Description:
The last two years have seen a huge amount of academic, policy-making and media interest in the increasingly contentious issue of land grabbing - the large-scale acquisition of land in the global South. It is a phenomenon against which locals seem defenceless, and one about which multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank, as well as civil-society organizations and action NGOs have become increasingly vocal.
This in-depth and empirically diverse volume - taking in case studies from across Africa, Asia and Latin America - takes a step back from the hype to explore a number of key questions: Does the 'global land grab' actually exist? If so, what is new about it? And what, beyond the immediately visible dynamics and practices, are the real problems? A comprehensive and much-needed intervention on one of the most hotly contested but little-understood issues facing countries of the South today.Review Quotes:
"The Global Land Grab represents an important break from the earlier wave of land grabs studies in at least three interlinked ways: it looks beyond the "here and now land deals" by historicizing analysis to facilitate better understanding of longer term implications of the phenomenon; it contains grounded local-national studies; and it offers a comparative perspective across regions of the world." --Dr. Saturnino M. Borras Jr., International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Hague
"This collection provides a serious analytical contribution to our understanding of a phenomenon, which might seem to peak at the present, but which is deeply rooted in the past and will need steadfast scholarly and political attention in the future." --Professor Christian Lund, University of Copenhagen "This collection of essays provides a uniquely well informed and comprehensive analysis of "land grabbing", describing developments across three continents and illustrating the variety of forms it has taken: it shall be of interest to anyone interested in the future of globalization and its impacts on the poor who rely on access to land for their livelihood." --Professor Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food "This is an excellent, original collection, on the global land grabbing phenomenon." --Robin Palmer, Global Land Rights Policy Specialist, Mokoro