1.1\xThis thesis studies land expropriation disputes from the angle of property right, exploring its origins from the relationships between township (town) government and villagers, village collective and villagers, and different villagers, focusing on peasants' resisting low land expropriation compensation instead of their fighting against land expropriation. Specifically, this research will discuss three questions. What is the nature of property right? How had the landed property rights been regulated and adjudicated? How do women gain and loss their land rights and interests?;1.2\xIn terms of the nature of property right, two kinds of idea are widely spread in academic circle; the first follows a materialist-legalist viewpoint and considers property rights as a bundle of rights, whereas the second adopts a constructivist perspective and considers property rights as a network of social relations. With defected land institutions and peasants' complicated social life, both of the two ideas cannot provide a suitable explanation for some new phenomena in land expropriation disputes, leaving a gap between property right theory and practice. Building on the foundation of Zhang Xiaojun's (2007) idea of "multiple property rights" and drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu's discussion of capitals, this research will propose the idea of "composite property rights" to systematize the discussion. This concept examines the transformation of symbolic, social, and cultural capital into economic capital, and in turn the transformation of economic capital into property rights. In so doing, I hope to provide a better framework for understanding the mechanisms through which various capitals can be mobilized to "realize" the landed property rights.;1.3\xSince this research regards composite property rights as the nature of property right, the answer of the second research question then transfers into: what are the characteristics of the practical logic of composite property rights? Basing the rationale of resistance on peasants' local perception of land rights, peasants explore an action strategy, boundary-treading resistance. This concept reveals their tactics on three different relationships. First, as to the relation with the state, the peasants' resistance treads on state laws and land institution by taking advantage of their capitals. Second, in terms of the relation with local government and developers, their strategies rely on probing counterparty's loopholes, treading on boundaries of administrative enforcement of policy. Third, in regard to the relation among villagers or familial relationship, their behaviors challenges the village rules and traditions, treading on the boundaries of traditional moral principles.;1.4\xIn order to use the two concepts, this research specifically analyzes women's striving for land rights and interests. After building a framework of membership, this research transfers the third research question into a specific one: since rural land is owned by rural collective economic organization, how can an individual become its member? In sum, women's tactics include (1) taking full advantage of village collective's self-contradictory decision which admits their huji but refuses their cuji, (2) revoking their previous promise, and (3) exploring the loophole of household register management. During their striving for membership, they utilize their various capitals: (1) they use money as deposit to get villagers meeting's support, or gift to gain cadre's favor, to move in/back their huji, (2) with their relatives' help, they can get information and other support.;1.5\xBy attaching all kinds of capitals to the property right transformation from economic capital to economic property right, peasants' resources can be transformed into capitals; and these capitals enter their citizen life, alleviating their pauperization. At the same time, boundary-treading resistance characterizes land-lost peasants as peasant-citizens who keenly take petty advantage of others and merely try to be smart, so their resistance has a long way to catch up with safeguarding rights of citizen.

While many African governments have made legislative changes to the formal economic institution of land law in order to strengthen land tenure security, very few have seen these changes take hold (Bruce & Knox, 2009). This thesis demonstrates that Uganda is no exception. In exploring the interactions between the formal, informal, political, economic and social institutions which influence land tenure behaviour in Uganda, and how decentralization impacts this institutional structure, this thesis offers a first step in understanding how state-led land reforms can be undercut at the local level, causing unintended outcomes. From reinforcing the legitimacy of informal customary tenure systems to fostering inter-ethnic competition, the District of Kayunga demonstrates how Uganda’s 1998 Land Reform has created unexpected impacts that continue to impede its implementation. It also offers ideas on how failed institutional adaptations may impact local perceptions of land tenure security. This thesis also investigates and pushes the boundaries of New Institutional Economic (NIE) theory. It explores how decentralization within a formal economic institution can influence informal social and political institutions to create complex and ever evolving incentive structures. It also examines the role of organizations and individuals in an effort to understand the intersection between these two categories of actors and the institutional structure. Fluid interactions whereby organizations and individuals are incentivized by institutions, but also resist and adapt to institutional change, demonstrate the added complexity of organization-institution interdependency within the NIE framework.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-66).

No description available.

No description available.

In surveying the literature on land tenure reform in Africa, what can readily be observed is that much of that body of work has comprised a markedly econometric and technical focus, to the neglect of evidently contiguous political factors. As a result, fundamental structural impediments to reform efforts have largely been ignored - a fact that may be reflected in the failure of many titling interventions. In light of this omission, the nature of political economy in both Ethiopia and Africa more generally is delineated in this thesis, in order to construct a more rounded conceptual framework through which the issue of land tenure can be deciphered. In so doing, the model of the ‘neopatrimonial’/anti-developmental state is utilised as a benchmark against which twentieth century Ethiopian regimes, and in particular the incumbent EPRDF Government, are assessed. Considerable evidence is uncovered to support the view that, despite its unique historical experience of independence, contemporary Ethiopia nevertheless fits with many key aspects of the neopatrimonial model – most notably in the Government’s pursuit of political survival and revenue to the neglect of long-term sustainable development. It is therefore argued that political imperatives have undermined the establishment of a progressive economic agenda in the country, and the ways in which this has affected land tenure are delineated. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the contemporary debate on tenure reform in Ethiopia has taken a form that is somewhat myopic and circuitous, possibly in an attempt to circumvent discussion of controversial political issues. It is argued that this apolitical stance has undermined not only the debate itself, but also the practical intervention strategies that have emerged from it, such as the recent land titling and administration project in Ethiopia. It is therefore concluded that the only means of escape from this theoretical and practical impasse is to reintegrate politics into the analysis.

Oorspr. proefschrift Bayreuth, 2007. / Bibliogr.: p. 251-268. Met lit. opg.

A historical review of land tenure systems implemented in the Herschel district, Eastern Cape, South Africa and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each system in conjunction with international experience of land tenure provide guidelines as to what elements could be incorporated in the formulation of a new integrated land tenure system. These guidelines together with the information obtained from a questionnaire survey amongst the Herschel population provide the government of South Africa with a broad outline of an integrated land tenure system that could serve to link the former homelands to the land tenure system that currently operates in the rest of the country thereby removing one of the obstacles to rural development and land redistribution.

The present enquiry is a study of specific social possibilities in a culture-contact situation, namely the encounter of the Dene and Inuit of the Northwest Territories with Canadian society; and shows how by analyzing the basic content of two traditions in contact with one another, the possibilities for mutual adjustment of one tradition to the other, or the lack of such possibilities, may be logically derived from that content. The study also uses the perspective of cultural ecology to devise and demonstrate a way in which any system of land-tenure may be compared with any other, without the concepts of one system being imposed upon the other. The particular problem of the enquiry is to compare the traditional ideas of land and land-tenure among Dene and Inuit with the ideas of land and land-tenure in Canadian law; and to discover a way whereby the Dene and Inuit may use the concepts of the dominant Canadian system to preserve their own traditional ways of holding land. The analysis begins by outlining the cultural ecosystem of each people, their basic modes of subsistence, the resources used, the kinds of technical operations applied to those resources, the work organization, and relevant parts of social organization and world-view. Then, in order, the idea of land which the people appear to be following, the kinds of land-rights and principles of land-holding recognized by the" people, and the kinds of "persons" who may hold land-rights, are described. The systems are then compared in order to discover the possibilities for "reconciliation". The enquiry concludes that the basic premises and characters of the Dene and Inuit systems of land-tenure are fundamentally irreconcilable with those of Canadian real property law, but that the Dene and Inuit systems can be encapsulated within the dominant Canadian system by means of the Community Land-Holding Corporation (CLHC). The CLHC as proposed in this enquiry would allow the members of a community to hold land among themselves according to their own rules, while the corporation holds the land of the whole community against outsiders according to the principles of Canadian law. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

No description available.