IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v56y2019i5p855-867.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Land in urban debates: Unpacking the grab–development dichotomy

Author

Listed:
  • Femke van Noorloos

    (Human Geography and Planning, Utrecht University, Netherlands)

  • Christien Klaufus

    (CEDLA, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)

  • Griet Steel

    (Human Geography and Planning, Utrecht University, Netherlands)

Abstract

On the heels of the rural ‘land grab’ debate, the ongoing urban transition combined with large-scale urban infrastructure investments and land scarcity forces us to also pay more attention to issues of land in urban discussions. Yet how can we conceptualise land-related problems in order to connect and integrate rural and urban debates in overarching discussions of development? In this commentary, we argue for moving beyond the directly visible outcomes and presumed ‘culprits’ of land investments by critically analysing indirect and long-term effects of land acquisitions on people’s livelihoods as well as the differentiation of these effects for different actors. We propose three specific arguments to disentangle the grab–development dichotomy: 1) placing a focus on the sequential chain of effects of displacement; 2) paying more attention to the ambivalent roles and contradictory interests of different actors; and 3) taking the three-dimensional aspects of land development into account.

Suggested Citation

  • Femke van Noorloos & Christien Klaufus & Griet Steel, 2019. "Land in urban debates: Unpacking the grab–development dichotomy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(5), pages 855-867, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:5:p:855-867
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098018789019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098018789019
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098018789019?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zoomers, Annelies & van Noorloos, Femke & Otsuki, Kei & Steel, Griet & van Westen, Guus, 2017. "The Rush for Land in an Urbanizing World: From Land Grabbing Toward Developing Safe, Resilient, and Sustainable Cities and Landscapes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 242-252.
    2. Veronica Crossa, 2009. "Resisting the Entrepreneurial City: Street Vendors' Struggle in Mexico City's Historic Center," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 43-63, March.
    3. Michael Goldman, 2011. "Speculative Urbanism and the Making of the Next World City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 555-581, May.
    4. Griet Steel, 2012. "Whose Paradise? Itinerant Street Vendors' Individual and Collective Practices of Political Agency in the Tourist Streets of Cusco, Peru," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 1007-1021, September.
    5. Tom Slater, 2009. "Missing Marcuse: On gentrification and displacement," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2-3), pages 292-311, June.
    6. Beacon Mbiba, 2017. "Idioms of Accumulation: Corporate Accumulation by Dispossession in Urban Zimbabwe," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 213-234, March.
    7. 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.
    8. Harvey, David, 2005. "The New Imperialism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199278084.
    9. Saturnino M Borras & Jennifer C Franco, 2013. "Global Land Grabbing and Political Reactions ‘From Below’," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(9), pages 1723-1747, October.
    10. German, Laura & Schoneveld, George & Mwangi, Esther, 2013. "Contemporary Processes of Large-Scale Land Acquisition in Sub-Saharan Africa: Legal Deficiency or Elite Capture of the Rule of Law?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-18.
    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. Meher Bhagia & Mallika Bose, 2024. "Who owns the city? Neoliberal urbanism and land purchases in Gurgaon, India," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(3), pages 445-461, February.

    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. Engström, Linda & Bélair, Joanny & Blache, Adriana, 2022. "Formalising village land dispossession? An aggregate analysis of the combined effects of the land formalisation and land acquisition agendas in Tanzania," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    2. Helga Leitner & Samuel Nowak & Eric Sheppard, 2023. "Everyday speculation in the remaking of peri-urban livelihoods and landscapes," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(2), pages 388-406, March.
    3. 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).
    4. Borras, Saturnino M. & Franco, Jennifer C. & Nam, Zau, 2020. "Climate change and land: Insights from Myanmar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    5. Carol Upadhya & Deeksha M Rao, 2023. "Dispossession without displacement: Producing property through slum redevelopment in Bengaluru, India," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(2), pages 428-444, March.
    6. Ahmed, Abubakari & Kuusaana, Elias Danyi & Gasparatos, Alexandros, 2018. "The role of chiefs in large-scale land acquisitions for jatropha production in Ghana: insights from agrarian political economy," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 570-582.
    7. Carol Upadhya, 2017. "Amaravati and the New Andhra," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 12(2), pages 177-202, August.
    8. Woods, Kevin M., 2020. "Smaller-scale land grabs and accumulation from below: Violence, coercion and consent in spatially uneven agrarian change in Shan State, Myanmar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    9. Tom Gillespie, 2020. "The Real Estate Frontier," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 599-616, July.
    10. Hyun Bang Shin & Soo-Hyun Kim, 2016. "The developmental state, speculative urbanisation and the politics of displacement in gentrifying Seoul," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(3), pages 540-559, February.
    11. 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.
    12. Bin Yang & Jun He, 2021. "Global Land Grabbing: A Critical Review of Case Studies across the World," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-19, March.
    13. Sara B Pritchard & Steven A Wolf & Wendy Wolford, 2016. "Knowledge and the politics of land," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(4), pages 616-625, April.
    14. Ole Busck & Johannes Dragsbaek Schmidt, 2020. "Development, Ecology and Climate Change: Resistance by the Peasantry," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 5(1), pages 9-31, January.
    15. Ruxandra Malina Petrescu-Mag & Hamid Rastegari Kopaei & Dacinia Crina Petrescu, 2021. "What Drives Landowners to Resist Selling Their Land? Insights from Ethical Capitalism and Landowners’ Perceptions," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, March.
    16. Nanhthavong, Vong & Bieri, Sabin & Nguyen, Anh-Thu & Hett, Cornelia & Epprecht, Michael, 2022. "Proletarianization and gateways to precarization in the context of land-based investments for agricultural commercialization in Lao PDR," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    17. Sinha, Meenakshi, 2021. "Harnessing land value capture: Perspectives from India’s urban rail corridors," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    18. Bounnhong Pathammavong & Miles Kenney‐Lazar & Ek Vinay Sayaraj, 2017. "Financing the 450 Year Road: Land Expropriation and Politics ‘All the Way Down’ in Vientiane, Laos," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 48(6), pages 1417-1438, November.
    19. Tamura, Yu, 2021. "Contexts behind differentiated responses to contract farming and large-scale land acquisitions in Central Mozambique: Post-war experiences, social relations, and power balance of local authorities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    20. Matthew Hayes, 2020. "The coloniality of UNESCO’s heritage urban landscapes: Heritage process and transnational gentrification in Cuenca, Ecuador," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(15), pages 3060-3077, November.

    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:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:5:p:855-867. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.