Land

Basic textbook of sorts, laying foundations of land as property and territory in the era of modern nations states and capitalism, being most interesting in its case studies, but overall almost so shallow as to fail being a springboard into much deeper issues of power, finance, and sovereignty.Land is a rock upon which ideas and forces, via the modes (as grouped by Derek Hall) of territory, property, and regulation, act to substantiate the fictions of domain. Territory is the imaginary of monarch’s, nations, citizens, peasants, and indigenous peoples; it comprises the most primordial sense of land, both historically and ancestrally, as a place to live or benefit from. Thus, right to territory is fuzzy and overlapping, often requires physical defense or active legitimating use, and demands some register of authority, both as an appeal to history and as an orientation of warrant. Property as a strict understanding of ownership to land is a newer concept, one that has grown not only from prior conceptions of ownership (i.e., from goods or domiciles), but primarily from the encouragement of the geographic technics of land surveying and mapping, as Hall explains in chapter two. It is the conditioning of land as circumscribed property that opens doors not only to the free market transfer of land via sales (as opposed to gift or lease under eminent domain of the king, and to which a petition for typical modern land uses would appear anachronistic), but also interacts with regulation. By ensuring that a land is titled, for instance, state taxation becomes feasible, law within buildings or fenced areas becomes officially established, and nothing remains of an agrarian, shared notion of land and its territoriality.Land may be the least illiberally marketed in the international economy, being that it is so constrained to place in regards to sentiment, security, and resource, but its limits of commodification are circumvented in many ways. A common corporate approach of leasing land and finagling regulation is often preferred for reasons of limited liability and limited commitment to the region. While the colonial days of seizing land are officially over, and nations are relatively settled in the global political map, what is occurring looks familiarly colonialist, familiarly imperialist. Not only are vestigial colonial models for land regulation in use throughout post-colonial nations, but as James Ferguson puts it his article "Seeing Like An Oil Company," extracted wealth “does not ‘flow’,” but rather “hops," in the traditional imperialist model of loot and pillage. And where corporations were once custodians of the public, as laid out in Joshua Barkan’s 'Corporate Sovereignty,' today these have morphed into mere infrastructure barons under the tools of IFIs, where economic restructuring is not inclusive, but looks more like dropping your empire smack dab in another country. Furthermore, much land development, whether as grabs or investments, hinge on speculation, both of the resources to be found and change in future resource demands. This paints the current economic system as the new frontier, where money is sought in bricolage approach, at speeds of ignorance and paranoia, echoing Ferguson’s claim that we are indeed no longer in the schema of “seeing like a state.” Though these modes of capital are not the case everywhere, there is still a sense that the planet, once wholly god’s land, is in a restructuring by way of sutured economic territories that resemble one stronghold and one exterior wasteland.

Required course textbook. It was poorly written and convoluted. Did not provide enough background or explanations of terms and concepts.

As an undergraduate science major at Berkeley a decade ago, I fulfilled a breadth requirement by taking a class called "International Rural Development Policy". I had heard it was good class (mostly due to the professor, Claudia Carr), but it wasn't a subject I was familiar with. It was eye-opening, and one of the best classes I've ever taken. It was *important*, and I learned a lot. The course expanded my mind.This book is the same, and for largely the same reasons. It deals with a subject that is extremely important, to millions of people all over the world. And most of us here in first-world countries like the United States don't think about these issues nearly as often as we should. The ways people and institutions deal with land affects everyone, everywhere, and this book does a good job introducing the otherwise overwhelming and complicated subject to the reader.While the book isn't long, it's not a quick or easy read: the tone is academic, and I found myself having to re-read sections where I wasn't paying enough attention. The author uses primarily case studies taken from all over the world to illustrate the variety of concerns individuals, communities, states (nations), and transnational entities have when dealing with the subject of land, whether as territory, property, or the ways in which it is regulated.I suppose the book was somewhat limited by its scope and length. It was a high-level, impartial survey of land issues. It won't teach you how to get involved, or why the World Bank is the enemy of us all. Like most real-world issues, it's often hard to tell the good guys from the bad, and not everything is black and white. One of the reasons I appreciate books like this, and courses like the one I took at Berkeley is specifically because they broaden my perspective by introducing me to subjects and viewpoints I wasn't aware of before. So yes, this book will make you smarter.I was impressed with this book, and already have plans to read several of the other books in this just-released series by Polity. I imagine the books  Water , Oil , Food , Fish , and  Timber  will come first, as they're all topics I'm interested in as an environmental scientist. I feel a little stupid that I don't know what  Coltan  is, because it's probably just as important. Okay, I have to go look that up now.Anyway, get this book. Or read a library copy. Like so many worthwhile endeavors, it might not be the easiest or most fun thing you'll ever do, but it'll be worth it.

It is true that this almost two hundred page passage does lead from a big contemporary question on land to an opinion, of sorts, but when the the cover boasts that this is a 'richly detailed and authoritative guide' with a blanket title such as 'Land' then it is disappointing to wait until, four-fifths of the way through, page 141 to discover that the author is about to 'close a book on the transnational element in land relations'. Actually this is a book on human relations, there is precious little on animal or weather relations from land to land. When conservation is considered is not without a side swipe at 'paper parks' but, having recently returned from South Africa, I have to say I have found trumped up conservation very much in a minority both there (South Africa is surely in world leader in mammal conservation) and at home (volunteer work in woodland management lifted the lid off how hard many local and academic people work for little or no reward other than an unbeatable sense of satisfaction in a job well done).Furthermore, do not expect to hear anything about Michael Davitt and the Irish Land League, the Highland Clearances or the Enclosures Act (which gave rise to the term 'tragedy of the commons'), about the vagaries of French inheritance and the legal division of land into difficult to use patches, about traveling people and the challenges faced by Sami, Bedouin, Roma and Toureg because the ambit of this book is limited to other areas. The most blatant omission is the impact that mechanisation has had on rural life in both the 'developed' and the 'developing' world, which has been instrumental in the increase in city dwelling but also in the improvement of quality of life and lifespans.The use of the term 'the South' is a curiosity. It is as if 'third world' was originally used and then replaced by 'South' so that parts of India and China appear in the text as South when they are geographically north of some centres of transnational corporations. I know what the author means but the use of language still jars.Nevertheless this book is an illuminating view of transnational activity at the moment in Latin America (without specific examples), Indonesia, China, Inuit territory and Iceland despite not engaging well with historical, geographical and legal canons. It does at least allude to what is missing but it just not 'what it says on the tin'.

This is the third book I have read in the PRS - Polity Resources Series after Fish and Food and I have to say again I am impressed with the amount of information that is given in a relatively small book.There are seven chapters including introduction and conclusion:1) Introduction : An introduction to the concept of "land" and the political issues that are involved.2) Interstate struggles : This chapter looks at the external geopolitical relationship between states on the map and how territory and boundaries have been defined. How ownership has changed over the years not just who owns what but why and how.3) Frontiers : Another chapter focussing on geopolitics however this time it looks at the internal conflicts and management of land within states. Highlighting the examples of Pakistan and the Canadian Arctic as two very different areas with complex land issues.4) Land booms : This chapter examines land acquisition : how and why it occurs and problems associated with it. This is a complex issue involving a range of domestic and international factors which are involved in the whole process.5) Tilting and conservation : This chapter looks at tilting which is a type of state recognition of property rights and conservation which is protecting land from human activity. Although these issues seem completely different they are both focussing on ownership and use of the land.6) Social movements : This chapter looks at the social movement activism of small-scale farmers and indigenous people. One of the issues discussed within this chapter has been a popular topic in the news recently and it is the activism of people within China's rural-urban fringe communities and the conflicts with increasing urbanization.7) Conclusion : A conclusion summarising all of the main points of the book.I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading more from the PRS series. They are small books (this one is 204 including the index etc) but they contain a lot of interesting information and are an excellent introduction to complex issues such as land. The book cannot cover every aspect of land and the author admits that himself but what he aims to do is provide an overview of the political issues involved with land and I think he achieves that.

There is so much going on around the world concerning land:you read about Chinese or Saudi Arabians buying land in Sudan for farming, prices for agricultural land in Europe rising, established farm land in many places deteriorating, trouble over water rights and so on. It looks like the powers manoeuvring to get into place for when it gets serious. For food production, influence, power, access to raw materials, the world is changing with frightening speed.It is good to get some authoritative information on what's going on. I've got all the polity books on resources so far for that reason. I like them all, because they deliver the facts, and this book is no exception. Reading it you get an awareness of things we take for granted, the concepts of territory and borders, land rights and the nature of treaties. What is authority over territories based on? Considerations of economic costs and political risks, how clashes lead to insurgency and war.The book includes an in depth analysis of the transnational issues of land acquisition in the south. Questions of property (titles) and conservation are considered, and last, but not least, social issues.(although you could say the whole thing is about social issues)An excellent book that helps me understand a complex issue.

The Polity Resources Series is a really impressive collection of books, and Land fits well amongst them. Too often progressive approaches to global issues are hampered by a poor approach to research and evidence - its too easy to pick holes in the author's arguments or evidence. The strength of this series is that, whilst it clearly has a progressive stance, this stance is impeccably backed up by research, and alternative viewpoints are also considered with due respect.Land is no exception to this approach. The author has written a fascinating overview of the main issues facing land as a resource. The book is consciously limited to transnational aspects of land, which only tells half of the story, but that half is excellently told. It's a very timely, and time-bound, book - it specifically analyses the 'global land grab' that has occurred since about 2008.I can imagine the book will date quickly, but for the moment at least it is a fascinating and valuable read. Recommended!

DH is Associate Prof at Wilfrid Laurier University. The book is one of a series devoted to 'Resources' published by the excellent polity press with titles like Food ,Water etc but is rather different in kind because of its wide ranging title. Land is what you stand on,unless covered with water. It is fundamental to all human activity and provides a framework for understanding the geopolitics of land, including financial,emotional,political and conceptual. Hall draws on a wide range of examples including Afganistan/Pakistan, Canadian Arctic, China's urban fringe etc. and dicusses them under the headings of territory claims, regulations governing ownership, acquisition and use and property: who is able to access it, decide how it is used and sell or lease it, but concentrates primarily on rural land. Although DH is a political scientist he is also an anthropologist, historian, and economist and has written an absorbing and accessable book on all aspects of land. Recommended.Rating 5 out of 5.