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The implementation of Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Program (FTLRP) in 2000 generated polarised debates across academia and in the media. Some commentators dismissed the FTLRP as a politically motivated ‘land grab’, which ruined a vibrant agrarian structure and contributed to food shortages. Landless peasants, who were the major beneficiaries of the land reform, were dismissed as inefficient and lacking the skills to work the land productively. However, empirical data gathered across Zimbabwe indicate that the outcomes of Zimbabwe’s FTLRP are diverse and require a nuanced analysis. This thesis explores the outcomes of land reform in terms of its impact on the livelihoods of peasant households who were resettled under the FTLRP. The thesis utilises empirical data to argue that, despite its shortcomings, the FTLRP has allowed peasant households to access land and other natural resources which were previously enclosed under a dualistic land tenure structure which had persisted after Zimbabwe’s independence from colonial rule in 1980. Data gathered in Mhondoro Ngezi District indicate that in the aftermath of land reform, resettled farmers now have access to better quality land and opportunities for employment at mines and through gold panning which have generally enhanced livelihoods. The thesis also argues that the benefits of land reform are broad and go beyond the utility of land as a means of production. Fast track land reform allowed people to recover ancestral lands lost during colonial era forced removals; it also allowed people to be reunited with ancestral graves and other symbols of spiritual significance. Overall, this has helped to address the diverse aspects of land which had remained largely unresolved due to the failure of Zimbabwe’s market driven land reforms of the early 1980s. The thesis is based on a case study of 185 households who were allocated land under the A1 Scheme (villagised model) in the Mhondoro Ngezi District in Mashonaland West Province of Zimbabwe.

The study analyses, in unprecedented detail, land settlement schemes in the Outer Hebrides, Skye and Raasay between the two world wars. Land settlement is a world-wide phenomenon, which in the context of this research involves the examination of the creation of new crofts and the enlargement of existing ones from the breaking up of farms and estates. Crofting is a system of landholding unique to large parts of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides, Skye and Raasay comprised the heartland of land settlement activity during the inter-war period and represent the area in the Highlands and Islands most heavily influenced by the process – but have attracted relatively little detailed research attention on the topic to date. The years from 1919 to 1939 saw land settlement activity at its peak and the greatest number of new smallholdings created and existing ones enlarged. The research breaks new ground by being the first to focus on the important planning and implementation phases of land settlement schemes. This increases our knowledge of how land settlement legislation and policies were translated into action on the ground. In so doing the study highlights the main issues and challenges that arose at both stages of the process and key influences that shaped them. It demonstrates how the various facets and consequences of land settlement varied within and between islands. A number of research questions are addressed, including what influence land settlement activity had on settlement patterns and what issues did it raise in relation to crofting communities, landowners and government officials. It illustrates, for the first time, the importance of infrastructure provision (especially township roads) for the wellbeing and long term sustainability of the new crofting communities created by land settlement schemes. The highly detailed examination of the evidence from the Hebridean schemes, using a wide variety of documentary and other published sources, throws new light on the positive contribution of land settlement to the general condition and standard of living of the islands during the inter-war period.

Privately-owned estates dominate Scotland's uplands, and their owners' decisions greatly influence rural communities. While the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 has altered power relations in rural areas, its impact on landowner-community dynamics has received little attention. Discourse on the contemporary ‘estate community' and factors determining its ‘sustainability' has also been minimal. The research reported here, involving in-depth case studies on six, upland, private estates, aims to address these knowledge gaps and contribute to Scottish policy on sustainable land use and community development. Scoping interviews with a group of expert commentators informed the design of a national survey of private landowners, and this, in turn, facilitated case study selection. The research questions were explored through a triangulated method of household questionnaires, interviews with key actors (in the local community and in estate management), and participant observation. This grounded, ethnographic approach generated an in-depth understanding of the threats and opportunities facing rural communities and private landowners in upland Scotland, in addition to the key factors required to promote their sustainability, and the constraints to achieving this goal. The results showed (i) that many key factors and constraints are shared by the estate and the community; (ii) that their sustainability is interlinked; and therefore (iii) that estate-community interaction and positive engagement is crucial. Evaluation of estate-community interaction and engagement processes reveals opportunities and challenges for effective approaches. Evaluation of the prospects for landowner/estate-community partnership working illustrates the opportunities for mutual benefits, and the need for greater community empowerment to ensure partnership success. These findings are reinforced from a Habermasian perspective. Private landowners are recommended to adopt three key roles - as contributor, enabler and partner - in order to contribute positively to estate community sustainability, and, in turn, to private estate sustainability and public legitimacy. The research informs a concluding set of best practice recommendations.

La crise généralisée qui persiste en République Démocratique du Congo depuis plus de deux décennies a de fortes répercussions sur la population congolaise. En effet, l’ampleur et la durée de la « multicrise » congolaise les pousse à privilégier des stratégies de survie, fondées sur des activités de la débrouillardise. La débrouillardise est basée sur des activités informelles, parmi lesquelles le maraichage figure presqu’en première position. Mais les conditions dans lesquelles les maraîchers congolais, en l’occurrence ceux de Kinshasa et de Mbanza-Ngungu, exercent leurs activités, de même que les risques liés au foncier, à la commercialisation et à la production auxquels ils sont confrontés, suscitent des questionnements sur leurs moyens d’existence et leur avenir. Par ailleurs, ces maraîchers sont aussi victimes de menaces de la part des chefs coutumiers. Ainsi, ces derniers continuent leurs activités tout en étant conscients de leur exposition aux divers risques (expulsion, vol, etc.). Cette persistance des maraîchers dans l’exercice de leur activité, nonobstant tous les risques auxquels ils font face, prouve à bien des égards que celle-ci est importante et est une source de revenus pour plusieurs ménages enquêtés. L’insécurité foncière est un risque qui rend l’avenir du secteur maraîcher incertain en RDC. Face à cela, une tentative de l’évaluation de la résilience maraîchère a été réalisée dans ce travail de thèse afin de mieux cerner les stratégies de lutte contre les difficultés menées par les maraîchers, et la capacité à se projeter dans l’avenir (l’agencéité). Ainsi, seul le maraîcher qui ne subit pas de menaces foncières dans son site de production et dont les moyens d’existence sont bien assurés grâce au revenu généré par l’activité maraîchère peut être considéré comme maraîcher résilient. / The widespread (or ongoing) crisis which persists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for more than two decades has strong repercussions on the Congolese population. Indeed, the scale and duration of the Congolese « multi-crisis » drives the people to prioritize survival strategies, founded on creative resourcefulness. These coping strategies are based on informal activities, among which market gardening comes almost in first place. But the conditions in which the Congolese market gardeners, in this case those in Kinshasa and in Mbanza-Ngungu, carry out their activities, as well as the risks they face in relation to land ownership issues, to marketing and to production, raise questions about their means of existence and their future. Moreover, these market gardeners are also victims of threats from traditional village chiefs. Thus, they continue their activities whilst being conscious that they are exposed to diverse risks (expulsion, robbery, etc.). That the market gardeners continue this activity, in spite of all the risks they face, proves in many ways that this practice is important and a source of revenue for several of the households surveyed. The insecurity of land ownership is a risk which makes the future uncertain for the market garden sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In this context, an attempt to evaluate the resilience of market gardening has been undertaken in the research for this thesis, in order to understand better the strategies employed in the fight against the difficulties met by the market gardeners, and their ability to plan for the future (agency). Thus, only the market gardener who is not subject to land threats on his production site and whose means of existence is well-secured, thanks to the revenue generated from market gardening, only he can be considered a resilient market gardener.

Rural South Africa shows high levels poverty, inequality and unemployment and land reform is one strategy adopted to address these problems. However, the land reform programme appears to have limited success in meeting the objectives of poverty reduction, reducing inequality and creating employment. The main research question is ‘How has the implementation of market-based land reform (MBLR), within the three delivery models, contributed to agrarian change in South Africa?’ Sources of data used to answer this question include the 2005 Department of Land Affairs Quality of Life Survey and case studies of contract farming land reform projects in the KwaZulu-Natal sugarcane sector. Analysis of the survey demonstrates land reform has been implemented in a haphazard manner. A number of redistribution projects achieve some degree of commercial success but household participation in projects is generally low. However, beneficiary households do use project land for private purposes so productive activity, albeit not of a commercial nature, is evident. Beneficiary households rely on an array of livelihoods to survive, of which employment on a land reform project is the least prevalent. Satisfaction with land reform is not strongly correlated with profit or employment on a project suggesting owning land holds more value than adopting its previous productive process. Analysis of the contract farming case studies provides deeper insight into the neoliberal land reform model. While productivity gains are evident, ownership of the process of production is uneven and not in favour of the beneficiary. A close relationship between state and industry is critical for land reform to succeed. The capital-intensive nature of the industry and the share of profit across a greater number of owners indicate it would be difficult to scale up this model. MBLR appears to have little impact on existing economic and social structures which reproduce inequality.

This thesis explores the role of land reform in the production of space and relations of power in rural South Africa after 1994, based on a case study of a cluster of restitution farms in Makhado municipality in Limpopo province in northern South Africa. It uses Henri Lefebvre's theory of the production of space, which proposes that space is a dynamic social construction and that spatial and social – and hence power - relations are mutually constitutive. Land reform processes are considered using three components of the production of space identified by Lefebvre, namely the material, the conceptual and the lived. These components are applied to three core themes in land reform which emerged from the research: authority and land governance; property relations; and land use (production and settlement). The investigation was based primarily on interviews with inhabitants in the research area affected by land reform, with individuals with some historical knowledge of the area, and with various individuals from government and other support organisations with some relation to land reform in the area. The methods included an element of participant observation and some archival research. The research indicates that land reform had an uneven impact on the production of space and power relations in the area of study. Contradictions emanating from within the state in particular exacerbated this unevenness. The retention of the private property framework and the entrenchment of pre-existing forms of authority and relations of power – private landowners and traditional authorities – constituted limitations on the role land reform could play in altering rural spaces and power relations. However, land reform simultaneously facilitated openings for subterranean shifts through new practices, rooted in everyday activities at the micro-spatial level, which signalled potential broader shifts in spatial and power relations over time.

This research examines the interrelationships between customary and statutory tenure systems in Swaziland, in relation to urban development. It also focuses on the assumptions, aspirations and practices of modern and traditional authorities in relation to the processes of urban development. The Swaziland Urban Development Project (SUDP) initiated in the late 1980's, to upgrade informal settlements of Swaziland's cities, is used to examine the extent to which these land tenure interrelationships impact on the residents and the upgrading of informal settlements. Implementation of the SUDP (insitu upgrading) in Manzini, only took place in 2007 – a decade after the original planned commencement date. This was because the traditional leaders of the informal settlements of Moneni area (an area where the project would be piloted), did not accept the project. Since the Government and the Municipal Council of Manzini did not want to use force (Municipal Council of Manzini, 2004) it entered into further negotiations. This study investigates why the project was not accepted, examines the role of the traditional leaders in the non-acceptance of the project and the changes in attitudes towards the project in 2007. In the process, it explores the diverse responses to the SUDP and the processes of negotiation between the traditional and urban authorities, demonstrating how both authorities fought for retention of their authority over the area and also for their own vision of 'development'. Such contestation resulted in protracted discussions on the part of the urban authorities, whilst the issue of authority remains inconclusive. To investigate the impact of these interactions on the residents of the informal settlements, the study interrogates the assumptions of the development planners (project officials from Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MHUD), City Councils and the World Bank) with regard to the benefits of the project. The different understandings of development priorities, different assumptions about the outcomes of the SUDP and the complex interactions that occur between formal and traditional structures have undermined efforts to improve living conditions of the urban residents. This study demonstrates that these assumptions of policy-makers and planners and their aspirations are colonially inherent and based on western thinking about modernisation. The implementation of grandiose plans and the making of a beautiful city are pursued, whilst residents lament that from their perspective there is ‘no development'. In addition, the study takes cognisance of social differentiation - separately examining how women in the project area were affected by the project. This study therefore demonstrates that the main challenge underlying the process of improving the living conditions of informal settlements' residents is the existence of different urban land tenure systems, managed by various authorities namely; urban authorities (government, municipalities) and traditional authorities, both asserting their legitimacy over the areas.

This thesis examines aspects of estate improvement on the Egremont estates in Sussex, Yorkshire and Australia between 1770 and 1860. Using the Petworth House Archives and others, it documents large-scale improvement projects, including William Smith’s work in mineral prospecting in West Yorkshire, and Colonel Wyndham’s land speculation in South Australia. The third Earl of Egremont (1751-1837) himself has received some biographical attention, but this has concentrated to a great extent on his patronage of the arts. This thesis therefore documents a number of important matters for the first time, in particular the detailed work of the middle layer of personnel involved in estate management and improvement. Episodes of ‘failure’ in estate improvement are also revealing in this study. This thesis contributes to debates regarding the nature of ‘improvement’ in this period, and most particularly, to understandings of the developing rural professions and to scholarship regarding professionalisation; interpreting key episodes in the archive utilising a ‘landscape’ approach. It uses the concept of an ‘estate landscape’ to draw together the dispersed Egremont estates in order to better understand the management structures of these estates, and how they relate to the home estate at Petworth.The thesis examines the relationships between Lord Egremont and the various agents (in the widest sense) who acted on his behalf; the configuration of which agents was different for each of the different estates. It makes a particular contribution to ongoing debates about the formation of the professions in eighteenth and nineteenth-century England in suggesting that despite the contemporary stress on applied agricultural expertise, legal land agents remained more influential than has been supposed. The belated professionalisation of the Petworth agents and the significant differences in their roles when compared with a land agency firm such as Kent, Claridge and Pearce suggests that estate management was far more diverse than has been suggested. Egremont himself emerges from the archive as neither a hands-on agricultural improver nor as an uninterested and neglectful absentee. Instead, I suggest, he acted as co-ordinator and as an impresario amongst the men engaged to act on his behalf, the middle layer of developing rural professionals including agents, surveyors, and engineers. If the literature to date has concentrated on Egremont as patron of art, he emerges from this thesis as a patron of improvement.