(P.S. II) Critical Insights on the LandGovernance Orthodoxy
Channel: Land Portal
Date: 2021-06-23

https://landportal.org/event/2021/04/landac-conference-2021

Organiser(s): Kelly Askew, Howard Stein and Laura German.

This panel takes a critical look at the land governance orthodoxy that has consolidated on the heels of the financial crisis and outcry over "global land grabs" at the end of the 2000s. The panel kicks off with a presentation on the “theory of change” guiding land governance interventions, with an emphasis on tenure (in)security and the formalization of property rights. Next, a paper entitled, “Land Governance, Crises and Resilience in Rural Tanzania” by Howard Stein, Kelly Askew, Faustin Maganga and Rie Odgaard explores the role of land titling in the resilience of rural households in Tanzania through a look at the relationship between formalization, conflict and security. The paper draws on surveys from nearly 3000 households spread across 45 villages and five regions of the country to ask whether the tenets of the theory of formalization and security hold up under scrutiny.

Next, a paper by Milford Bateman entitled, “Land Titling Improves Access to Microcredit: Be Careful What You Wish For” explores the theorized connection between land titles, credit and poverty alleviation through a case study on Cambodia, which has become the world’s most microcredit-penetrated country and where land titles are almost obligatory for access to microcredit. 

Finally, a paper entitled, “Contested Ontologies of Security” by Laura German, draws on published ethnographic evidence from across Africa to profile local conceptions and forms of security that are invisibilized by dominant framings, with a focus on livelihood systems and gender. Together, the panel reveals the emergent orthodoxy not only as deeply flawed, but as a project which advances a singular conception of security for the world that is neither universal nor guaranteed to advance the values that are claimed.