Peri-urban land transactions
Subtitle: everyday practices and relations in peri-urban Blantyre, Malawi
By: Ignasio Malizani Jimu
Publisher: Langaa Research & Publishing CIG; Distributed in and outside N. America by African Books Collective
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Bamenda, Cameroon; Oxford, Eng?]
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] :
Number of pages: 402
ISBN-13: 9789956728848
Subjects: Economic anthropology; Customary law; Real property; Social aspects; Land titles; Registration and transfer; Land tenure
Other titles: Project Muse UPCC books.
Description: This book explores the changing land relations in the peri-urban villages of Blantyre in Malawi. It questions and debates how and why the peri-urban villages have become the locus of the selling and buying of customary land, the practices and also the relations involved. The book provides rich ethnographic insights on the commodification of land relations, custom, practices, disputes and social relations between land sellers, land buyers, traditional leaders, and intermediaries. The transactions draw strength from the growing peri-urbanization and monetization of social relations, both of which push towards land decisions at family and individual levels. Bigger groups like the village, clan or extended family have minimal, if not symbolic role only. Village headmen benefit materially by taking gifts (signing fee) rationalized by custom on reciprocity, while estate agents claim commission. Numerous constraints are negotiated about the ownership, rights to sale, multiple selling and the use and sharing of land money. Peri-urban land transactions offer scope for examining a wider range of social and economic relations, and the subtle ways in which the state infiltrates the everyday lives of actors. Overtime, the practices reproduce but also transform land relations in significant but less appreciated ways.
Notes: Issued as part of UPCC book collections on Project MUSE.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 373-402).

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Description based on print version record. Description based on print version record.

Description based on print version record.
Table of contents: title: The researcher as participant : method, theory and limitations; title: Locating the peri-urban : the socio-cultural and livelihoods context; title: Commodification and objectification of peri-urban land; title: Practices and legitimation in peri-urban land transactions; title: Peri-urban land disputes and dispute resolution; title: Intermediaries in Peri-urban land transactions; title: Intentionality and implications of selling peri-urban land; title: Epilogue on peri-urban land transactions.