Rural Conflict Research Articles

Making community policing work: A panacea to crimes and rural conflicts in Nigeria

Abstract In Nigeria, several community development initiatives abound either through the government or donor agencies. Despite all these efforts, little concern has been placed on the security of rural dwellers. This has enabled incessant conflicts in rural communities, leading to the loss of lives and an overall negative effect on food production. This chapter employed different conflict and mediation theories to explain the causes, drivers, and ways to resolve the conflicts. Materials were sourced from top-tier databases, including reports and publications from the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum, and other reliable sources. It found that conflicts in rural communities have resulted in the destruction of lives and livelihood assets, a reduction in crop yield and income, an increase in fear and ethno-religious stereotypes, food shortages and rape. It identified a partial implementation of community policing strategy but noted the centralization of power to the Nigerian Police Force as an impediment to its effectiveness. Worthy approaches to ensuring the effectiveness of community policing strategy as a panacea to crimes and rural conflicts are: constitutional redress; developing programs and needed resources; training and re-training of officers and partners; planning an effective strategy using civilian volunteers; aligning performance measures of officers and partners; demonstrating leadership and taking risks; and making changes to the organization of departments under the community policing structure. However, it recommends operational community policing that incorporates all actors in the states and local governments with reliable legal frameworks for securing the farm and rural farming communities in Nigeria.

Pathologies of representation: Lungisile Ntsebeza on the political misrepresentation of rural South Africans

Lungisile Ntsebeza’s empirical work on rule and resistance in South Africa’s countryside has a subterranean philosophical seam. Implicit in both his historical studies and his contemporary fieldwork-based studies of rural conflict is a philosophical question: what constitutes adequate political representation? Ntsebeza’s work, exemplifying engaged scholarship, is rich in evaluative insights. But the conception of democracy which is his explicit evaluative yardstick is both too narrow and too indeterminate. It leaves no space for the crucial work of representation carried out by unelected non-governmental organisations and local organisations; and we are given no concrete detail about how participatory and representative democracy are to be integrated, as Ntsebeza insists they should be. Showing that his writings can be brought into conversation with approaches to political representation in contemporary political philosophy, this article argues that Ntsebeza’s evaluative work is most helpfully understood as identifying and diagnosing several pathologies of representation. Normative theory is often most constructive when it articulates distinctive types of system failure, rather than simply stating ideals. Each of the pathologies of representation recoverable from Ntsebeza’s analytical work is a recurring way in which rural South Africans have been politically misrepresented or otherwise inadequately represented – a type of flaw which all systems of representation must guard against.

From the Perspective of the Nudge Theory, Rural Conflict Governance: A Case Study of Intermarriage in Two Chao-Shan Rural Villages

From the Perspective of the Nudge Theory, Rural Conflict Governance: A Case Study of Intermarriage in Two Chao-Shan Rural Villages

Agrarian Conflict Cultivation Rights PT. Pagilaran With Farmers In Batang District

This study aims to identify the causes of conflict between PT. Pagilaran and the community in Batang Regency over land owned by PT. Pagilaran comes from the concession with revealing theories that support the causes of conflict and studies how the dispute is resolved. This research is normative juridical research with a descriptive-analytical approach. The research results obtained: First, the cause of the emergence of Cultivation Right disputes is the claims from farmers that they once controlled part of the Cultivation Right land, the absence of compensation at the time of land acquisition, and the negative view of the community towards PT. Pagilaran and some parties facilitate claims efforts, as well as repressive actions from the company through security forces. Second, efforts to resolve the dispute are carried out both through channels outside the court, through efforts to seek support from policy-making institutions, and through re-data collection of biological data on PT. Pagilaran looked for opportunities to strengthen the position of farmers who once controlled the land and settlement through the courts in the form of legal action for the perpetrators of marking, plotting, and damage to land and plants in the Cultivation Rights area but did not resolve the core issues of the dispute. This study suggests that rural conflict resolution requires a holistic approach by paying attention to regulatory, human rights, contractual, and environmental aspects of resolving conflicts.

Land reform and rural conflict. Evidence from 1930s Spain

Re-distributive policies are often used by governments to forestall conflict. This paper analyzes the evolution of rural conflict in a region of 1930s Spain in which fast transfers of land using temporal expropriations were aimed at reducing poverty and mitigate conflict. Using a subset of exogenous land transfers, we document that these transfers did not reduce conflict. If anything, they increased some types of conflicts for several months after implementation. The short run increase in conflict is consistent with two potential side effects of land reforms. First, land reforms can boost the collective action of beneficiaries. Second, poorly designed reforms can reduce the incomes of beneficiaries.

Identifying and evaluating suburbs in China from 2012 to 2020 based on SNPP–VIIRS nighttime light remotely sensed data

• China’s suburbs can be effectively identified based on SNPP-VIIRS data. • We provide a more lone-time series and fine-resolution suburb dataset in China. • China’s suburbs present a fluctuation-growth trend. • Population density, GDP, and roads are major driver factors of suburban development. Suburbs, as bridges between urban areas and rural hinterlands, are areas with the most intense urban–rural conflicts and drastic land use changes in the urbanization process. Accurate identification and evaluation of suburbs are important to effectively break the urban–rural dichotomy, improve the utilization and management of land resources, and promote urban–rural integration and coordinated development. Previous suburb identification studies have suffered from low identification efficiency owing to the influence of subjective factors, small scales, short time-series, and single data characteristics. Thus, we took China as experimental object, and attempted to identify suburbs from the Suomi National Polar-orbit Partnership’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (SNPP–VIIRS) nighttime light remotely sensed data using the K-means algorithm and subsequent series of post-processing approaches. Thereafter, our study further evaluated the spatiotemporal dynamics and driving factors of suburb development. Accuracy verification results show that suburb identification based on SNPP–VIIRS data can identify more details than the existing urban area data and Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System data. Compared with traditional mutation detection methods, the proposed method has the advantages of being fast, efficient, and less subjective. Furthermore, we found that China’s suburbs present a fluctuation-growth trend, with the proportions increasing from 0.6% to 1.3% in the period 2012–2020. China’s suburb development was mainly driven by the development of population density, GDP, and road network. Our study provides an innovative way to conduct a rapid, efficient, and large-scale and accurate suburb identification over a long time series, thereby facilitating the study of socio-environmental issues in the urbanization process. The annual series (2012–2020) of suburbs in China are available free of charge at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/M5EED5 .

The 1782 Taiwan Zhangzhou-Quanzhou Feud: A Case Study on Qing Dynasty Communal Violence

With the aid of Chinese primary sources and supplementary secondary sources, this essay seeks to analyze the 1782 Taiwan “subethnic feud” between the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou communities of Zhanghua County, which began with a personal dispute but soon escalated into a lethal rural conflict. The term “subethnic feud (分类械斗),” widely referring to early modern conflicts between different Chinese communities, emphasizes the dominant role of local identity conflicts. However, I argue that such outbursts of violence were complicated phenomena. Instead of the maturation of supposed “ethnic rivalries,” the escalation of the conflict from a personal dispute to a full-scale “rural war” is more likely the joint consequence of three contributing factors: the strong patterns of Taiwanese social organization along subethnic lines, mercenary and thug activities, and the inactivity of the local government.

Land and small farmer resistance in authoritarian Egypt

AbstractThis article examines small farmer resistance in Egypt. It situates contemporary struggles in the context of the uneven success of small farmers' historical resistance to land dispossession and neoliberal reform. Struggles over land are the prime driver of rural conflict and small farmers contest state strategies that reward local elites, land owners, and supporters of the military regime. There may not be a coherent social movement able to resist contemporary patterns of capital accumulation, but there are elements of resistance that edge forward an agenda for a “political conversation” about much‐needed deep social reforms. The internationally‐supported Sisi presidency has used violence to consolidate military power, making open revolt difficult. Nevertheless, small farmers link struggles over access to land with poor state provisioning of water and infrastructure as a means of building resistance.

Social Dynamics of Frequent Clashes in Rural Bangladesh: A Study on Brahmanbaria District

Rural conflicts are becoming more intensive in recent years, predominantly political conflicts are increasing in Bangladesh. Recently, few clashes in Brahmanbaria districts gained widespread momentum in the whole country. According to a report, a total of 1437 clashes occurred in the last 2 years, which caused 151 death and many injuries. Some conflicts were assumed to be clan-based (ghosti) and strengthened by the aim of establishing supremacy in the area by local elites. No study has been conducted on this issue previously concerning the causes and consequences of this frequent violence. So, the study aims to explore the nature and pattern of frequent clashes and provide some recommendations based on the findings. The present study adopted qualitative methods. Primary data were collected from five selected villages from Sarail Upazila where conflicts broke out the most. Initially, the researchers used the participant observation method for understanding the issue and locating the respondents for the interview. Then, data were collected using in-depth interviews, Key informant interviews, and Focus group discussion methods. Findings of the study suggest that conflicts in Brahmanbaria are a deep-rooted problem. There are no specific causes or patterns of these clashes, yet the participation of people in these clashes increasing. Conflict breaks out for a minimal matter, later local clans and villagers join in the mob. Often, these clashes end with mutual agreement mediated by the village headman, but the animosity between or among groups remains the same which causes further clashes.

Intra-regional Development Disparities: Virtual Regions Strategy for Development of Tribal Communities and Water-stressed Regions in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

Intra-regional Development Disparities: Virtual Regions Strategy for Development of Tribal Communities and Water-stressed Regions in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

Review of: <em>The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict and Compromise</em> and <em>The Amish Incident: Wisconsin v. Yoder</em>—Kelly Rundle and Tammy Rundle

Award-winning documentary filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle have created two short films focusing on historical conflicts over parochial Amish education in Wisconsin and Iowa. Their first film, <em>The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict and Compromise</em>, released in 2019, follows the rising controversy in rural Buchanan County, Iowa, from the bitterly contested 1961 vote to merge two school districts in neighboring towns Oelwein and Hazleton to the dramatic 1965 “incident” when education officials tried to forcibly transport Amish students to the local public school. The second film, <em>The Amish Incident: Wisconsin v. Yoder</em>, released in 2021, picks up the story of the Amish families who moved from Iowa to New Glarus, Wisconsin, in 1964, beginning with the tensions over increased tourism and disagreements with public school staff, and traces their choice to accept outside legal help in taking their court case to the Supreme Court in 1971. [First paragraph.]

Land Reform and Rural Conflict in Agrarian Economies Evidence from 1930s Spain

Land Reform and Rural Conflict in Agrarian Economies Evidence from 1930s Spain

The Historical Debt: The Elusive Agrarian Jurisdiction in Colombia

This study reviews the past, present, and future of agrarian jurisdiction in the context of the agrarian reforms in Colombia with a focus on violent conflicts in rural areas. The methodology used is that of a multi-method case study and legal historic analysis. The study shows how, without an agrarian jurisdiction, the Colombian legal system faces a crisis of legitimacy, lacks effectiveness, and creates new interethnic rural conflicts. The study also evaluates the country’s recent legislative proposal in the light of constitutional law, the stated goals of the 2016 Peace Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP). It offers recommendations on how to enforce the rule of law in agrarian issues, in order to overcome systematic violations of human, economic, social, and environmental rights of vulnerable rural populations: recommendations to be taken into consideration by the legal community and the international partners of the country’s comprehensive agrarian reform program.

Shared injustice, splintered solidarity: Water governance across urban-rural divides

In response to rapid urbanization and intensifying climatological instability, cities are implementing major water infrastructure projects to mitigate water supply and flood risks. Drawing on four cases from South and Southeast Asia, we show how megacities’ search for additional water supplies or sites to store floodwater repeatedly disadvantage the most vulnerable groups in rural and urban areas. Rather than rehashing urban–rural conflicts, we argue these outcomes demonstrate the continuous reproduction of water insecurity for a class of society that is dispossessed of water and rural livelihoods, excluded from water and land access within the cities they migrate to, and evicted from flood-securitized cities back to the periphery. Water-related injustices confronting the urban poor mirror injustices along the entire water governance spectrum that begins and ends in rural areas. These shared vulnerabilities suggest opportunities for solidarity across urban–rural divides and novel directions for research and coalition building. A fundamental challenge ahead will be whether and how urban and rural poor groups can build regional or national alliances across geographic and identity divides.

Akutō and Rural Conflict in Medieval Japan by Morten Oxenboell

Akutō and Rural Conflict in Medieval Japan by Morten Oxenboell

Distrust of the State and observance of the law among peasants in the San Nicolas Valley

Abstract In Colombia, political decisions related to the countryside preserve an unjust social order, maintaining inequities and obstacles to the well-being and life quality of farmers. In this scenario the Territorial Arrangement Planning of the San Nicolas Valley, in the East of the department of Antioquia, has generated a series of rural conflicts that accentuate the vulnerabilities of rural residents, threatening the agricultural tradition in this subregion. Thus, this study inquired about the perceptions of legality in the peasant population of the area. A descriptive-correlational study with non-probabilistic sampling was carried out, including 380 peasants, members of civic-rural associations of the San Nicolas Valley, evaluating in four scales: beliefs, values, knowledge of the law and perceived legality in the context. Statistical analyses were performed in SPSS v.22 software. The findings indicated significant relationships between the study variables. Despite the state abandonment of the proletariat to market forces in an area with socioeconomic imbalances, no determining link was found between low income and violation of the law.

Konflikty o ziemię rolną – perspektywa ekonomiczna

1. Alston L.J., Libecap G.D., Mueller B. [1999], A model of rural conflict: Violence and land reform policy in Brazil, Environment and Development Economics, 4(2): 135–160. Google Scholar

Addressing Urban–Rural Water Conflicts in Nagpur through Benefit Sharing

Urban and rural areas often meet their water demands from a shared stock of finite water resources. Against the changing climate, the rising water demands in fast-growing urban areas are leading to increasing water-use conflicts with the co-dependent rural areas. Although poor water governance is frequently cited as the key reason for such urban–rural conflicts, it is also recognized as a potential pathway to resolve them. In the case of Nagpur Region in Central India, water stress has today become a subject of serious concern. The water demands in Nagpur City are primarily met through the multipurpose Pench Dam on priority, but the recently declining water availability has raised undue concerns for irrigation in the Pench command areas. To substantiate the limited understanding of ongoing water conflicts in the wider Nagpur Metropolitan Area, this study analyzes a specific set of secondary data related to the history of the Pench Project and its water utilization trends. By uncovering the periodic decline in irrigated area and the increasing groundwater use for irrigation, the cross-sectoral and transboundary implications of increasing water transfer to Nagpur City are revealed. To address these concerns, this study then suggests feasible governance strategies based on benefit sharing and multi-stakeholder engagement.

Sensibilidades legales y usos alternativos del derecho. El encierro ganadero comunitario “El Rejunte” (Figueroa, Santiago del Estero)

El objetivo de este artículo es presentar algunas reflexiones construidas a partir del trabajo de campo que realicé en el encierro comunitario “El Rejunte”, ubicado en Figueroa, Santiago del Estero, Argentina. En particular, lo comprendido en relación a las prácticas de gestión de conflictos rurales y a las sensibilidades legales respecto al derecho de propiedad, desplegadas por campesinos y agentes estatales involucrados en su conformación. Al etnografiar prácticas y sentidos agenciados en torno al uso del derecho estatal, pude advertir cómo estos actores (re)producen y (re)definen una política pública, las legalidades alrededor del derecho de propiedad, los sentidos y usos del territorio. Asimismo, ciertos límites en los usos alternativos de la legalidad, en cuanto no todos los grupos y personas tienen las mismas posibilidades al momento de emplearla; como a la internalización de las formas dominantes de representación del derecho en la propia conformación de la subjetividad. Es decir, pensar a estos procesos como ambiguos e inacabados, los derechos como construcciones sociales que viabilizan formas de dominación, pero también, emancipación.

Colonização, transformações do território e conflitos rurais em Barbosa Ferraz, PR, Brasil

the current rural conflicts are the result of a historical process of deterritorialization and exclusion, intensified from the advance of capitalism over agriculture. Socio-territorial movements, such as the MST movement, challenge hegemonic power and contest the legality of capitalist property, mobilizing peasants to occupy lands that do not carry out their social function, transforming them into agrarian reform territories in Paraná. This paper, supported by field data and bibliographical references, aims to study the colonization, territorial transformations and rural conflicts, taking as reference the municipality of Barbosa Ferraz, in the Paraná State Midwestern mesoregion.