1999 was a decisive year in the long history of the people of Timor-Leste, whose future was open when they voted for independence in a UN-sponsored referendum. Its results left no doubt that the Timorese considered themselves to be a nation wishing to have their own state, which they would rule. This book examines a vast array of transformations that have taken place over the past decades. It puts forward the idea of "cohabitations", which aims at inscribing the mutual influences arising from the existence of distinct social processes not only side by side but in their mutual influences and entanglements, sometimes resulting from effective clashes, some others from peaceful manipulation of social and cultural differences. From this analytical viewpoint of evolving power dynamics of cohabitations, experts in the field investigate issues that have been contentious in the recent past and analyse the challenges that present-day Timor-Leste is facing. Structured in three parts, the contributions address issues of governance, land, as well as the transformation in the traditional culture including conceptions about identity and exchange, and transformations in the ritual and religious experiences of becoming a nation rooted in self-determination. For the first time bringing together original contributions by the most notable experts on Timor-Leste in a cohesive and comprehensive way, the book will be of interest to academics in the field of Southeast Asian Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Law Studies, History and Political Science.

Since the 2008 world food crisis a surge of land grabbing swept Africa, Asia and Latin America and even some regions of Europe and North America. Investors have uprooted rural communities for massive agricultural, biofuels, mining, industrial and urbanisation projects. 'Water grabbing' and 'green grabbing' have further exacerbated social tensions. Early analyses of land grabbing focused on foreign actors, the biofuels boom and Africa, and pointed to catastrophic consequences for the rural poor. Subsequently scholars carried out local case studies in diverse world regions. The contributors to this volume advance the discussion to a new stage, critically scrutinizing alarmist claims of the first wave of research, probing the historical antecedents of today's land grabbing, examining large-scale land acquisitions in light of international human rights and investment law, and considering anew longstanding questions in agrarian political economy about forms of dispossession and accumulation and grassroots resistance. Readers of this collection will learn about the impacts of land and water grabbing; the relevance of key theorists, including Marx, Polanyi and Harvey; the realities of China's involvement in Africa; how contemporary land grabbing differs from earlier plantation agriculture; and how social movements-and rural people in general-are responding to this new threat. This book was published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.

De Coulanges original study provided a historical view of how land has become property which was then translated and published in 1891 by M. Ashley, not just to bring this study to an English reader but to provide a counter argument to Agrarian Communism. This edition also contains an introductory chapter on the origin of the manor house in England. This title will be of interest to students of History.

Since the 2008 world food crisis a surge of land grabbing swept Africa, Asia and Latin America and even some regions of Europe and North America. Investors have uprooted rural communities for massive agricultural, biofuels, mining, industrial and urbanisation projects. 'Water grabbing' and 'green grabbing' have further exacerbated social tensions. Early analyses of land grabbing focused on foreign actors, the biofuels boom and Africa, and pointed to catastrophic consequences for the rural poor. Subsequently scholars carried out local case studies in diverse world regions. The contributors to this volume advance the discussion to a new stage, critically scrutinizing alarmist claims of the first wave of research, probing the historical antecedents of today's land grabbing, examining large-scale land acquisitions in light of international human rights and investment law, and considering anew longstanding questions in agrarian political economy about forms of dispossession and accumulation and grassroots resistance. Readers of this collection will learn about the impacts of land and water grabbing; the relevance of key theorists, including Marx, Polanyi and Harvey; the realities of China's involvement in Africa; how contemporary land grabbing differs from earlier plantation agriculture; and how social movements-and rural people in general-are responding to this new threat. This book was published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.

First published in 1966. The main object of the present work is to trace the process whereby the land of this country came into agricultural use under full individual control. That movement, as will be seen, is treated as continuous and as due in the main to the operation of large economic and, so to say, normal causes. While the rapidity and extent of inclosure varies from time to time, and while its kind undergoes certain changes, progress continues.

The Property Rights of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: Beyond Restitution explores how the protection of housing and property rights can contribute to durable solutions to displacement. The focus of most of the international community's recent protection efforts has been on returning displaced persons to their homes following armed conflict. This prioritization has been entrenched further by the 2005 United Nations Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons (the "Pinheiro Principles"). Yet as Anneke Smit chronicles in this book, the international community's attempts to promote widespread return through establishing housing and property restitution mechanisms have largely failed. Further, this focus on return and restitution of property has come at the expense of supporting effectively local integration and resettlement as possible durable solutions. This book argues that, particularly in cases of protracted displacement, a range of accepted approaches to the protection of housing and property rights would be preferable. In addition to more than a dozen case studies, the discussion draws throughout on international human rights and refugee law, property law and theory, and sociological and anthropological literature on displacement and the meaning of 'home'. The Property Rights of Refugees and Internally Displaced Personsis based on more than a decade of the author's extensive academic research and practical experience on displacement issues. It will be of considerable interest to those with academic and policy interests in the rights of refugees and displaced persons, and theories of property.

Perhaps the most explosive issue in South Africa today is the question of land ownership. The central theme in this country’s colonial history is the dispossession of indigenous African societies by white settlers, and current calls for land restitution are based on this loss. Yet popular knowledge of the actual process by which Africans were deprived of their land is remarkably sketchy.

This book recounts an important part of this history, describing how the Khoisan and Xhosa people were dispossessed and subjugated from the time that Europeans first arrived until the end of the Cape Frontier Wars (1779–1878).

The Land Wars traces the unfolding hostilities involving Dutch and British colonial authorities, trekboers and settlers, and the San, Khoikhoin, Xhosa, Mfengu and Thembu people – as well as conflicts within these groups. In the process it describes the loss of land by Africans to successive waves of white settlers as the colonial frontier inexorably advanced. The book does not shy away from controversial issues such as war atrocities on both sides, or the expedient decision of some of the indigenous peoples to fight alongside the colonisers rather than against them.

The Land Wars is an epic story, featuring well-known figures such as Ngqika, Lord Charles Somerset and his son, Henry, Andries Stockenström, Hintsa, Harry Smith, Sandile, Maqoma, Bartle Frere and Sarhili, and events such as the arrival of the 1820 Settlers and the Xhosa cattlekilling. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand South Africa’s past and present.

Recent years have seen a globalization of property rights as the Western conception of property over land has extended across the world. As formerly community-owned land and natural resources are privatized and titling schemes proliferate, Property Rights from Below questions the trend toward treating land as a commodity and explores alternatives to the Western model. As we enter an era of resource scarcity and as competition for land and associated natural resources increases, purchasing power cannot become the sole criterion for land allocation; and the law of supply and demand in increasingly financialized markets cannot become the sole metric through which the value of land is determined. Using a range of examples from around the world, Property Rights from Below demonstrates that alternatives to this model often emerge from social innovations supported by local communities and that there is an urgent need for a broader political imagination when it comes to land governance. This innovative cross-disciplinary perspective on the pressing problems surrounding global property rights will be of interest to academics, students and professionals with an interest in property law, development economics and land governance.

The author was the first to forecast (in 1997) the events that ruptured the global economy in 2008 by applying an analysis that exposes the fault lines in the structure of the market economy. Now, he extends his analysis to the future of the West, to evaluate fears from distinguished commentators who claim that European civilisation is in danger of being eclipsed. He concludes that the West is at a dangerous tipping point and provides empirical and theoretical evidence to warrant such an alarming conclusion. But he also explains why it is not too late to prevent the looming social catastrophe. Attributing the present crisis to a social process of cheating, he develops a synthesis of the social and natural sciences to show how the market system can be reformed. He introduces the concept of organic finance, which prescribes reforms capable of delivering both sustainable growth, with a more equitable distribution of wealth, and respect for other life forms. To explain the persistent failure to resolve protracted social and environmental crises, the author introduces a theory of social trauma. Populations have been destabilised by the coercive loss of land to the point where they have lost their traditional reference points. No longer able to live by the laws of nature, they are forced to conform to laws that consolidate the privileges of those who had cheated them of their birthright: access to nature’s resources. Many pathological consequences flow from this tearing of people from their social and ecological habitats. To recover from this state of trauma, the author argues, people need to use the new tools of communication, such as social media, to regain control over their future destiny through a kind of collective psychosocial therapy. The author challenges the view that the West can climb out of depression by applying the financial measures known as “austerity�. He outlines a new strategy that would restore full employment and reverse the decline in middle class living standards in Europe and North America.

The introduction of transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) in southern Africa was based on an enchanting promise: simultaneously contributing to global biodiversity conservation initiatives, regional peace and integration, and the sustainable socio-economic development of rural communities. Cross-border collaboration and eco-tourism became seen as the vehicles of this promise, which would enhance regional peace and stability along the way. However, as these highly political projects take shape, conservation and development policymaking progressively shifts from the national to regional and global arenas, and the peoples most affected by TFCA formation tend to disappear from view.

This book focuses on the forgotten people displaced by, or living on the edge of, protected wildlife areas. It moves beyond the grand 'enchanting promise' of conservation and development across frontiers, and unfounded notions of TFCAs as integrated social-ecological systems. Peoples' dependency on natural resources the specific combination of crop cultivation, livestock keeping and natural resource harvesting activities varies enormously along the conservation frontier, as does their reliance on resources on the other side of the conservation boundary. Hence, the studies in this book move from the dream of eco-tourism-fuelled development supporting nature conservation and people towards the local realities facing marginalized people, living adjacent to protected areas in environments often poorly suited to agriculture.

Good land policy provides a diversity of land uses with plural property relations. No single kind of property rules fits the purposes of all types of land uses. Neither is a de-tached single family house like a community garden, nor a highway like a retail chain. Each land use needs its own property "fingerprint." The concept of Western ownership works with home ownership, but fails with community gardens, highways, or retail chains. Western ownership also fails in informal settings, particularly in the global South, although informality does not at all entail the absence of property relations. In everyday practice, private and common property relations often accommodate a wide variety of demands made by the owners and users of land. In a stark contrast, many theories of property and land policy fail to recognize plural property relations. The polyrational theory of planning and property reconciles practice and theory.

Interrogates the narratives of "land grabbing" and "agricultural investment" through detailed local studies that illuminate how these are experienced on the ground and the implications for Africa's land and agricultural economy. Africa has been at the centre of a "land grab" in recent years, with investors lured by projections of rising food prices, growing demand for "green" energy, and cheap land and water rights. But such land is often also used or claimed through custom by communities. What does this mean for Africa? In what ways are rural people's lives and livelihoods being transformed as a result? And who will control its land and agricultural futures? The case studies explore the processes through which land deals are being made; the implications for agrarian structure, rural livelihoods and food security; and the historical context of changing land uses, revealing that these land grabs may resonate with, even resurrect, forms of large-scale production associated with the colonial and early independence eras. The book depicts the striking diversity of deals and dealers: white Zimbabwean farmers in northern Nigeria,Dutch and American joint ventures in Ghana, an Indian agricultural company in Ethiopia's hinterland, European investors in Kenya's drylands and a Canadian biofuel company on its coast, South African sugar agribusiness in Tanzania's southern growth corridor, in Malawi's "Greenbelt" and in southern Mozambique, and white South African farmers venturing onto former state farms in the Congo. Ruth Hall is Associate Professor at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa; Ian Scoones is a Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex and Director of the ESRC STEPS Centre; Dzodzi Tsikata is Associate Professor at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana, Legon.

* Authored by the world's leading practitioners, applicable to any resource from forests to agricultural land to water resources and fishing* Hundreds of case studies of successful co-management from a wide variety of contexts including the UK, Europe, Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Indian Subcontinent, Latin America and AfricaThe collaborative or "co-management" of natural resources-whether between states and local communities or among and within communities themselves-is a process of collective understanding and actions by local communities and other social actors. The process brings about negotiated agreements on management roles, rights and responsibilities, making explicit the conditions and institutions of sound decentralized governance.This book is designed for professionals and people involved in collaborative management processes. It distills the wealth of experience and innovative approaches developed by people who have learned by doing. It begins by offering a variety of vistas, from broad historical and equity considerations to in-depth co-management examples. Illustrated in detail is the understanding accumulated in recent decades on starting points for co-management, prerequisites for successful negotiations as well as rules, methods and conditions for the negotiations. Methods and tools, such as practical checklists distilled from different situations and contexts, are offered throughout and examples of specifics agreements and pluralist management organizations are discussed.

Finalist for the African Studies Association's 2021 Best Book Prize. Explores the limits of law in changing unequal land relations in Kenya. Why, despite the introduction of new land laws beginning in 2012, has there been an increase in land grabbing in Kenya? Why has legislation failed to address long standing grievances about grossly unequal land distribution? This important book suggests that questions of justice should be central to discussions of African land reform. Constitutional reformers in Kenya promised transformative changes in land relations. However, the reality has disappointed. Land law reforms since 2010 have been more concerned with the administration of land and with bureaucratic power than with the real consequences of unequal access to land for ordinary Kenyans. Manji documents this thwarted struggle and surveys the prospects for genuine change. Published in association with the British Institute in Eastern Africa. Ambreena Manji is Professor of Land Law and Development at the School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University. Between 2010 and 2014, she was Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa. Her books include The Politics of Land Reform in Africa (2006). Vita Books: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and South Africa.

Libertarianism attempts to establish a set of property rights as a complete political morality, its argument proceeding from liberty tout court, as the unique foundational aspect of well being that grounds rights. In this book, Attas presents a sympathetic reconstruction of the libertarian argument and then brings to bear a critical evaluation leading to an ultimate rejection of libertarianism. Exposing the limitations of libertarianism and disclosing its errors, Attas argues that the rights which libertarians adopt with respect to persons (self-ownership), natural resources (original acquisition) and products are indefensible given what liberty must be.

The purpose of this book is to explore the different ways in which the state deals with various social groups through the mechanisms of space. It does this by looking at three case studies, involving three social groups within Israel's multicultural society, in which the different roles played by political space in legal analysis are revealed and analysed. The book then proceeds to unearth the unifying logic underlying the disparate legal treatment of political space, brought to light by the three case studies - the Sephardim, the Bedouin-Arab minority, and the ultra-Orthodox community of Jerusalem. depending on the social group involved, an attitude which, the author argues, can be traced back to early Zionist thinking. He goes on to argue that a reform of local government law is required, to correct the segregated system of political space and the separate and unequal distribution of political power, and the economic resources that accompany it.

In the context of increasing privatization and land reform these case studies reveal how reforms impact on women's rights to land and how these rights are contested or upheld. This volume focuses on the impact on women's land rights from the contemporary drive towards the formulation and implementation of land tenure reforms which aim primarily at the private registration of land. It is solidly groundedin the findings from seven case studies, all based on in-depth qualitative research, from various regions of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. The detailed, local level research in this volume not only challenges the status quo, but demonstrates that another world is possible and documents the many ways women in Eastern Africa are finding to ensure their rights to land. BIRGIT ENGLERT is Assistant Professor in the Department of African Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria; ELIZABETH DALEY is an independent land consultant. Uganda: Fountain Publishers(PB); Kenya: EAEP(PB); Tanzania: E&D Vision Publishing(PB)

Life in rural Britain has changed beyond recognition since the beginning of the 20th century. Not only dramatic events such as the ban on hunting and mad cow disease but also the growth of the organic movement, changes in farming practices and increasing rural poverty have all had an effect on how we view the countryside and the people who live there. In "The Contested Countryside," the authors put contemporary rural issues in their historical context, which they argue is essential in order to see modern problems in a clearer light--and perhaps even find some solutions.

"The Contested Countryside" examines the historical background to some of the main controversies of contemporary rural life. The authors explore key elements of rural life, including the varying responses to animal disease from Biblical times to the 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth, the relationship between farming methods and landscape preservation as well as organic farming, the role of the European Union and the truth about the Countryside Alliance. In the process they address the thorny question of whether the countryside can still support a rural population.

"The Contested Countryside" is essential reading for anyone with an interest in 21st-century rural life in Britain.

Contents:
Acknowledgements Preface 1. Welcome to the Hotel California 2. Property and the Landscapes of Gentrification 3. The Moralities of Land 4. Land and the Postcolonial City 5. Back to the Land

This definitive account explores the treaties made between white settlers and Aboriginal people in Australia and the different ways in which the two groups interpreted those acts of possession. Questions such as "Why were these agreements forged?" "How did the Aborigines understand the terms of the agreements?" and "On what basis did whites claim to be the rightful owners of the land?" are thoroughly discussed as well as the ways the settlers rewrote history to remove mention of the destruction and displacement of the Aborigines.

Over the past few years, large-scale land acquisitions in Africa have stoked controversy, making headlines in media reports across the world. Land that only a short time ago seemed of little outside interest is now being sought by international investors to the tune of hundreds of thousands of hectares. Private-sector expectations of higher world food and commodity prices and government concerns about longer-term national food and energy security have both made land a more attractive asset. Dubbed 'land grabs' in the media, large-scale land acquisitions have become one of the most talked about and contentious topics amongst those studying, working in or writing about Africa. Some commentators have welcomed this trend as a bearer of new livelihood opportunities. Others have countered by pointing to negative social impacts, including loss of local land rights, threats to local food security and the risk that large-scale investments may marginalize family farming. Lorenzo Cotula, a leading expert in the field, casts a critical eye over the most reliable evidence on this hotly contested topic, examining the implications of land deals in Africa both for its people and for world agriculture and food security.

This is the first detailed "grass roots" account of Uzbekistan's protracted decollectivisation process. It explores continuity and the change in relations between rural communities, agricultural producers, and the local state authorities in the cotton-growing region of Khorezm. Built up during the Soviet period, the cotton sector has maintained its importance for the state and for rural communities in the years following independence, although economic parameters and social conditions have worsened significantly. Uzbekistan's agricultural reform path does not follow that of most post-socialist scenarios and continuity with the past remains strong. Despite seeming immobility, the local view on rural society presented in this book unveils an unexpectedly dynamic situation, characterized by shifts in patronage relations, struggles over legitimacy, and transformations in family structure and community life. Poised between the state, their communities, and an emerging stratum of absentee farm "sponsors," the focus is on the new farmers ("fermer") and their struggles for a place in rural society. What emerges from decollectivisation is a complexly articulated new agrarian concern: its new inequalities are rooted in the political economy of cotton. (Series: Halle Studies in the Anthropology of Eurasia - Vol. 23)

First published in 1966. The main object of the present work is to trace the process whereby the land of this country came into agricultural use under full individual control. That movement, as will be seen, is treated as continuous and as due in the main to the operation of large economic and, so to say, normal causes. While the rapidity and extent of inclosure varies from time to time, and while its kind undergoes certain changes, progress continues.

Land is important to all aspects of human life and has a key role in the economic well-being of society therefore, land tenure, land ownership, and real property law is a critical part of any developed nation. Together, the processes of how land parcels are held; how they are defined, measured, and described to allow economic transactions; how they are marked to allow their use and defense; and how they are legally protected have allowed for the orderly possession and use of land. In doing so, these processes have also provided the basis for the advanced economy of most developed nations. Very often, these processes-land tenure, boundary surveying, and cadastral systems-are considered separately. They are very much interrelated, and none of these processes may be completely understood without an understanding of the others. Land Tenure, Boundary Surveys, and Cadastral Systems provides an introduction to land tenure, cadastral systems, and boundary surveying, including an understanding of the interrelationship of these areas and their role in land tenure and real property law. This is especially true considering the advent of georeferenced cadastral maps reflecting the location of land parcels relative to many other components of the physical and legal infrastructure. Although intended as a basic text for college-level surveying courses, this book should also be of significant value to cadastral mappers, real property attorneys, land title professionals, and others involved with land transactions.

Inalienable Properties explores contrasting approaches to property rights by four Indigenous communities to illustrate how inalienability - restrictions on the ability to buy and sell land - is linked to community leadership and decision-making structures that have long-lasting consequences for communities. Drawing on new research about institutional change in organizational settings, Jamie Baxter explores when and how community leaders have sustained inalienable land rights without turning to either persuasion or coercive force - the two levers of power normally associated with political leadership. He also challenges the view that liberalized land markets are the inevitable result of legal and economic change.