Contested Global Landscapes

A Multidisciplinary Initiative of the Cornell Institute for the Social Sciences

  • A small farm in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, where agriculture struggles for a place.

  • Sharing bananas on a farm in Santa Cruz, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador.

  • Landless laborers on a sugarcane plantation in northeastern Brazil.

  • A small farm nestled amidst rolling hills dedicated to sugarcane.

  • A land reform settler shows off his house and fields in northeastern Brazil.

  • Two different landscapes: sugarcane fields meet small farms. Photo credit: Douglas Mansur.

Welcome

The past decade has seen an enormous rush to acquire land, a phenomenon that some have dubbed a “global land grab.” These acquisitions are motivated by rising food and fuel prices, anticipated commodity and resource scarcities, new incentives for financial speculation, and concerns over dwindling spaces for “nature.” As reports of a “global food crisis,” peak oil, global climate change and ecological devastation multiply, the hunt for land and access to its riches similarly intensifies. This ISS Theme Project analyzes the diversity and complexity of land deals both as a lived experience and as a changing set of global relationships. We contextualize the rush to enclose land within four related global transformations referenced to property, governance, economy and livelihood.

Contested Landscapes Blog

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What can we learn from history about large-scale commercial farming developments?

May 13th, 2013

by Rebecca Smalley, Land and Commercialisation in Africa project After a period in which African agriculture was seen by many as a rather amorphous sector of subsistence farmers, it is coming to be recognised as a highly dynamic area. New types of farm are appearing on the landscape,[...]

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What can we learn from history about large-scale commercial farming developments?

May 13th, 2013

by Rebecca Smalley, Land and Commercialisation in Africa project After a period in which African agriculture was seen by many as a rather amorphous sector of subsistence farmers, it is coming to be recognised as a highly dynamic area. New types of farm are appearing on the landscape,[...]

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Large-scale land acquisition: can we overcome transparency’s ‘dirty secret’?

May 1st, 2013

by Anna Locke and Andrew Norton, Overseas Development Institute Last week saw the annual World Bank Land and Poverty Conference in Washington DC. This event has grown substantially over the years, concentrating in one place more than 800 researchers, development practitioners and partners, civil society organisations and[...]

Development and Change: Special Issue

devchange

Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in large-scale land deals, often from public lands to the hands of foreign or domestic investors. Popularly referred to as a ‘global land grab’, new land acquisitions are drawing upon, restructuring and challenging the nature of both governance and government. While ‘the state’ is often invoked as a key player in contemporary land deals, states do not necessarily operate coherently or with one voice.This collection of essays brings clarity and understanding to the entity of ‘the state’, analyzing government and governance as processes, people and relationships.

Summer Institute Participants

ISS

We selected 12 applicants to attend the inaugural Summer Institute on Contested Landscapes. Focused on property, this week-long session seeks to develop and apply critical analyses to important questions. What is property, who and what is eligible for ownership, and who decides? What is the relationship between changing property forms and sustainability, development, and democracy?

The Institute on Contested Landscapes is sponsored by Cornell’s Institute for the Social Sciences, Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, and the Social Science Research Council.