Property Rights from Below: Commodification of Land and the Counter-Movement

Description

Recent years have seen a globalization of property rights as the Western conception of property over land has extended across the world. As formerly community-owned land and natural resources are privatized and titling schemes proliferate, Property Rights from Below questions the trend toward treating land as a commodity and explores alternatives to the Western model. As we enter an era of resource scarcity and as competition for land and associated natural resources increases, purchasing power cannot become the sole criterion for land allocation; and the law of supply and demand in increasingly financialized markets cannot become the sole metric through which the value of land is determined. Using a range of examples from around the world, Property Rights from Below demonstrates that alternatives to this model often emerge from social innovations supported by local communities and that there is an urgent need for a broader political imagination when it comes to land governance. This innovative cross-disciplinary perspective on the pressing problems surrounding global property rights will be of interest to academics, students and professionals with an interest in property law, development economics and land governance. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Copyright Contents List of contributors Acknowledgements Foreword 1 Property rights from below: an introduction to the debate PART I The global commodification of land and competition for resources 2 When primitive accumulation inhabits advanced systems 3 Land grab governance and the crisis of market rule 4 From transgression to normative innovation: land conflict resolution in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo PART II Social mobilization and the counter-movement 5 Forging a single proletariat 6 Urban squatters 7 Land and territory: struggles for land and territorial rights in Brazil 8 The right to land and territory: new human right and collective action frame PART III Shaping alternatives: from commodification to rebuilding the commons 9 Facilitating the commons inside out 10 Urban commons, property, and the right to the city 11 When land is inalienable: territorial transformations and peasants’ property rights in Mexico 12 Conclusion: the revival of the “commons” and the redefinition of property rights Index