On ‘Cultural Darning and Mending’: Creative Responses to Ceist an Fhearainn / The land Question in the Gàidhealtachd

Mairi McFadyen and Raghnaid Sandilands offer an account of various collaborative contributions and activities relating to creative cultural activism in the context of the Ceist an Fhearainn or the ‘Land Question’ in the Gàidhealtachd. They introduce the metaphor of ‘cultural darning and mending’ to describe a playful yet questioning creative approach that invites people to take agency in their own place, entering into an ethical and reciprocal relationship with the land, its past, people and their stories. They argue that the act of ‘taking cultural ownership’ is a vital step in consciousness-raising for land reform, a creative process that allows us to make imaginative connections that cut across time. By drawing on our pasts to assemble environmentally and socially just futures, they suggest that creative, cultural and convivial activism holds the potential to create the circumstances necessary for transformation and change.

Strategic planning policy post-pandemic: the “Great Land Question”

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the case for the radical reform of land policy worldwide. It does so, however, in the context of present problems posed by the prevailing coronavirus pandemic. It is a strategic study, not a scientific analysis and is oriented towards the field of the built environment in general and the real estate industry in particular.Design/methodology/approachAlthough it draws on concepts of land management long extolled and covers concerns currently circulating about the prospects for urban planning and property development post-pandemic, the synthesis is original.FindingsThe concluding counsel is that land policy reform, being a component factor of so much of society's endeavours, should figure far more prominently across the political platforms of the world.Practical implicationsMost of the material regarding the “Great Land Question” is based on findings from countless strategic foresight studies conducted by the author over the past 25 years and re-assessed in light of the pandemic. If correct, the practical implications will be significant.Originality/valueThis is a review of existing models.

LAND QUESTION IN THE ACTIVITIES OF KABARDIAN PUBLIC ASSOCIATIONS IN THE BEGINNING OF THE XXI CENTURY

The article shows that the land question was a priority in the activities of Kabardian public associations at the beginning of the XXI century. Kabardian public associations protested against the decisions of the Parliament of the KBR in 2005–2009 on the liquidation of inter-settlement territories and their distribution among some rural settlements. The leaders of the Kabardian national movement announced a disproportion in the distribution of «inter-settlement territories» along ethnic lines – the allocation of more than 90% of inter-settlement territories to villages with a predominantly Balkarian population, and appealed to the leadership of the Russian Federation and the KBR with requests to repeal of all laws on the boundaries of municipalities adopted in the KBR in 2005–2009 and the subsequent adoption of the law «On distant pastures», with the allocation of mountain pastures in a separate category of land, equally belonging to mountainous and lowland villages, regardless of the nationality of the people living there. In the context of the aggravated socio-political situation, the Parliament of the KBR suspended consideration of a draft law on changing the boundaries of municipalities in the republic (November 2009), and also adopted a law (June 2011), according to which distant pastures are classified as republican property and are not subject to privatization. But, despite the normative acts adopted by the Parliament of the KBR, the distributed «inter-settlement territories» remained in the use of some rural settlements.