Land Titling and State Building in Postconflict Timor-Leste

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria C. Stead
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Land Claims ◽  
Timor Leste ◽  
Land Titling ◽  
Independence Era ◽  
Portuguese Colonialism ◽  
Dynamic Interplay

In Timor-Leste, forms and patterns of connection to land have been transformed by the impacts of Portuguese colonialism, Indonesian occupation, and civil conflict, all of which have generated widespread displacement. Multiple bases for land claims now exist, and this has been the catalyst for a land claims collection and land titling process in the post-independence era. Between 2008 and 2012 a project called Ita Nia Rai (Tetum: Our Land), funded by US aid agency USAID, collected land claims in urban and peri-urban areas as a precursor to issuing land titles. Land titling and cadastral mapping processes privilege an understanding of land as property. In Timor-Leste, the Ita Nia Rai process also assumes and reinforces an equivalence between urban and modern, and rural and customary. Four case-studies of informants involved in the land reform process, however, reveal urban and peri-urban spaces as sites of dynamic interplay between customary and modern practices.

LAND REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA: OBSTINATE SPACIAL DISTORTIONS

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-31
Author(s):  
Manala Shadrack Maake
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Land Claims ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
Land Redistribution ◽  
Reform Programme ◽  
Theoretical Paper

This theoretical paper seeks to make an empirical contribution to the Land Reform discourses. The paper argues that the pace of land redistribution in South Africa is undeniably slow and limits livelihood choices of relatively most intended beneficiaries of land reform programme. The primacy and success of the programme within rural development ought to measured and assessed through ways in which the land reform programmes conforms to and improve the livelihoods, ambitions and goals of the intended beneficiaries without compromising agricultural production and the economy. In addition, paper highlights the slow pace of land reform programme and its implications on socio-economic transformation of South Africa. Subsequently, the paper concludes through demonstrating the need for a radical approach towards land reform without disrupting agricultural production and further to secure support and coordination of spheres of government. The democratic government in South Africa inherited a country which characterized by extreme racial imbalances epitomized through social relations of land and spatial distortions. Non-white South Africans are still feeling the effects of colonial and apartheid legal enactments which sought to segregate ownership of resources on the basis of race in particular. Thus, successive democratic governments have the specific mandate to re-design and improve land reform policies which are targeted to reverse colonially fueled spatial distortions. South Africa’s overall Land Reform programme consists of three key elements and namely are; land redistribution, tenure reform and land restitution. Concomitantly, spatial proponents and researchers have denounced and embraced land reform ideology and its status quo in South Africa. The criticisms overlapped towards both beneficiaries and state due to factors like poor post-settlement support, lack of skills, lack of capital, infighting over land claims and land management.

scholarly journals A Cultural Governance Coalition in Regeneration. A Case Study of Historical Quanzhou City

2019 ◽  
pp. 145-164
Author(s):  
Shuxiang Cai
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Spatial Transformation ◽  
Common Path

Compared with the gradual and long exploration processes typical of European and American countries, China experienced a period marked by extremely high-speed modernisation and urbanisation, following the Land Reform. This is exemplified by a great number of urban reconstruction projects which have changed the traditional fabric of most cities. Yet, following the trend of cultural consumption since the late 1990s, numerous integrated restoration projects for historic districts were implemented to promote tourism as a promising industry to sustain economic growth. As a consequence of growth-oriented urban entrepreneurship, public spaces in these historic urban areas have also been perceptibly privatised. To a large extent, the capital and the authority of the local government directs the future prospect of the historic urban landscape in Chinese cities. On the other hand, development-oriented urban construction stimulates a rise in awareness of the need for protection strategies to conserve historic urban fabric. On a global scale, the public sector has begun to introspect on urban governance under the spirit of entrepreneurship. The urban renewal has now been extended to urban regeneration and the previous public-private partnership has been substituted with a multi-sectoral cooperative model. In recent years, the Chinese central government has proposed the core concept of “Seeing people, Seeing things, Seeing life”, which is re-orientated towards historic-city regeneration as a way of promoting “Micro-renewal and Micro-disturbance”. Among such activities, the use of exhibitions as a strategy for simultaneous spatial transformation and activation has gradually formed a common path, encouraging many cities to regenerate historic urban areas. This article is based on on this reorientation, taking Quanzhou as an example, making a critical observation on the new form of public space it has produced, and digs into the operational mechanism behind it as well as the possibility for publicness.

scholarly journals Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
John Rand ◽  
Finn Tarp
Keyword(s):  
Development Strategy ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
State Sector ◽  
Doi Moi

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been at the core of Vietnam’s strategy for inclusive growth and economic transformation. Vietnam has experienced unprecedented growth and poverty reduction, turning the country into a middle-income economy relatively quickly. Most growth came from structural change with labour force movement to the manufacturing sector. This change has largely happened without worrying trends as regards income inequality, especially within urban areas. SMEs have been key for this transition following the Doi Moi reform process. Vietnam adopted a dual-track approach allowing private firms to expand alongside the state sector as long as they fulfilled their quotas at state-given prices. Also important for the development of a thriving SME sector has been reform design and willingness to experiment. These initiatives included state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform, foreign direct investment, industrial zone policies, and business-related administrative initiatives, with significant state influence remaining a core feature of the development strategy.

scholarly journals MODEL PENGELOLAAN DANA DESA DAN PEMBERDAYAAN PETANI DI DESA PERBATASAN INDONESIA DENGAN TIMOR LESTE

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Boanerges Putra Sipayung ◽  
Theodorus Fobia ◽  
Werenfridus Taena ◽  
Umbu Joka
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Physical Capital ◽  
Partial Least Square ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Fund Management ◽  
Quantitative Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Timor Leste

<p>Village funds allocation has been provided to village government by central government starting in 2015. The provision of village funds aims at ingreasing equitable development in urban areas. This study aims to design a model of implementation of village funds management and farmer empowerment, with a case of Manusasi Village, Timor Tengah Utara Distict, bordering with Timor Leste. This research was conducted in August-September 2020. The methods used in this research were quantitative descriptive analysis and SEM based on variance, namely Partial Least Square (PLS). The sampling method used in this study was accidental sampling, with the chosen sample of 75 households from the total popultation 258 huosehold farmers. Results of this study indicated that planning had a significant effect on the evaluation process of village funds. The multiplier effect value of village funds in Manusasi Village was 1.39. There was no direct effect between physical capital, social capital, and human capital on the empowermeny of farming community in Manusasi Village. An important component of the implementation model of village fund management and farmer empowerment is the socialisation of the use of village funds which aims to increase public knowledge about village funds and build partnerships with universities or other institutions as sources of experts. The role of experts is to help improve village fund management and improve the quality of programs and planning. </p>

A Comparative Analysis of Land, Caste, and Gender in Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh With Reference to India

2019 ◽  
pp. 149-175
Author(s):  
M. Thangaraj
Keyword(s):  
Economic Activity ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
National Income ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
Rural And Urban Areas ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
And Gender

Land is a gift of nature and its supply is perfectly inelastic. The quality of land differs very much from one place to another. Land is an important productive asset in rural India. Land is the backbone of agriculture. It serves as the base for all living beings. Nearly two-thirds of the workforce directly or indirectly depends on agriculture for their livelihood. About one-fifth of national income is derived from agricultural sector. Agriculture is a risky and most uncertain economic activity, as it heavily depends upon the vagarious of monsoon. Land market is a significant economic activity and may be classified into land sale market and land lease market both in rural and urban areas. Land reform is one of the regulating mechanisms of the agrarian activity which may be classified into 1) reforms aimed at changing ownership pattern (re-distributive reform) or 2) reforms dealing with leasing of land (tenancy/tenure reform).

Ground Fictions

2021 ◽  
pp. 86-103
Author(s):  
Meghan L. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Landslide Risk ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Land Claims ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Water Flows ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Land Titling

This chapter analyzes a context where the material fixity of land has been repeatedly called into question, examining how stories about soil's materiality become key factors in bringing new forms of property into being in post-conflict Colombia. The chapter demonstrates how soil's actual fluidity makes what it calls “ground fictions” central to many land claims. Building on long-term fieldwork in both rural Urabá and urban Medellín, it reveals that legal moves, such as land titling and the establishment of protected land reserves, are only part of market making. Surface water flows expand and dry up seasonally, making fictions of soil's dryness via alluvial accession central to encroaching claims to “new land” on Urabá's floodplains. Similarly, fictions about land's physical instability and landslide risk first became central to squatters' ability to access peripheral, nonmarket land in Medellín but subsequently undermined their ownership claims once the state sought to protect these long-neglected urban residents from their own risky soils. Ultimately, the juxtaposition of these two sites in the chapter sheds light on the ways that the soil becomes a crucial player in war and peace through its foundational role in the property rules that come to redefine both rural and urban land markets in the unfolding of the conflict and attempts to bring it to a close.

Reconfiguring Local Authority Through Land Reform

2021 ◽  
pp. 80-103
Author(s):  
Alice Beban
Keyword(s):  
Land Reform ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Local State ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Land Distribution ◽  
Multiple Strategies ◽  
Land Titling ◽  
Land Survey ◽  
Local Officials

This chapter shows how the land titling reform worked to wrest power away from local-level officials into the hands of the central government. It talks about local officials that managed to amass land by clearing forest in expectation of the land reform, while in other areas local people mobilized to prevent the elite's capture of the reform and produce new relationships with local officials. It also examines the relationships between local state officials and their constituencies during the Order 01 land reform. The chapter reviews the leopard skin land reform, which can be seen as the prime minister's attempt to wrest control over land distribution from local authorities in upland areas. It analyzes the rural people's narratives that suggest multiple strategies local authorities and other elites used to grab land, such as clearing forestland in advance of the land survey.

scholarly journals Possession and Precedence: Juxtaposing Customary and Legal Events to Establish Land Authority

Land ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 126
Author(s):  
Laura S. Meitzner Yoder ◽  
Sandra F. Joireman
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Land Claims ◽  
Land Law ◽  
Property Theory ◽  
Entry Points ◽  
Timor Leste ◽  
Previous Claim ◽  
Original Acquisition ◽  
Land Restitution

Land restitution carries implicit recognition of some previous claim to ownership, but when are first claims recognized? The concepts of first possession and original acquisition have long been used as entry points to Western concepts of property. For Austronesia, the concept of precedence is used in customary systems to justify and describe land claims and Indigenous authority. Conflict and political change in Timor-Leste have highlighted the co-existence of multiple understandings of land claims and their legitimacy. Considering customary principles of precedence brings into relief important elements of first possession important in land restitution processes. This paper juxtaposes the concept of original acquisition in property theory to two different examples of original claims from Timor-Leste: a two-part customary origin narrative from Oecusse and the development of a national land law for the new state. In these three narratives, we identify three different establishment events from which land authority develops. The article then uses this idea of the establishment event to explore five points of customary-statutory intersection evident from the land restitution process: (1) legitimate sources of land authority; (2) arbitrary establishment dates; (3) privileging of social order; (4) recognition of spiritual ties to land; and (5) the possibility for reversal.

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