Urban areas in Ethiopia have been growing very quickly in recent decades, which haveled to ever increasing demand for land in peri-urban areas for housing and other nonagriculturalactivities. This has had several transformative impacts on the transitionalperi-urban, areas including engulfment of local communities and conversion of landrights and use from an agricultural to a built-up property rights system. Peri-urban areasalso display all forms of competition for land among people of diverse backgrounds.Research on the challenges of urbanization in peri-urban land tenure system and theongoing changes in Ethiopia is limited, and the situations and actors interested in periurbanland are constantly changing. Therefore, the purpose of this research is toinvestigate the challenges imposed on peri-urban land rights as a result of the growingdemand for land for urbanization. The project also encompasses an attempt to discoverthe process of informal transaction and development of peri-urban land and the principalactors involved. The study comprises a summary essay and four articles which were conducted using casestudy and desk review research approaches. Following the case study tradition, acombination of different data collection instruments such as questionnaires, FGDs, keyinformant interviews (both structured and open-ended) and direct field observations wasemployed to collect research data from the case study areas. Bahir Dar CityAdministration was selected purposively as case study area at the first stage and two periurbanvillages, Weramit and Zenzelima, were selected from Bahir Dar CityAdministration at the second stage of the case study area selection process. The research has revealed that urbanization and urban development in Ethiopia areaccompanied by contentious land tenure changes which favor the urbanities above localperi-urban communities. As a result, urbanization has precipitated a wave ofdispossession and proliferation of informal settlements in peri-urban areas. Thus,addressing the challenges of urbanization and its effect on the land rights of local periurbancommunities requires the introduction of an inclusive and participatory landdevelopment tool like land readjustment, which can encourage voluntary contribution ofland for urbanization by the local peri-urban landholders themselves. / <p>QC 20150114</p>

abstract: Peri-urbanization is a process in which previously rural areas on the outskirts of established cities become more urban in character. This process is of great significance in China, because peri-urbanization is often manufacturing and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) driven. After witnessing the dramatic development of the Eastern Coastal Region from the mid-1980s, China recently changed its regional development focus to interior regions to pursue more spatial equity within the nation. Wuhan, as the most populous city in central China, is experiencing significant peri-urbanization. The thesis focuses on Dongxihu District, a representative peri-urban area in Wuhan Municipality. To explore peri-urbanization in Dongxihu, this study first documents the metrics of ongoing peri-urbanization in the District from land use, economic, demographic and institutional perspectives. Causality is explored by relating peri-urban outcomes to drivers within the framework of research questions, namely: (i) What is driving peri-urban change in Dongxihu? (ii) Which drivers of peri-urbanization in the District are most important? (iii) How can Dong Xi Hu's peri-urbanization process and outcomes best be characterized? and (iv) What policy implications can be drawn from Dong Xi Hu's peri-urbanization experience? The primary conclusion is that Dongxihu's peri-urbanization is primarily manufacturing driven, resembling previous first generation peri-urbanization on the coast more than the more diverse peri-urban outcomes now emerging in wealthy coastal metropolitan areas, e.g., Shanghai. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Urban and Environmental Planning 2016

Cette recherche de maîtrise s’intéresse au processus de périurbanisation à Yangon, métropole du Myanmar, dans un contexte de métropolisation et de libéralisation de la gestion des ressources foncières. Dans ce mémoire, je défends l’idée que la périurbanisation doit être considérée comme un processus de reconfiguration des espaces politiques et des dynamiques foncières marchandes alimentées par l’ensemble des acteurs des espaces périphériques de Yangon. Une approche de la périurbanisation par la géographie politique et une perspective relationnelle du concept de marchandisation permet de comprendre la complexité des relations de pouvoir et des dynamiques foncières marchandes qui contribuent à façonner les espaces périurbains de Yangon. Cette recherche s’appuie sur une étude des pratiques et stratégies foncières des acteurs locaux à Thanlyin, township périurbain de Yangon, dans un contexte de développement accéléré de son territoire. L’analyse produite dans cette recherche démontre que la périurbanisation est un processus complexe de territorialisation de la tension entre la formalité et l’informalité foncières, de formation d’agencements fonciers favorisant la marchandisation de la terre et de production de nouveaux espaces politiques multiscalaires. / This master’s research focuses on the process of peri-urbanization in Yangon, Myanmar’s metropolis, in a context of metropolization and liberalization of land resource management. In this thesis, I defend the idea that peri-urbanization must be considered as a process of reconfiguring political spaces and land commodification dynamics fueled by the actors of the peripheral areas of Yangon. An approach to peri-urbanization through political geography and a relational perspective of the concept of commodification allows us to understand the complexity of power relations and market land dynamics that help shape the peri-urban spaces of Yangon. This research is based on a study of land practices and strategies of local actors in Thanlyin, a peri-urban township of Yangon, in a context of accelerated development of its territory. The analysis produced in this research demonstrates that peri-urbanization is a complex process of territorialization of the tension between land formality and informality, of formation of land assemblage favoring land commodification and of new multi-scale political space production.