A tale of two neighborhoods: Toward a new typology of land rights

In recent decades, many states have considerably reduced their involvement in providing vital public services such as housing. This trend, manifested inter alia in the growing reliance on private initiatives, is redefining the state’s responsibility to delineate and protect the land rights of various individuals and groups. In this paper we propose a new typology of land rights, which relates not only to the conventional rights but also to rights derived from public and political arrangements that are usually taken into account in practice but are not yet in literature. Using the theoretical typology we developed, this study examines and compares the land rights trajectories of two adjacent neighborhoods in Tel-Aviv, Israel. The research findings conceptualize the role of the state in defining and protecting property rights of urban residents under two scenarios: when land is nationally owned and when it has become privately owned. Moreover, the findings demonstrate the influence of different types of land rights on the range of opportunities available to urban residents and emphasize the increased need for clearly defined property rights in the neoliberal era, especially for disadvantaged populations.