The Oxford Handbook of Land Politics
Borras, Saturnino M. Jr., Conroy Franco, Jennifer
Abstract
Abstract The Oxford Handbook of Land Politics brings together key theoretical perspectives on the politics of land, as well as strategic thematic studies on land and social life. The contributors to this volume address the basic but complex questions of who gets to have access to land, why, how, what kind of land and how much, where and for how long, for what purposes, and with what implications as to who wins and who loses? These questions are grounded in social relations that are in turn rooted in class and other social group formations that are enacted within the inseparable spheres of state and society. Fundamental to this collection is its treatment of land in the context of production and social reproduction, where social reproduction is interpreted in a broad sense to include socioecological, sociocultural, and sociopolitical reproduction. The definition of land used in this Handbook encompasses soil, farmland, grazing land, home lots, landscapes, socio-agroecological zones, territory, and homeland. While most of the contributions focus on the dynamics of social change in and in relation to the rural world, these are cast in the context of rural–urban, agriculture–industry, national–global continuums. The Handbook is organically embedded in multiple disciplines and fields of study. It is a critical resource for scholars and students who seek to understand the complex interactions between these various disciplines and land politics.