconstructs and explains variability in pathways of smallholder cacao expansion and land use and cover change (LUCC) over the past four decades in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. I first draw on approaches from remote sensing (RS) to reconstruct cacao expansion in two top-producing districts (1972–2014), highlighting the variegated environment changes shaped by smallholder cacao plantings, both inside and outside forested lands. I then integrate these data with theories and methods from political ecology (PE) and critical physical geography (CPG) to document the uneven politics of land and capital access mediating this variability. Using these data, I argue that variability in crop expansion and LUCC should not be considered as an exception but as the norm; integral to any generalizable explanation of LUCC. I also show how a focus on variability can not only supplement but also shift dominant accounts of LUCC.

Modern land management as a fundamental tool in providing the rational use and protection of land resources

The dynamics of the development of modern land management in the process of land reforming and the full implementation of land reform of the transformative processes as to restructuring of the land fund of Ukraine, as well as the creation of new land arrangements, which would provide for their development guided by the market principles were reasoned. As the result of the implementation of various activity types for land management in the field of land-reclamation management of the agricultural enterprises’ territory and establishment of an innovative form of ownership, other than a state, private, communal, thus launching a market-oriented land management was indeed necessary to significantly modify the true nature of the modern land management, in particular, to forego the sectoral one and to introduce the sharing principle for territorial reallocation of land: at the national, regional and local levels with further assignment the corresponding documentation on land management to each level. The mentioned land sharing was legally formalized in the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On Land Management”. The implementation of other activities regarding the denationalization of lands, transformation of the existing structures of land management, establishment of farms, demarcation of land shares, implementation provided the formalization of leasing relationship and other types of procedural and institutional as well as normative-technical nature were implemented based on the schemes and layouts for land management and other documentation, having formed the basis for the implementation of the state land politics. Thus, the modern land management deems to be one of the fundamental tools needed for the implementation of the state regulatory policies as to the use and protection of lands, and, above all, agricultural ones. The role of modern land management in providing the ecologically safe and economically efficient use of land, particularly in the conditions of the development of degradation processes, and to a certain extent regulating social relations with respect to land ownership, use and disposal is considered. Its economic, environmental and social effectiveness is substantiated on a specific example. Key words: land management, land resources, economic, ecological, social efficiency, degradation processes.

Power Sharing, Patronage, and Land Institutions in China

This article examines how single-party regimes share power among their ruling elites. An examination of land institutions in China suggests that the ruling Party relies on a statist and partially centralized land regime to distribute land development rights (land quotas). This institutional arrangement allows the Party's central elites to use land as patronage to build their clientelistic networks and share power among themselves. This argument is tested empirically using a data set of land-use conversion in Chinese provinces between 1999 and 2013. The findings of the research contribute to the literature on authoritarianism and land politics, and have important implications for land-institution reforms in China.

Neglected rural geography: Exploring the quiet politics of ‘out-dwelling’

Taking the example of leisure in rural Scotland, this article makes a call for a renewed appreciation of a radical rural and a subsequent recognition of the potential for quiet politics. In doing so, it addresses the overlooked, yet potentially progressive, even radical, nature of ‘out-dwelling’ as a political endeavour. These ‘out-dwellings’ are twofold, encompassing the distinct yet complementary cultures of Huts and Bothies in rural Scotland. There is within these cultures a rising tide of discontent with contemporary society and a subsequent push for change. These political eruptions emphasise the spatial politics of everyday leisure and land where alterity to the imagined geography of a static, wild, romantic Scotland, driven by the landed estates, emerges as a key driver for change. This argument for a radical rural will be structured around four themes; political ‘out-dwelling’, transgressive mobility, conspicuous consumption and land ownership.

Making a locality: the politics of land and football in North Kerala

ABSTRACT This paper explores how a marginalized community in North Kerala uses football and football fandom in order to create a vibrant space for active citizenry. We examine how the categories of football fan and citizen foster each other and provide alternatives to the imagination of a nation that in its discursive homogeneity fosters divisiveness. At the same time, this paper is also interested in the constitution of the football fan community as resolutely local and in dynamic, and negotiated relationship with state machinery. While literature on sports in India has been overwhelmingly centered on the themes of nation and nationalism, this ethnographic study attempts to critically look at the making of a regional identity, from the margins of a nation, through the region’s popular sport, football. In this paper, we explore the ways in which Nainamvalappu football fans Association, an organization based in the coastal region of Nainamvalappu in Kozhikode, converted an open place into a football ground overnight to resist the setting up of a slaughterhouse in the same place by the city corporation, as a form of active resistance but also place making. We argue that this football fans’ association allows for new understandings of popular sovereignty and democracy through a revitalization of sporting spaces.

Maasai group ranches, minority land owners, and the political landscape of Laikipia County, Kenya

ABSTRACTRecent land conflicts in Laikipia County, Kenya, have re-ignited debates about the future of minority land ownership in eastern Africa. With climate change, foreign investment, and population growth placing unprecedented pressure on lands, Laikipia has become a “battleground” for land struggles involving some of Kenya's most alienated ethnic and racial groups. Providing ethnographic insight into land politics in Laikipia in the lead up to the 2017 general elections, this article examines the relationships between Laikipia's Maasai communities and three distinct private land parcels that neighbor them. While significant segments of land in Laikipia are owned by foreigners or Kenyans of European descent, the county is home to other minority landowners whose political significance is underappreciated. Though the owners of some large ranches in Laikipia see neighboring pastoralists as liabilities, others see them as a source of political capital or allies in the struggle to secure their land tenure. Overall, I show that Laikipia's political landscape is defined by actors who defy the black-white, rancher-pastoralist dichotomy, and make a case for the qualitative study of land politics at a time when Kenya's future is shaped by high-stakes alliances between historically dissonant communities.

Land Politics under Market Socialism: The State, Land Policies, and Rural–Urban Land Conversion in China and Vietnam

This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of rural–urban land conversion policies in China and Vietnam, and examines the ideology of the state in land policymaking under a market socialism environment. It argues that land policies in both countries include ambiguous boundaries, which allow the socialist state to legitimize its politico-administrative power in land management and retain strong intervention capacity in the land market. In addition to similarities, land policies in China and Vietnam show significant differences in terms of the ownership of rural land and related legislation on land expropriation and transactions. Together, these distinctions cause divergent impacts on the interests and motivations of multiple stakeholders in rural land conversion. It is further observed that the state in both countries is characterized by dynamic, complex, and self-coordinated institutional systems, in which multiple levels of government have different driving forces and strategies in land development. The internal structure of authority in rural–urban land conversion between the multiple levels of government is readjusted by the regulatory land control of the central government.

Elephants as actors in the political ecology of human–elephant conflict

This paper examines the agency of African elephants as important actors in the political ecology of human–elephant conflict, and in shaping the politics of land in post‐colonial Kenya. The paper is based on field research in Laikipia, northern Kenya. It considers the role of elephants, with their size, sagacity, hunger, mobility and complex interactions with people, as powerful actors in shared landscapes, and therefore in the politics surrounding their own conservation. The paper uses spatial data and interviews to explore elephant behaviour and movements through the landscape and their interactions with people, and explore the way in which those interactions affect the separation of “animal spaces” set aside for conservation and the “beastly places” of smallholder farming and crop‐raiding, and the conflict and transgressions involved when elephants cross from one to the other. The elephant is a lively actor in the inter‐species power play of Laikipia, and in the politics of conservation and of land. A mutually respectful multispecies politics in northern Kenya demands a clear understanding and acceptance of the needs of elephants.

Political economy of land grabbing inside China involving foreign investors

China tends to be a dominant figure in the literature on global land grabbing. It is either cast as a major land grabber in distant places such as Africa, or as a key player in crop booms elsewhere because it provides for massive market demand, such as for soya from South America. These are all important issues and are well covered in the literature. However, the crop booms inside China that involve transnational capital and investors – and have provoked conflict around land politics – have been overlooked. Spotlighting the issue of land grabbing inside China reminds us that capital accumulation is principally interested in geographies and settings where it can generate profit – regardless of nationalities, boundaries, structural or institutional conditions. This paper hopes to contribute towards a more refined picture of global land grabbing.

White Belonging and Brokerage at a South African Rural Frontier

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses the case of a broker who played a key role in introducing a model of rural development to the Limpopo Province which is based on an adaptation of UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Programme. His brokering is situated in the cultural politics of land, showing how enterprising whites may combine their roles as trustees in development projects with their, increasingly challenged, subject position as landowners. Demonstrating how this broker forges alignments, the paper emphasises the agentive roles of situated brokers who translate spatial conservation-development imaginaries across different contexts, produce a space of intermediation and help construct provisional natural-cultural assemblages. This assembling over time became increasingly disarticulated with societal pressures to deracialise land relations, highlighting in turn the moral ambiguity associated with liberal whites seeking to obtain a stake in societal transformation.

Do we need innovation in housing policy? Mass production, community-based upgrading, and the politics of urban land in the Global South

The papers in this Special Issue demonstrate three persistent, global challenges to urban housing policy: that it is difficult to mass produce housing well; that community-based upgrading programmes often fail to benefit the worst off; and that ultimately, housing policy is a political problem that often fails to consider the diversity of populations at the expense of the least powerful. Importantly, some of the papers problematise what many consider the two most successful areas of housing policy in these regions: the community-based land sharing programmes for redevelopment in south-east Asia and the finance-driven social housing programmes in Latin America. The collection of scholarship, which spans cases in nine countries and touches on mass housing production programmes, incremental development processes, community-based urban upgrading, the legal structure of condominiums, and land-sharing policies, also highlights challenges to policy learning across contexts. In addition to synthesising the major research findings in the component articles in pairs, this editorial introduction reframes the idea of innovation in housing policy and argues that scholars should expand the topics and focus of housing policy research.

Negotiating Green Space with Landed Interests: The Urban Political Ecology of Greenway in the Pearl River Delta, China

AbstractLand‐centred urbanisation has precipitated shortage of green space in Chinese cities. However, in the Pearl River Delta, an ambitious greenway system has recently managed to flourish. It is intriguing to ask how this has become possible. Informed by the perspective of urban political ecology, this paper finds that the greenway project in the Pearl River Delta represents a set of politically realistic endeavours to alleviate urban green space shortage by adapting to, rather than challenging, powerful landed interests. Three interlocking dimensions about land—municipal land quota, rural land use claims, and real estate development—have influenced why, where and how greenways have been created. Based on these findings, we argue that research on China's politics of urban sustainability necessarily needs to understand the country's land politics.

Land Control, Authority and Political Economy, and a Planned Petroleum Infrastructure Project in Timor-Leste

Land in Timor-Leste had been a subject of national importance even before the government first announced a planned petroleum infrastructure ‘mega-project’ in 2009, the ‘Tasi Mane’ project, on the country’s south coast in Suai, Betano and Beaco. This project has brought again into sharp relief the question of land and its control. Much recent work has focussed on ‘land grabs’ or how foreign capital and the state have played a significant role in dispossessing smallholders of arable land in other settings. This paper highlights three aspects which are inherent in the process of control. First, authority lies at the heart of land control alongside political-economic factors that lead to relocation of residents from land in project areas. Second, problems of recognition of land rights in project areas have led to more strident claims to authority locally. This issue I demonstrate by showing the historical legacy of two communities that occupy Beaco land. Third, the case study of the two communities sheds light on the social relations inherent in local property relations and subsequent disputes catalysed by contests over land control.

Implicating ‘fisheries justice’ movements in food and climate politics

While much debate on climate change has emerged around food, forest and land politics, the fisheries sector has only recently become more visibly implicated in these discussions. Similarly, in comparison to food and agrarian movements, fishers’ resistance to intensified mitigation efforts and resource exclusion is still significantly understudied academically, and receives little attention in political spheres. This highlights a critical gap in both food and climate politics literature, which this paper aims to present a framework for addressing. To do so, it contextualises the emergence of overlapping processes of exclusion in global fisheries, and explores the implications global food system transformations have had in the fisheries sector, and the reactions this has spurred from South African fishers. It then traces the convergence of fishers’ movements with other resource justice movements, and how this has contributed to the rise of ‘fisheries justice’. Finally, it presents four interlinked propositions – highlighting food sovereignty, resource access and conflict, climate change and mitigation, convergences between movements, and alternatives proposed by fishers – as a framework for how incorporating fisheries and fishers’ movements can broaden our understanding of transnational social movements, and expand the depth and scope of food and climate politics.

State formation and the politics of land in north-eastern Uganda

State formation and the politics of land in north-eastern Uganda

The land exclusion dilemma and Sumatra’s agrarian reactionaries

Even as millions of rural workers have organized into agrarian movements, their efforts to benefit from progressive social mobilizations often fail. To understand how agrarian movements can overcome these difficulties, this contribution acknowledges a dilemma: As agrarian movement members create ties to land they necessarily confront new forms of exclusion. We discuss this exclusionary land dilemma, with a focus on Sumatra’s agrarian reactionaries as an elite class possessing a potent exclusionary force that seeks to erase agrarian movement legitimacy and block rural workers’ mobilizations to reclaim and occupy land. We trace these agrarian reactionaries’ public life across a state–corporate–criminal apparatus and their repression of two agrarian movement mobilizations. We find agrarian reactionaries’ actions offer a partial explanation for the still-limited gains of Sumatra’s rural workers’ movements. Agrarian reactionaries legitimize their exclusions with nativist, ethno-territorial ideas that co-opt indigenous rights claims. In response, laborers and agriculturalists are now refining a more inclusive land politics – one of greater unifying influence that does not depend upon claims of indigeneity – to overcome reactionary repression.