Land and Contestations over Autochthony and Local Citizenship in Agrarian Ghana

This article examines the reimagination of communities in an industrial cassava frontier of Ghana in the wake of a contested land grab supported by state and community institutions. Qualitative and survey data were used to construct the existing social relations in the communities through the lens of earlier processes of agrarian change that have transformed the social base of the communities. It is argued that the expansion of capitalist production systems into agrarian areas results in local citizenship contestations centered on land, and redefinition and reclassification of people and their access to land. The multiple claims and contestations that arose from the land grab and the political reactions from below are highlighted. It is further argued that differentiated dispossession and class differences determine the strategies used by affected people. While some farmers demonstrated agency by holding on to a “little pie” to enjoy greater community social cohesion, others, drawing from their local citizenship status, although contested, fought the land grab.

Urbanization in China and the role of social and natural capital in land acquisition and transfer arrangements

The paper is in several parts. We explain the context of the study area that is characterized by land acquisition and transfer (LAT) by local government (often against the wishes of the local villagers). We report on a methodology that is simple, yet robust, that enables local land users and other interested parties to quantify the social capital of local people in rural and peri-urban areas of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR) and assess the extent to which social capital influences the bargaining power of land users when faced with acquisition of their cropland, grazing land, woodlands, water and other environmental goods and services. Finally, we explore the notion that social capital can be a force to create a more even playing field and influence the outcomes of land grab for industrial, infrastructure and urban development. Interest in the concept of social capital and its application has increased rapidly over the past few years with the realization that social bonds and norms are important for achieving sustainability. Ferdinand Tönnies identified the value of the ideas surrounding social capital as early as 1887, but later scholars gave it a theoretical framework. Social capital implies that there are aspects of social structure and organization that act as resources for individuals, allowing them to realize their personal aims and interests. Often, social capital is defined as trust, norms of reciprocity, and networks among individuals that can be drawn upon for individual or collective benefit. Social capital is different between urbanites and rural dwellers, especially farmers. In this paper, we focus on how social capital serves the interests of individuals or collectives. Social capital based on kinship and geopolitical position plays an important role in affecting rural land transfer. Rural land transfer (also called LAT) is becoming a highly contested matter as China moves to implement its plan to increase the proportion of urban dwellers to 70% by 2030(Ma et al., 2018). Natural capital (a sub-set of social capital) should always be maintained as it is critical to sustainable economic development representing, as it does, a multidimensional concept that mirrors the different frameworks of various scientific disciplines and social groups used in valuing nature. Widespread and rampant LAT that accompanies accelerated economic development in peri-urban and rural areas (Ma et al., 2018) needs to take critical natural capital into account.

Land Grabbing and Jatropha in India: An Analysis of ‘Hyped’ Discourse on The Subject

In the early 2000s, powerful narratives (re-)emerged around the food–fuel–land nexus, which, combined with the financial, food, and fuel crises of 2007-08, sparked new concerns about the finiteness of our resources and triggered, as well as partially justified, the then following land rush. Around the same time, a hyped debate also developed around biofuels as a potential fix to some of the global scarcity problems in which jatropha held a particularly prominent position as a new miracle crop. This study examines the concurrence of jatropha and the land grabbing hype in India, the leading promotor of the plant globally, and asks what effect the global land grab discourse had on actual jatropha investments in the country. To do so, an extensive literature review, discourse analysis, and qualitative survey were conducted, with a specific focus on jatropha investors. The study found that both hyped discourses have impacted investor decisions, but the impact varied depending on the types of company. This study adds a yet underrepresented investor perspective to the global land grabbing discourse and highlights a need to also consider the role of small and medium enterprises in land grabbing processes.

Food security and land use: The Ethiopian case

From the financial crisis of 2008, international investors have addressed their attention to new investment and expansion opportunities and have acquired millions of hectares of land in various parts of the world. Developing Countries are the main target for such Large-Scale Land Acquisition (LSLA). While the adverse effects of these land grab are well known, their implications on food security have been less studied. In the context of an increasing disequilibrium between local food needs and international investors goals, the examining the potential adverse effects of LSLA on food security become an increasingly pressing matter. The paper illustrates an in-depth analysis on the impacts of LSLA on food security in Ethiopia. The results indicate that if the entire area of the acquired land is assumed to be used for domestic food production, it could feed around 7.1 million people.

Facing Scarcity in a Land Grab Context in Cameroon

This paper undertakes a critical exploration of the mechanisms via which communities cope with scarcity resulting from land grabs. It explores two ranges of practices – residential multilocality and sorcery – through the lens of resilience. Residential multilocality appears as a novel living arrangement dealing with resource scarcity, while sorcery is used as a tool for bolstering a policy of resource regeneration. Thus, instead of rushing to nearby cities as a response to scarcity, the communities observed reinstate two silenced dynamics. Firstly, they underscore the rise of inter, and intra-rural mobility entrenched in the paradigm of residential multilocality. The paradigm embodies a scarcity management strategy in the sense that the abundance of vital resources in one rural area attracts villagers from other communities struggling with scarcity. Secondly, sorcery is used as a strategy to command eco-friendly behavior of villagers in order to successfully achieve a resource regeneration policy.

ILLEGAL LAND GRAB: ISRAEL'S SEIZURE OF LAND IN PALESTINE

Since 1967, each Israeli government has invested significant resources in establishing and expanding the settlements in the Occupied Territories, both in terms of the area of land they occupy and in terms of population. As a result of this policy, approximately 380,000 Israeli citizens now live on the settlements on the West Bank, including those established in East Jerusalem (this report does not relate to the settlements in the Gaza Strip). During the first decade following the occupation, the Ma'arach governments operated on the basis of the Alon Plan, which advocated the establishment of settlements in areas perceived as having "security importance," and where the Palestinian population was sparse (the Jordan Valley, parts of the Hebron Mountains and Greater Jerusalem). After the Likud came to power in 1977, the government began to establish settlements throughout the West Bank, particularly in areas close to the main Palestinian population centers along the central mountain ridge and in western Samaria. This policy was based on both security and ideological considerations. The political process between Israel and the Palestinians did not impede settlement activities, which continued under the Labor government of Yitzhak Rabin (1992-1996) and all subsequent governments. These governments built thousands of new housing units, claiming that this was necessary to meet the "natural growth" of the existing population. As a result, between 1993 and 2000 the number of settlers on the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) increased by almost 100 percent.