Plantation rubber,land grabbing and social-property transformation in southern Laos

This paper critically examines theories of accumulation, dispossession and exclusion for analyzing the agrarian transformations that result from contemporary large-scale land acquisitions across the Global South. Building upon Marx's primitive accumulation, Harvey's accumulation by dispossession and Hall et al.'s Powers of Exclusion, conceptual lenses are developed through which to examine how land grabs transform property and social relationships of resource-based production. I examine the concession of 10,000 hectares by the central government of Laos to a Vietnamese corporation for extracting timber and planting rubber in the southern province of Attapeu. This acquisition has excluded farmers from land and resources that constituted their primary sources of (re)production, reconfigured rural property relations, altered the peasant relationship to land and produced new exploitative forms of wage labor.     

香港土地审裁处司法活动综述及启示

拆迁问题归根结底是利益问题,政府、开发商、被拆迁者三方进行着激烈的利益博弈。有利益就有纠纷,恶性、惨痛的拆迁纠纷时见报道,且愈演愈烈。拆迁该如何实现和谐？拆迁难题的解决可能需要系统性的改革,而土地纠纷的解决却有一个最基本的理念,即需要中立、独立、没有偏私的机构和人员以公平、公正、专业和高透明度的方式来解决纠纷,让利益的博弈回归到法律框架之下。香港土地审裁处解决土地纠纷的成功经验值得借鉴。     

资源型城镇产业接续机制与实证

该文提出“在资源鼎盛期率先打造产业接替的基础条件、规避资源枯竭后再进行转型的世界性难题”的观点,指出矿区工业-生态产业链的结构设计是解决矿区传统经济发展方式与生态环境之间尖锐矛盾的有效途径.以平朔矿区为例,从循环经济角度,分析了矿区工业-生态产业链结构设计的必要性和可行性,探讨了矿区工业-生态产业链结构设计的目标、原则和依据.在矿区现有资源和条件基础上,构建了两条相互依存的产业链:一是以煤为主,电、化、硅铝、建材并举的黑色工业产业链；二是以土地复垦与复垦土地利用为主,种、养、加一体化的绿色生态产业链；对其产业链的结构、功能和效益进行了分析,提出了在矿区工业-生态产业链实施过程中应注意的关键问题.     

瞿秋白土地革命理论及实践

瞿秋白是中共早期重要领导人。在中国革命被迫转入农村的环境下,他的土地革命理论和实践值得关注。瞿秋白关注土地革命的中心问题,阐述了土地革命的核心要素,制定了土地纲领和文献,推动土地革命向广度和深度发展。梳理瞿秋白的土地革命理论及实践对当前的理论创新和实践指向具有一定的启迪意义。     

论我国土地制度改革的实验主义进路———以 1978 ~2013 年土地立法为样本的分析

实验主义立法进路的出现,是政治经济体制巨变所催生的产物.30多年的土地制度改革则是该立法进路的一个缩影,而暂行法、试点立法则是它的具体表现形式.在实验性立法的保障下,土地制度不仅平稳、顺利地过渡到市场经济体制,而且还形成了全新的土地法律体系.虽然在当下的土地制度改革中,实验主义立法进路的负面效应已经呈现出来,但制度风险小、操作成本低的优点仍使得它具有广阔的生存空间.因此,面对新一轮的土地制度改革,实验性立法必须在立法的规范性上作出适度调整,以保障土地制度改革的顺利进行.     

Financialization,distance and global food politics

This paper provides a new perspective on the political implications of intensified financialization in the global food system. There has been a growing recognition of the role of finance in the global food system, in particular the way in which financial markets have become a mode of accumulation for large transnational agribusiness players within the current food regime. This paper highlights a further political implication of agrifood system financialization, namely how it fosters ‘distancing’ in the food system and how that distance shapes the broader context of global food politics. Specifically, the paper advances two interrelated arguments. First, a new kind of distancing has emerged within the global food system as a result of financialization that has (a) increased the number of the number and type of actors involved in global agrifood commodity chains and (b) abstracted food from its physical form into highly complex agricultural commodity derivatives. Second, this distancing has obscured the links between financial actors and food system outcomes in ways that make the political context for opposition to financialization especially challenging.     

Shifting rights,property and authority in the forest frontier: ‘stakes’ for local land users and citizens

Customary land and forests are more embedded in the global economy than ever. With globally significant supplies of land and raw materials and favorable terms for foreign investors, developing countries – particularly in Africa – have become increasingly attractive trade partners and destinations for investors. Increasing competition over land is placing new pressures on vast tracts of forest and woodland, areas often considered ‘under-utilized’ by national governments despite their critical role in supporting local livelihoods. While increased demand for primary agricultural, forest and mining commodities in the context of forest tenure reforms and decentralized decision-making could create unprecedented economic opportunities for forest-dependent communities, increased ‘stakes’ over forest resources and land will undoubtedly heighten governance challenges. This is in no small part due to the political dynamics of property, and to the role of the ‘recursive constitution of property rights and authority’ in the evolution of the modern nation-state. By identifying the social ‘stakes’ associated with different pathways through which sectoral and extra-sectoral commodities shape forests, this paper provides a conceptual framework for analyzing how shifting contours of rights, property and authority in the context of forest-related trade and investment shape human well-being for affected communities and the wider citizenry of host countries. It then illustrates the use of the framework through its application to two brief case studies from southern Africa: tobacco production in Malawi and copper mining in Zambia. It is hoped that this framework will provide a meaningful contribution to growing scholarship on the political dynamics of property, and implications for rights-based approaches to agricultural investment and large-scale land acquisitions.     

论我国“小产权房”合法化的实现与障碍

“小产权房”是否合法化的问题已成为“小产权房”问题争论的焦点内容.纵观中国现行法律,不难发现关于“小产权房”“违法”的相关立法之间存在着逻辑上和法律上的种种矛盾与冲突.通过对“小产权房”的立法以及相关法律规章的梳理和分析发现,在我国“小产权房”应当实现合法化.“小产权房”应当拥有明确的法律定位,并应通过立法及相关配套政策的实施促进我国“小产权房”合法化的步伐.     

Land reforms and voluntary resettlement: household participation and attrition rates in Malawi

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the factors influencing household participation in and withdrawal from a World Bank-funded voluntary resettlement scheme moving 15,000 low-income farming households within and across rural districts in Malawi. Using a survey of 203 beneficiary households, focus groups and in-depth interviews, we identify a lack of access to land and conflict over land in the area of origin as salient participation factors in resettlement, while withdrawal factors include lower access to infrastructure and poor soil quality in resettlement areas. We also highlight limited prior awareness of actual conditions in resettlement areas, low and biased participation in the decision to move, a greater desire for formal land titles due to loss of customary entitlement as a result of resettlement, and widespread ambiguity and confusion over titles for resettled plots. In this context, we point to a pattern of ‘negative resettlement’, in which households remain resettled despite major grievances, for lack of an alternative option, contrasting with ‘positive resettlement’, where households remain by choice. We suggest that intra-district resettlement is more likely to be successful than inter-district resettlement when there is a risk of informed consent deficiency. These findings point to the relative failures of this particular resettlement scheme, and suggest possible improvements for land redistribution schemes from agro-industrial projects to poor households.