IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v54y2014icp243-252.html

Land Contestation at the Micro Scale: Struggles for Space in the African Marshes

Author

Listed:
  • Ansoms, An
  • Wagemakers, Inge
  • Madison Walker, Michael
  • Murison, Jude

Abstract

Africa is increasingly confronted with the commercialization of its space. Whereas attention mainly goes to macro-scale land grabs, land contestation and grabbing at the micro scale are largely ignored. This paper analyses how local actors instrumentalize the renegotiation over African wetland rights to call into question the prevailing social order. We illustrate how deficiencies in formal instruments allow certain powerful actors to capture the momentum of an open moment. We plead in favor of a better understanding of political power struggles through which land rights are shaped; and point to the shortcomings of a technocratic approach to land governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Ansoms, An & Wagemakers, Inge & Madison Walker, Michael & Murison, Jude, 2014. "Land Contestation at the Micro Scale: Struggles for Space in the African Marshes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 243-252.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:54:y:2014:i:c:p:243-252
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.08.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X1300199X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.08.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peters, Pauline E., 2009. "Challenges in Land Tenure and Land Reform in Africa: Anthropological Contributions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1317-1325, August.
    2. Jean‐Pierre Olivier de Sardan, 2011. "The Eight Modes of Local Governance in West Africa," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(2), pages 22-31, March.
    3. Bastiaensen, Johan & Herdt, Tom De & D'Exelle, Ben, 2005. "Poverty reduction as a local institutional process," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 979-993, June.
    4. Saturnino M. Borras & David Fig & Sofía Monsalve Suárez, 2011. "The politics of agrofuels and mega-land and water deals: insights from the ProCana case, Mozambique," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(128), pages 215-234, June.
    5. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela & Pradhan, Rajendra, 2002. "Legal Pluralism and Dynamic Property Rights," CAPRi Working Papers 55442, CGIAR, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Wendy Wolford & Saturnino M. Borras Jr. & Ruth Hall & Ian Scoones & Ben White & Wendy Wolford & Saturnino M. Borras Jr. & Ruth Hall & Ian Scoones & Ben White, 2013. "Governing Global Land Deals: The Role of the State in the Rush for Land," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 44(2), pages 189-210, March.
    7. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S. & Pradhan, Rajendra, 2002. "Legal pluralism and dynamic property rights," CAPRi working papers 22, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. João Carrilho & Jorge Trindade, 2022. "Sustainability in Peri-Urban Informal Settlements: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-35, June.
    2. Lara M. Lundsgaard-Hansen & Flurina Schneider & Julie G. Zaehringer & Christoph Oberlack & Win Myint & Peter Messerli, 2018. "Whose Agency Counts in Land Use Decision-Making in Myanmar? A Comparative Analysis of Three Cases in Tanintharyi Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-30, October.
    3. De Boeck, Filip, 2020. "Urban expansion, the politics of land, and occupation as infrastructure in Kinshasa," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    4. Salman, Faris & Mori, Akihisa, 2023. "When, where, and how can land governance overcome path dependency? A trajectory of land governance change," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    5. Sung Kyu Kim & Fiona Marshall & Neil M. Dawson, 2022. "Revisiting Rwanda’s agricultural intensification policy: benefits of embracing farmer heterogeneity and crop-livestock integration strategies," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(3), pages 637-656, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Glover, Steven & Jones, Sam, 2019. "Can commercial farming promote rural dynamism in sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence from Mozambique," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 110-121.
    2. Anderson, Simon & Centonze, Roberta, 2007. "Property Rights and the Management of Animal Genetic Resources," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 1529-1541, September.
    3. Anika Trebbin, 2021. "Land Grabbing and Jatropha in India: An Analysis of ‘Hyped’ Discourse on the Subject," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-21, October.
    4. Nolte, Kerstin & Voget-Kleschin, Lieske, 2014. "Consultation in Large-Scale Land Acquisitions: An Evaluation of Three Cases in Mali," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 654-668.
    5. Meinzen-Dick, R. & Nkonya, L., 2005. "Understanding legal pluralism in water rights: Lessons from Africa and Asia," IWMI Books, Reports H038746, International Water Management Institute.
    6. Hundie, Bekele, 2006. "Explaining Changes of Property Rights among Afar Pastoralists, Ethiopia," Institutional Change in Agriculture and Natural Resources Discussion Papers 18833, Humboldt University Berlin, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    7. Rignall, Karen & Kusunose, Yoko, 2018. "Governing livelihood and land use transitions: The role of customary tenure in southeastern Morocco," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 91-103.
    8. Borras, Saturnino M. & Franco, Jennifer C. & Moreda, Tsegaye & Xu, Yunan & Bruna, Natacha & Afewerk Demena, Binyam, 2022. "The value of so-called ‘failed’ large-scale land acquisitions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    9. Kandel, Matt & Anghileri, Daniela & Alare, Rahinatu S. & Lovett, Peter N. & Agaba, Genevieve & Addoah, Thomas & Schreckenberg, Kate, 2022. "Farmers’ perspectives and context are key for the success and sustainability of farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) in northeastern Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. Roy, Jessica & Crow, Ben, 2004. "Gender Relations and Access to Water: What We Want to Know About Social Relations and Women's Time Allocation," Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, Working Paper Series qt0m5033gv, Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, UC Santa Cruz.
    11. Heyd, Helene & Neef, Andreas, 2004. "Participation of local people in water management: evidence from the Mae Sa Watershed, northern Thailand," EPTD discussion papers 128, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth, 2014. "Property rights and sustainable irrigation: A developing country perspective," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 23-31.
    13. Broegaard, Rikke Brandt & Vongvisouk, Thoumthone & Mertz, Ole, 2017. "Contradictory Land Use Plans and Policies in Laos: Tenure Security and the Threat of Exclusion," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 170-183.
    14. Merten, Sonja & Haller, Tobias, 2008. "Property rights, food security and child growth: Dynamics of insecurity in the Kafue Flats of Zambia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 434-443, October.
    15. Edeh, Hyacinth O. & Mavrotas, George & Balana, Bedru B., 2022. "Land tenure security and preferences to dispute resolution pathways among landholders in Nigeria," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    16. Lorenzo Pellegrini, 2007. "The Rule of The Jungle in Pakistan: A Case Study on Corruption and Forest Management in Swat," Working Papers 2007.91, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    17. Swallow, B. & Onyango, L. & Meinzen-Dick, R. & Holl, N., 2005. "Dynamics of poverty, livelihoods and property rights in the Lower Nyando Basin of Kenya," IWMI Books, Reports H038752, International Water Management Institute.
    18. Anderson, Simon & Centose, Roberta, 2006. "Property rights and the management of animal genetic resources: how to secure access to drylands resources for multiple users," CAPRi working papers 48, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    19. Bert Suykens, 2015. "The Land that Disappeared: Forceful Occupation, Disputes and the Negotiation of Landlord Power in a Bangladeshi Bastee," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(3), pages 486-507, May.
    20. Anthony Francis Burns & Abbas Rajabifard & Davood Shojaei, 2025. "Impact of Political Economy on Land Administration Reform," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-30, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:54:y:2014:i:c:p:243-252. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.