Conflicts of customary land tenure in rural Africa: is large-scale land acquisition a driver of ‘institutional innovation’?

This study combines legal and anthropological approaches to investigate how the establishment of a large-scale biofuel agro-industry is reinterpreting and potentially transforming customary institutional arrangements in rural Sierra Leone. The contractual relationships established between land acquirers and local authorities can be seen as an ‘institutional innovation’ that aims at interpreting and overcoming the limits of the national land regime. However, by formalizing customary land tenure structures through land registration, such innovations are exacerbating pre-existing social inequalities. We identified four categories of resulting conflicts: interlineage, intervillage, interfamily and intergenerational conflicts. Taken together, these conflicts question the current land-based sociopolitical structures of rural Sierra Leone and could be drivers of societal change.     

Controlling land they call their own: access and women's empowerment in Northern Tanzania

Formal rights to land are often promoted as an essential part of empowering women, particularly in the Global South. We look at two grassroots non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on land rights and empowerment with Maasai communities in Northern Tanzania. Women involved with both NGOS attest to the power of land ownership for personal empowerment and transformations in gender relations. Yet very few have obtained land ownership titles. Drawing from Ribot and Peluso's theory of access, we argue that more than ownership rights to land, access – to land, knowledge, social relations and political processes – is leading to empowerment for these women, as well as helping to keep land within communities. We illustrate how the following are key to both empowerment processes and protecting community and women's land: (1) access to knowledge about legal rights, such as the right to own land; (2) access to customary forms of authority; and (3) access to a joint social identity – as women, as ‘indigenous people’ and as ‘Maasai'. Through this shared identity and access to knowledge and authority, women are strengthening their access to social relations (amongst themselves, with powerful political players and NGOs), and gaining strength through collective action to protect land rights.     

Exploring Millennial Generation in Task Values and Sector Choice: A Case of Employment in Planning

This study investigates task values and motivations of “millennial” generation of planners and identifies important factors affecting their public sector choices. Multinomial logistic regression comparing the task values and specializations in private and nonprofit sectors with public sector was performed. Millennial generations in public sector value communication and implementation tasks where at young workers in private and nonprofit sector place importance on tasks related to administration and plan and policy development. The finding indicates private companies give favorable opportunities to the young workers to take leadership role in projects and appreciate their management skills to operate the programs and plans.     

The role of global cities in land grabs

Key trends link a globally connected urban archipelago and its hinterlands, warranting new studies of power in its most contemporary forms. This article locates land power and where that power is exercised – looking at the burgeoning global land rush from the perspective of cities. Urbanisation continues to drive vast political transitions, uprooting longstanding agrarian modes of living while creating myriad inequalities within cities. Are the world’s most powerful agglomerations active agents in this transformation? Answering affirmatively, the article reframes urbanisation as a vast, global geopolitical transfer of power from rural to urban. Leading global cities like New York, London, Hong Kong, Chicago and Singapore are not merely impressive collections of factor endowments. They are also sites of concentrated power with coercive influences beyond municipal boundaries. The article asks how cities project power in the contemporary global system. Juxtaposing data on global connectivity with the location strategies of private firms, we learn that the world’s most successful global cities are also sources of exploitative accumulations of land.     

Rural unions and the struggle for land in Brazil

Studies of Brazil's agricultural labor movement have generally neglected its relationship to the struggle for land, but this is neither fair nor accurate. Analyzing the rural labor movement's historical contributions to the land struggle in Brazil, this contribution has been organized into three main periods, emphasizing social relations, institutional activism and policy changes. It argues that despite the peculiarities of different historical contexts, rural labor consistently provoked protest against policies that privileged large landholders, whose concentration of power over land and labor resources continually worsened Brazil's ranking as one of the most unequal of nations. For more than half a century, the most constant opponent of this situation among the peasantry has been the National Confederation of Workers in Agriculture (CONTAG), a corporatist organization of rural labor unions founded in 1963.     

对土地私有化之批判——兼论农村土地的社会保障功能

土地是我国农民赖以生存的物质基础,但工业化、城市化进程的加快和土地市场的国家垄断,必然蚕食大批的土地,使广大农民的生存与发展受到严重威胁,而农民的生存与发展关系到国家长治久安.如何解决土地锐减和农民生存的矛盾,如何发挥农村土地的社会保障功能,已成为迫在眉睫的严峻问题.有人提出了土地私有化的观点.认为坚持土地承包责任制,坚持最严格的土地管理制度,在此基础上实现土地流转的法律创新,是唯一符合现实需要的理性选择.     

小农经济的特质及我国农地关系法制化的基本方向

在我国农地制度的变迁中,中国共产党始终把农地关系法制化放在调整社会经济关系、促进中国社会进步的重要地位.我国现行农地集体所有,家庭经营的农地制度仍具备小农经济的特质.通观世界,小农经济在欧美较早得到改造,在西方社会改造小农经济的现代化过程中,法制化成为农地制度变迁的最直接最明显的推动力量.我国农地法制化的基本方向是落实科学发展观,进一步完善现行农地法规;保障农地资源与农民的安全,明确界定农地的权利主体.     

论国有土地使用权的性质

以出让方式取得的国有土地使用权制度是我国重要的土地使用制度,国有土地使用权也是物权法要规定的重要内容之一.正确地认识并确定国有土地使用权的性质是必要的,应该充分地认识到:在我国现行的土地制度中,以出让方式获得的国有土地使用权是惟一可自由交易的土地使用权,在我国土地公有制的条件下, 一般公民与法人享有的是近似于所有权的土地使用权,在民法上土地使用权起着所有权的功能,土地使用权才是我国不动产的"自物权",土地使用权是不动产市场的基础.     

证券跨境交易的监管模式研究

经济全球化是当今世界经济活动的主旋律。作为经济全球化重要组成部分的证券市场也日益国际化。证券市场的国际化一方面为全球资本实现了跨国境的自由融通,促进了世界经济的发展,另一方面又为证券跨国从事各种不法行为提供了广阔的便利空间。针对证券跨境交易的不法行为,现行有效的监管模式应该是:在强化单边法律监管的同时,积极参与国际监管的协调。     

后疫情时代共享用工的可持续发展及法律规制

共享用工是疫情冲击下企业的跨界自救之举,但因我国人力资源供求的不平衡、企业用工成本的增加、劳动人口数量减少及劳动态度转变、共享用工第三方平台的崛起等原因,其在后疫情时代依然存在常态化的可持续发展空间。共享用工实现了输出方企业劳动力闲置与输入方企业用工荒的对接,提高了人力资源配置的灵活性及使用效率,但也存在着界定及表现形式不确定、法律关系模糊化的问题,同时劳动者、劳动力输出方、输入方甚至第三方亦面临潜在法律风险。因此,要促进共享用工的规范化发展,必须从政策和法律层面双管齐下,完善其制度建设,并建立包括监管部门、行业协会、共享用工平台在内的一体化规制体系。