Seeing like the state? Customary land pressures and fracturing tenure systems in rural Zambia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11463252 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Simon Manda (0000-0001-6064-114X, Mulungushi University), Lizzy Banda (Mulungushi University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 132 |
| Pages | 106833 |
| Publication date | 2023-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Land Use Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0264-8377 • E-ISSN: 1873-5754 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106833 |
| OpenAlex | W4385392083 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 38 |
This paper explores mechanisms that render different state actors capable of exerting customary land pressures, land grabbing or facilitating conditions for doing so. Specifically, the paper examines provisions state actors rely upon in the acquisition of rural customary land and implications. Using the test case of a rural district of Mafinga in eastern Zambia, we collect qualitative data from policy analysis, multi-level semi-structured interviews, and group discussions with local actors. Results show that land conversion has been heightened by creation of new districts across the country, which has advanced an urgent need to open up rural lands. Whereas chiefs have been co-opted into councils as agents of development, winners are not always local. Land acquisition processes reveal state actors are active ‘land grabbers,’ all calculating, and all-seeing in acquiring and converting customary land to statutory land, drawing on multi-dimensional and multi-level elements to exert pressure on customary land spheres. Several policy and legal tools, formal and informal processes enable and are increasing relied upon by state actors to grab land – processes framed as development. Ultimately, this effectively shifts risks and burdens of neoliberal framings of development to rural customary spheres. Overall, this paper sets us to think about state’s power, influence and authority in driving land conversions and in fracturing tenure systems, which raise the need to strengthen informal capacities at local level
Agriculture · Business · Civil engineering · Customary land · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental planning · Geography · Land grabbing · Land law · Land management · Land tenure · Land use · Political science · Power (physics · State (computer science · Statutory law · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Engineering · Land Rights and Reforms · Law
Qualitative evaluation and research methods
Handbook of Interview Research
Decolonising knowledge co-production
Customary Land Certification, Governance and Natural Resource Use in Zambia
Formalising Land Tenure in Rural Africa
Structural transformation or elite land capture? The growth of “emergent” farmers in Zambia
Contemporary Processes of Large-Scale Land Acquisition in Sub-Saharan Africa
Pro-poor land administration
Global land grab
The ‘new’ African customary land tenure. Characteristic, features and policy implications of a new paradigm
Compulsory land acquisition in Ghana—policy and praxis
Land grabbing in the Brazilian Amazon
Pro-poor land administration
Large-scale agricultural investments under poor land governance in Zambia
Renegotiating customary tenure reform – Land governance reform and tenure security in Uganda
Land rights and land grabbing in Oromia, Ethiopia
The Changing Institutional and Legislative Planning Framework of Zambia and Zimbabwe
Key challenges to advancing land tenure security through land governance in Malawi
Land grabbing within a protected area
Host country governance and the African land rush
Basics of Qualitative Research
State-Led Land Reform and Local Institutional Change
Large-scale land acquisitions and institutions
Indirect Dispossession
The Political Construction of Wasteland
Three Approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis
Governing Global Land Deals
State Involvement, Land Grabbing and Counter-Insurgency in Colombia
Competition over Authority and Access
Access and Property
Silent privatisation of customary land in Zambia
Towards a better understanding of global land grabbing
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |