Conflicts about water: A case study of contest and power in Dutch rural policy

The Dutch countryside forms the scene for pressing problems of management and allocation of land and water. These problems underscore the need for comprehensive rural policies. For that purpose, area-based rural policy has been initiated. This new policy is part of a larger policy shift, labelled in literature as ‘new rural governance’. Area-based rural policy co-ordinates the different interests of stakeholders and establishes consensus-based solutions. In this article we question this claim. We analyse the conflicts, rationalities and interests within a Dutch rural planning project. This project displays a power struggle in which actors try to (de)construct legitimacy. This observation contrasts sharply with the consensual rationality on which area-based policies are founded. Therefore, we conclude that a tension exists between ‘what should be done’ and ‘what is actually done’ in Dutch rural policy. Area-based policy does not guarantee the establishment of consensus among rural stakeholders. Therefore, Dutch area-based policies need to be contextualised to purposefully address spatial rural problems.     

Community Land Trusts in the United States

ABSTRACT

Land trusts are a means to conserve land and/or wildlife (e.g., donating one's farm to The Nature Conservancy) or encourage affordable homeownership and local control of land. The topic of this article is the latter type of land trusts, called Community Land Trusts (CLTs), that have been touted as an innovative means to provide and preserve affordable housing. Through a synthesis of the literature, this article introduces social workers to CLTs. This includes defining Community Land Trusts, reporting on their brief history in the United States, discussing their advantages and disadvantages, and examining the limited empirical evidence. This review suggests that Community Land Trusts are an arena for future social work practice and research.     

The impact of electronic land administration on urban housing development: The case study of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria

This paper evaluates the impact of electronic land administration as an e-government policy initiative in Nigeria. It analyses conceptually the differences between the expected and actual value of Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS)—an e-land administration project—on urbanisation in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria. The AGIS case study reveals that differences between the expected and actual value of strengthening the state’s financial capacity are low. The differences are medium for enhancing access to and security of credit, and improvement of land use planning and environmental management and high for the promotion of popular participation. The elicited differences are traceable to hindrances inscribed in Land Use and National Housing Acts, to inequitable access to land, inconsistent resettlement policy, poor community participation and financial misconduct. The findings suggest the need to pay attention to provisions through which e-government can support the reduction of country specific problems, improve the quality of institutions and to promote urbanisation, thereby increasing social welfare as well as participation by the people in promoting suitable and adequate shelter for all citizens.     

The Land Question: Are There Answers?1

“The land question” as posed by Henry George a century ago was answered with a call for land reform, a change in the ownership and control of land. In present-day, market-oriented America the land question is answered with widely available land information for market and policy decisions. Information generated by the Agricultural Economics and Land Ownership Survey (AELOS) of the Census of Agriculture is a footing for analyzing land ownership, land transfers, property taxes, and other issues of land policy. In this paper the issues of ownership distribution and the distributive effects of taxation are defined with AELOS data. The AELOS shows that the distribution of land ownership is concentrated and shows that large landowners pay real property tax rates at less than half the rate of small landowners. Changes in land ownership, transfer, and taxation argue for repeating the AELOS in 1998. A case is presented for replacing the Census of Agriculture with a Census of Land in 2003.     

Land use planning practice under the public land ownership policy in Tanzania

Land-use planning can be defined as a programme of state intervention in land use and environmental change to mediate conflicts of interests over how land should be used, developed, and coordinate individual activities which if left to proceed otherwise would lead to an environment for living that is characterised by negative externalities, inefficient use of land and services, inequity and unfair distribution of resources. The land-use programme is realised through a planning system, constituted by institutional arrangements, instruments and tools. Being one of the land policy tool by which the government intervenes in land-use change and development, land-use planning practice is, obviously, influenced by the content of the land policy as well as interests extant in a locality to include those of the planners and other land administrators. How does planning practice looks like under a public landownership policy? Through an empirical case of planning in practice, this paper provides an answer to this question.     

Development priority zoning (DPZ)-led scenario simulation for regional land use change: The case of Suichang County, China

China has experienced an extraordinary level of economic development since the 1990s, following excessive competition between different regions. This has resulted in many resource and environmental problems. Land resources, for example, are either abused or wasted in many regions. The strategy of development priority zoning (DPZ), proposed by the Chinese National 11th Five-Year Plan, provides an opportunity to solve these problems by coordinating regional development and protection. In line with the rational utilization of land, it is proposed that the DPZ strategy should be integrated with regional land use policy.As there has been little research to date on this issue, this paper introduces a system dynamic (SD) model for assessing land use change in China led by the DPZ strategy. Land use is characterized by the prioritisation of land development, land utilization, land harness and land protection (D-U-H-P). By using the Delphi method, a corresponding suitable prioritisation of D-U-H-P for the four types of development priority zones, including optimized development zones (ODZ), key development zones (KDZ), restricted development zones (RDZ), and forbidden development zones (FDZ) are identified. Suichang County is used as a case study in which to conduct the simulation of land use change under the RDZ strategy.The findings enable a conceptualization of DPZ-led land use change and the identification of further implications for land use planning generally. The SD model also provides a potential tool for local government to combine DPZ strategy at the national level with land use planning at the local level.     

Large urban developments as the new driver for land development in Jeddah

Land development in most Saudi cities including Jeddah is generated by formal land subdivision and informal land development usually referred to as unplanned settlements. Both types of developments contributed to urban sprawl and other urban challenges. Jeddah Municipality attempted to improve land development by encouraging large urban developments. Recently, Jeddah Municipality approved four large urban developments which appear to manifest encouraging implications for urban growth and land development that this paper aims to explore. The paper examines the policy and market contexts that govern land development in general and large urban developments in particular, in order to pave the way to uncover their implications for city growth and land development. The data gathered for this purpose is drawn from published and unpublished reports from relevant authorities. It is found that large urban developments as new mechanisms of land development appear incapable of overcoming key challenges that face city growth and existing land development.     

A Social Fields Theory of Pilgrimage: African American Christians in Israel and Palestine

What is pilgrimage and how should we understand its social significance? Traditional analyses of religiously motivated travel have focused on praxis and ritual. Contemporary analyses have further analyzed pilgrimage as a site where religion, politics, economy, and cultural production converge. This article argues that such convergence is best understood as the product of overlapping and interacting social fields and that particular pilgrimages—as sites of contestation and negotiation—take shape in the interstitial spaces between fields. Using the case of African American Christian pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine as the “Holy Land,” this article examines the relationship between overlapping fields and the negotiation of competing interests on pilgrimage. It suggests cultural framing work as a mechanism by which actors manage tensions between these fields and their interests.     

Brazil's International Development Co‐operation: Old and New Motivations

Brazil has entered the world of development assistance, but with its own twist. This article argues that Brazil is taking a cross‐government policy approach to the provision of development assistance, and which includes recruitment of business interests. There is a genuine concern with global poverty alleviation in Brazil, but this does not preclude policy‐makers from using aid and development‐related activities to advance national interests. The added quirk that sets Brazil apart from Northern counterparts is that the provision of development assistance offers significant benefits in terms of building up international bureaucratic experience inside the country and helping national firms internationalise their market activities.     

The future of Indian gaming

The legal right for Native Americans to administer gambling on their land provides them with probably the most profitable opportunity currently available to generate tribal income. The federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act which guarantees this right is frequently invoked in instances where Indian gaming is competitive with state or private commercial gambling interests. This article examines multiple aspects of the competitive conflicts which arise and provides some speculation about the future of Indian gaming.     

What Drives Progressive Policy? Institutional Politics,Political Mediation,Policy Feedbacks,and Early U.S. Old‐Age Policy

What drives progressive public policy? Because progressive policy challenges the interests of powerful people and interests that dominate policy making, it is puzzling that progressive policy ever happens. This article addresses this question by modeling and appraising institutional political, political mediation, and policy feedback theories and models of progressive policy making. Institutional political theory focuses on political institutional conditions, bureaucratic development, election results, and public opinion. Political mediation theory holds that social movements can have influence over progressive policy under favorable political conditions. Policy feedback theory holds that programs will be self‐reinforcing under certain conditions. The article goes beyond previous research by including and analyzing public opinion in institutional political and political mediation models and addressing positive policy feedbacks. We appraise five models derived from these three theories through fuzzy set qualitative comparative analyses of the generosity of early old‐age policy across U.S. states at two key moments. We find some support for each theory, and the results suggest that they are complementary. Left regimes or social movements can initiate progressive policy, which can be reinforced for the long term through positive policy feedback mechanisms. We discuss the implications for current U.S. politics and for progressive policy elsewhere.     

An ecological perspective on family policy: A conceptual and philosophical framework

This article develops a conceptual framework that places family policy within an ecological perspective. The ecological perspective is particularly useful in providing a means both to understand why diversity exists among families and to analyze how human-created rules disparately affect the environments faced by families within and across different societies. Examples are provided of how family policy is conceptualized by organizations and groups that are concerned with family issues, and these examples are critiqued from the ecological perspective. Finally, the article suggests that the values on which an ecological perspective of family policy are grounded can serve as a beginning point to develop a philosophical basis for the development of family policy. Her research interests include family policy and research at the national and international levels. She received her Ph.D. in Social Work and Economics from the University of Michigan.     

Toward a Sociology of Knowledge of Land Surveys: The Influences of Societies and States

Although land surveys can be viewed as accomplishments of strong states, this paper shows that they are successful not because of state power, but because of two social factors, lay knowledge and the alignment of social interests. Land surveyance is a strategic research site because it is technologically and labor intensive, so it is difficult to complete. The paper uses historical methodologies of comparison and narrative to show that a national land survey was never completed in the case with the strong state, England/Great Britain/the United Kingdom, while such surveys were completed in the cases with the weak states, the United States and Italy. Where the surveys were completed, there was widespread social knowledge about them and support for surveyance.     

深入推进上海工业用地二次开发对策研究

上海土地资源增量空间有限,其中用于产业结构调整、产业发展的用地更为有限。工业用地是上海发展先进制造业、现代服务业和战略新兴产业的主要载体,进行土地二次开发,盘活存量土地,是破解土地资源瓶颈、促进转型发展的必然选择。在广泛收集以往上海工业用地二次开发成效、措施与案例的基础上,梳理出三种主要实施路径：优化定位、产能提升和增资技改,从政府、企业和园区管理者三种角度对二次开发难点进行剖析。最后从加强研究、创新政策和完善机制角度提出一系列对策建议,包括编制专项规划、更新规划理念、完善收储和供应制度、健全管制制度、建立管理机构、利用经济手段促进盘活等。     

The Indian urban land ceiling act: A critique of the 1976 legislation

The Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act was enacted in India in 1976 with a view to curbing land price increases and promoting low-income housing through socialisation of urban land. This paper critically examines the stated objectives of the Act and the major achievements after its implementation, and finds that the Act has so far not lived up to its expectations. The paper begins with an introductory background for the evolution of the Act and highlights its major provisions. A careful examination of the limitations in the implementation of this Act and its major implications as per experience is then presented. The paper concludes with the necessity for a thorough reappraisal of major policy instruments, search for alternative strategies and consideration of the realities of the existing situation in the country for possible improvement.     

The rise (and fall?) of a state land bank

Land markets in most poor cities do not work very effectively and contribute to making social housing unaffordable. One once popular response was to set up a public land bank. In truth, few such banks were terribly successful and, with the onset of neo-liberalism, the approach fell out of fashion. However, one government recently established a state land bank in an attempt to slow the growth of illegal settlement and to improve housing conditions for the poor. Bogotá's efforts have had some measure of success although the agency could never achieve the ambitious goals set for it. The paper describes the different approaches of the agency over the last decade, the problems that it has faced and what it has managed to achieve. Today, the agency no longer buys land and prefers to work in association with private landowners; in effect, Bogotá no longer has a state land bank. However, what it does have is an interesting set of tools with which to confront land speculation and to discourage owners from holding on to serviced land. Whether this set of tools will be able to confront the perennial problem of providing land for affordable social housing remains to be seen. Nevertheless, Bogotá provides many lessons for governments in poorer cities about how and why they should take measures to improve the working of the land market.     

THE ECONOMICS OF TENANT RIGHTS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY IRISH AGRICULTURE

The Land Act of 1870, which introduced "tenant rights" to most of Ireland, was the prototype of the modern land reform. This paper develops an alternative to the conventional view that the Land Act was instituted to redistribute wealth. It is suggested that tenant rights became economically valuable as a result of massive emigration from Ireland in the nineteenth century. Data on land rents and landlord investment are consistent with this "efficiency" hypothesis, and tend to refute the "redistribution" hypothesis.     

Reinvigorating resilience: violence against women,land rights,and the women's peace movement in Myanmar

In Myanmar, movements for gender justice strive to foster personal and collective security, vibrant livelihoods, and political engagement during a period of rapid and uncertain transition. This article draws from the experience of the Gender Equality Network (GEN), a coalition of over 100 organisations in Myanmar. It examines three cases in which GEN sought to document existing forms of resilience and expand these mechanisms through national-level advocacy. The first describes current attempts to publicise, and eventually eliminate, violence against women (VAW). VAW is a fundamental threat to personal safety, but also to the principle of societal accountability – that is, the extent to which society upholds the interests and rights of women and girls. The second focuses on women's (lack of) access to natural resources and economic decision-making, drawing on gender-focused input into the National Land Use Policy. Finally, we examine the impacts of conflict on women's resilience, and women's increasing participation in the peace process. In all three cases, effective mobilisation and networking not only increased female political voice, but also enabled creation of a more resilient democracy by modelling effective policy, research, advocacy, and communication strategies.     

Urban growth patterns and growth management boundaries in the Central Puget Sound, Washington, 1986–2007

Many regions of the globe are experiencing rapid urban growth, the location and intensity of which can have negative effects on ecological and social systems. In some locales, planners and policy makers have used urban growth boundaries to direct the location and intensity of development; however the empirical evidence for the efficacy of such policies is mixed. Monitoring the location of urban growth is an essential first step in understanding how the system has changed over time. In addition, if regulations purporting to direct urban growth to specific locales are present, it is important to evaluate if the desired pattern (or change in pattern) has been observed. In this paper, we document land cover and change across six dates (1986, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2002, and 2007) for six counties in the Central Puget Sound, Washington State, USA. We explore patterns of change by three different spatial partitions (the region, each county, 2000 U.S. Census Tracks), and with respect to urban growth boundaries implemented in the late 1990’s as part of the state’s Growth Management Act. Urban land cover increased from 8 to 19% of the study area between 1986 and 2007, while lowland deciduous and mixed forests decreased from 21 to 13% and grass and agriculture decreased from 11 to 8%. Land in urban classes outside of the urban growth boundaries increased more rapidly (by area and percentage of new urban land cover) than land within the urban growth boundaries, suggesting that the intended effect of the Growth Management Act to direct growth to within the urban growth boundaries may not have been accomplished by 2007. Urban sprawl, as estimated by the area of land per capita, increased overall within the region, with the more rural counties within commuting distance to cities having the highest rate of increase observed. Land cover data is increasingly available and can be used to rapidly evaluate urban development patterns over large areas. Such data are important inputs for policy makers, urban planners, and modelers alike to manage and plan for future population, land use, and land cover changes.     

A Less Gendered Access to Land? The Impact of Tanzania's New Wave of Land Reform

Contemporary land reforms in sub‐Saharan Africa tend to be evaluated based on the state‐centric reforms of the past, which disadvantaged women. However, this article argues that the new‐wave of land reforms and their decentralised administration institutions and anti‐discriminatory legal frameworks may be different. Based on field research on the implementation of Tanzania's 1999 Land Acts, it identifies an institutional reconfiguration in which the formal institutions are gradually strengthened and the customary institutions slowly changed. This does not in itself pose a threat to women's access to land and some women, who are otherwise often perceived to be weak, are left better‐off. Nevertheless, access to land becomes socially more uneven.