This thesis describes the efforts of Russia's central government, local governments (zemstvos) and various social institutions to modernize peasant agriculture during the period 1906-17. The focus is on the micro-economic dynamics of the development program, on the interaction between various types of extension workers and peasant farmers. After a short discussion of Russia's economic backwardness at the beginning of the 20th century, the thesis examines the nature of rural society and the technological characteristics of peasant agriculture. The agricultural development program which evolved after 1906 is divided into three inter-related branches: land reform, social agronomy and cooperation. The land reform (consisting of resettlement, increased gentry land sales to the peasantry, privatization of peasant allotments and consolidation of strips into consolidated farmsteads) is examined in terms of quantitative results and social dynamics. We look at the strategies of the cadres pushing through the reform, the reaction of the peasantry and the effects of the reform on peasant farming. Social agronomy (mass agronomic education) was an innovative program administered jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture and the zemstvos; We examine in detail the work of local agronomists, their lifestyle and their effect on peasant society. Agricultural cooperation (agricultural societies, credit cooperatives, dairy cooperatives, etc.) experienced rapid growth during this time; we examine the role of cooperatives in providing farm credit, marketing services, farm supplies and agronomic advice to peasant farmers. Finally, the thesis describes the significant impact of the agricultural development program on agricultural technology and Russia's agricultural progress. The expansion of the farming sector in turn affected Russia's economy as a whole. In order to reinforce the hypothesis that the agricultural development program was directly responsible for a large part of Russia's agricultural expansion, we employ regression analysis on a database consisting of variables such as crop yields, land tenure, urbanization, etc. across 42 provinces of European Russia. The conclusion is that, in spite of its short life, the agricultural development program of 1906-17 succeeded in considerably improving the state of Russian agriculture.

Land available for the growth of Seoul, capital city of South Korea, has been severely limited by the designation of a Green Belt in 1972. Although the area of undeveloped land inside the Green Belt at that time seemed more than adequate, by 1985 Seoul's urban area had doubled and by the end of the 1980s the city faced a land crisis. The research for this thesis was therefore based on the hypothesis that Release of some of the Green Belt is an essential and practicable way to meet land demand for urban growth in Seoul. To examine the hypothesis, a literature review on London's, Tokyo's and Seoul's Green Belts was carried out and an empirical, map-based study was undertaken to ascertain and compare the area and pattern of post-war urban growth in these metropolitan regions. Based on this data the study then contrasted the effects on urban growth of the absolutely controlled Green Belt around Seoul and the relatively strict Belt around London with the situation around Tokyo where the proposed Green Belt policies were never implemented. The conclusions drawn from these studies of urban growth trends and Green Belt policies were that Seoul Region will need an additional urban area of around 400 km2 between 1985 and 2000 and that release of Seoul's Green Belt, even partially, to accommodate this large land demand would not be wise. The hypothesis was therefore considered to be incorrect. Instead it is suggested that large urban areas should be developed beyond the Green Belt. Modifications to Unwin's dynamic idea of unlimited development areas on the background of open space, which was embodied in the 1929 Greater London Regional Planning Report and developed in the 1939 Tokyo Green Area Plan, could provide the model and should be considered as a way forward for Seoul's growth.

This thesis examines the nature of lord-peasant relations in the final stages of Hungarian seigneurialism, dating roughly from 1700 to the emancipation of the peasantry in 1848. It investigates how the terms of the peasants’ relations with their lords, especially their obligations and the rights to the land they farmed, were established, both through written law and by customary practice. It also examines how the reforms of this period sought to redefine lord-peasant relations and rights to landed property. Under Maria Theresa land reform had been a means to protect the rural status quo and the livelihood of the peasantry: by the end of the 1840s it had become an integral part of a liberal reform movement aiming at the complete overhaul of Hungary’s ‘feudal’ social and economic system. In this period the status of the peasantry underpinned all attempts at reform. All reforms were claimed to be in the best interests of the peasantry, yet none stemmed from the peasants themselves. Conversely, the peasantry had means to voice their grievances through petitions and recourse to the courts, and took the opportunity provided by the reforms to reassert their rights and renegotiate the terms of their relations to their landlords. By examining the petitions, court cases, and negotiations between lords and peasants, the thesis examines how far peasant needs and expectations were understood by those enacting the reforms, and whether these were met by the new laws. In doing so, the thesis investigates how peasant rights to the land were established, challenged or undermined and how the peasants reacted to the changes imposed upon them as Hungarian seigneurialism was dismantled in the years before 1848.

Indigenous people have employed Western analogue techniques (maps, charts, etc) to support their land rights ever since their traditional territories came under threat. Although indigenous groups utilise such tools there is still a significant divide between the epistemological conception of these analogue techniques and the ontology of the indigenous people. This research looks at one of the latest technologies to be utilised by indigenous peoples, that of geomatics technologies. It examines their design and application using the analytical techniques of anthropology juxtaposed with the geographical methodologies. Using both the literature and three case studies drawing from fieldwork conducted in the Peruvian Amazonian I argue that although previous analogue techniques carried a certain epistemological baggage, they were effectively neutral and did not impact of the ontology of the indigenous peoples. Geomatics technologies are not neutral and carry more than just baggage, so they are not so simply appropriated. Indigenous conceptions of landscape are not compatible with the current design of geomatics technologies but indigenous federations are increasingly employing them. The indigenous federation along with non-governmental organisations adopt the geomatics technologies because of their perceived authority in land rights and their applications in land management and saving cultural heritage. The State recognises this authority because the design and output of geomatics conforms to its legal system. However, indigenous peoples have a different agenda and conception of land rights. Their agenda is based on revitalising their heritage and land rights derived through self-determination. This research reveals such issues of power, politics and authenticity behind its application and the ontological and epistemological philosophy of its design.

This thesis explores the dialectic relationship between 'power' and 'resistance' through the lens of the struggle for land and space, by the Palestinian citizens of Israel. Ever in contention, ever in conversation, dynamics of power and resistance dislodge, dislocate and displace one another, transformed through their intersections and interactions. Thus to understand Palestinian-citizen struggle is to see it in dialogue with the trajectories of the Israeli hegemonic order: in which the indigenous Palestinian is always othered, outside and absent; a threat to be removed and replaced, despite (or even because of) their inclusion in the political and spatial organisations of the state. There is no room for the indigenous Palestinian within the state's dual rationales of ethnic-nationalism and settler-colonialism. And yet, there is a never-ending encounter between the Zionist state and subaltern Palestinian-citizen, essential to the shape and journey of both. This encounter produces the particular story, the particular space, in which both are housed, the lines and boundaries of which are articulated and disrupted through unique spatial and social relations. The analysis stems from a three year exploration of three cases of community land-struggles: a popular movement for housing rights in Palestinian neighbourhoods of Jaffa-Tel Aviv; an enduring protest-movement against the Judaization project in the Galilee region; and the existential struggle for land rights of Bedouin communities in the Naqab desert. Their stories are a window into the unique reverberations of Zionist hegemony as it clashes with a real, contextualised, material history; with a Palestinian community surviving, resisting, antagonising and engaging the structures of power. Through investigating their moments of containment, contention and transgression, we unravel how resistance is entangled with the structures of power; and how the lines that determine this relationship are challenged, unveiled and disarticulated, and even transcended and transformed.

This thesis explores, both theoretically and empirically, the political economy of rent-seeking in Turkey. Previously there have been few attempts to measure the extent of rent-seeking activities in Turkey, and they have often followed a rather narrow approach to handle such a large issue and have looked at only the normative side. In this study, our purpose is to apply a more comprehensive approach by including both normative and positive elements to examine the social and economic costs of rent-seeking, its main causes and its impact especially upon economic growth. In this way our contributions are to: i) look at rent-seeking descriptively and empirically from both normative and positive sides, ii) combine a state centred public choice approach to rent-seeking with recent time series econometric techniques, iii) offer a new approach, monism, for the analysis of the state-interest group relationship, and iv) test whether rent-seeking has an effect on economic growth in the long term. The thesis is divided into three sections. Normative rent-seeking is analysed in section I, positive rent-seeking is discussed in section II and the impact of rent-seeking on economic growth is considered in section III. Each section contains a literature review and an empirical investigation. In chapter 4, following a method suggested by Katz and Rosenberg, we analyse rent-seeking waste arising from government budgetary allocations and extend their cross section study for the same 20 countries from fifteen years to twenty five years. We found that Katz and Rosenberg's distinction between developed/developing countries still exists and rent-seeking in developing countries (like Turkey) is much greater than in developed countries. Then, in chapter 6, we look at the causes of rent-seeking by building a model that includes both demand for and supply of trade legislation for the period 1960-1990 in Turkey. We found that the reason for high rent-seeking in Turkey is hidden in the lobbying activities between legislators and business groups. In that equilibrium, whilst legislators are brokers to maximise their salaries and their budget size, business groups demand legislation to maximise their profit. Finally, in chapter 8, we investigate whether rent-seeking has a negative impact on economic growth. We found that, rent-seeking activities in Turkey reduced economic growth and lower income levels between 1960 and 1990.

No description available.

Tenure is an important aspect of relations involving people and material things. Archaeologists often evoke tenure but less often subject this concept to sustained examination. In this thesis I explore the subject of tenure. The root of the word tenure is the French verb 'tem'r' (to hold). It is thus concerned with possession, and is related to the concept of property. Dictionary definitions of tenure outline three main senses in which the word tenure is used: Firstly, tenure refers to the holding or possession of something, especially of property and land Secondly, it also means the duration, term or conditions on possession, and thus encompasses a greater range of relations than can be described by 'property' Thirdly, it is also possible to speak of 'getting tenure'---by which is meant the attainment of a permanent office, linked to achieving a certain personal status within a profession. At first sight this third sense seems very different to the first two. However it points to the history of a concept that is closely bound up with personhood. For example, the word 'property' derives from the Latin 'proprius' and French 'propiete'. The words property and propriety thus overlap indicating the historical connections between property and ideas of moral personhood ('self-possession'). 'Ownership', related to the German 'eigen', also refers to identity through its historical link with 'belonging'---the word was once used to describe blood ties between kin as well as possession of objects (Verdery & Humphrey, 2004a: 5). The concept of tenure is more complicated than it may at first appear, referring to many different sense and forms of possession simultaneously.

This thesis investigates the relationship between land administration and economic development. More specifically, it assesses the role of land tenure security in productivity and that of land administration services in revenue generation. The empirical part of the study was undertaken in Nepal, Bangladesh and Thailand. A mixed method approach was employed for data collection, analysis and interpretation. The information was gathered using questionnaires, interviews, observations, informal discussions and documentation analysis. This study demonstrates that land administration plays a crucial role in providing security of land tenure. It also evidences that the use value, collateral value and exchange value of land is increased after registration which has benefitted the occupation, investment and finance sectors of the case study economies. Specifically, it was found that land use activity became more productive. With regard to financial services, banks more readily accepted land as loan security for debt finance and did so at an interest rate that was lower than that offered by private lenders. Land-related investment and income also increased and these effects are found to be positively correlated with tenure security. However, access to credit is not enough to increase investment unless it is communicated properly. This study demonstrates that quality of land administration services affects on tenure security and revenue generation. Poor land administration, improper land valuation and inefficient and unscrupulous employees threaten tenure security and reduce the amount of revenue that can be generated from land. The establishment of land administration systems and security of land tenure is beneficial for the government as it supports economic development by increasing production and generating revenue to some extent. It may also enhance efficient use of scarce resources, increase household income and play an important role in maintaining distributive justice and reducing poverty. The findings of this study indicate a need for further research on the contribution of land administration in the real estate sector as well as changes to the livelihoods of civilians.

No description available.