The Global Land Grab Beyond the Hype

by Kaag, Mayke; Zoomers, Annelies

• ISBN13: 9781780328942
• ISBN10: 178032894X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-03-06
• Publisher: ZED BOOKS

Summary

The last two years have seen a huge amount of academic, policy-making and media interest in the increasingly contentious issue of 'land grabbing' - the large-scale acquisition of land in the global South. It is a phenomenon against which locals seem defenseless, and one about which multilateral organizations such as the World Bank as well as civil-society organizations and action NGOs have become increasingly vocal.

This in-depth and empirically diverse volume - taking in case studies from across Africa, Asia and Latin America - takes a step back from the hype to explore a number of key question: Does the 'Global Land Grab' actually exist? If so, what is new about it? And what, beyond the immediately visible dynamics and practices, are the real problems?
A comprehensive and much-needed intervention on one of the most hotly contested but little-understood issues facing Global South countries today.

Author Biography

Mayke Kaag is a Social Anthropologist and a Senior Researcher at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands. She did a PhD on land use and social dynamics in Senegal (2001). Her current research mainly focuses on African transnational relations, including land issues, transnational Islamic charities, and engagements with the diaspora.
 
Annelies Zoomers is a Human Geographer and Professor of International Development Studies (IDS) at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and chair of the IS-academy on land governance (www.landgovernance.org). After finishing her PhD in 1988, she worked for the Netherlands Economic Institute (Rotterdam) and the Royal Tropical Institute (Amsterdam). Between 1995 and 2007, she was Associate Professor at the Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation (Amsterdam), and was Professor of International Migration at the Radboud University (Nijmegen) between 2005 and 2009. She has published extensively about sustainable livelihoods, land policies and the impact of privatization, tourism and international migration.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Global Land Grab Hype - and Why It Is Important to Move Beyond; Mayke Kaag and Annelies Zoomers
PART I: AFRICA
1. Modernising the Periphery: Citizenship and Ethiopia's New Agricultural Investment Policies; George Schoneveld and Maru Shete
2. Large Scale Land Acquisitions in Tanzania: A Critical Analysis of Practices and Dynamics; Jumanne Abdallah, Linda Engström, Kjell Havnevik and Lennart Salomonsson
3. Kenya and the 'Global Land Grab: a View from Below; Jacqueline M. Klopp and Odenda Lumumba
PART II: LATIN-AMERICA
4. The Rapid Expansion of Genetically Modified Soy Production into the Chaco Region of Argentina; Lucia Goldfarb and Annelies Zoomers
5. Transnational Land Investment in Costa Rica: Tracing Residential Tourism and its Implications for Development; Femke van Noorloos
6. Water Grabbing in the Andean Region: Illustrative Cases from Peru and Ecuador; Rutgerd Boelens, Antonio Gaybor and Jan Hendriks
PART III: ASIA
7. Land Governance and Oil Palm Development: Examples from Riau Province, Indonesia; Ari Susanti and Suseno Budidarsono
8. Vietnam in the Debate on Land Grabbing: Conversion of Agricultural Land for Urban Expansion and Hydropower Development; Ty Pham huu, Nguyen Quang Phuc and Guus van Westen
9. 'Land Grabbing' in Cambodia: Land Rights in a Post-conflict Setting; Michelle McLinden Nuijen, Men Prachvuthy and Guus van Westen
10. Beyond the Gulf State Investment Hype: the Case of Indonesia and the Philippines; Gerben Nooteboom and Laurens Bakker
11. Tracing the Dragon's Footsteps: A Deconstruction of the Discourse on China's Foreign Land Investments; Peter Hoand Irna Hofman
Conclusion: Beyond the Global Land Grab Hype - Ways Forward in Research and Action; Annelies Zoomers and Mayke Kaag