Interrogates the narratives of land grabbing and agricultural investment through detailed local studies that illuminate how these are experienced on the ground and the implications for Africa's land and agricultural economy.

After the global financial crisis of 2008, a new trend in foreign direct investments (FDI) emerged: investors' rising interest in farmland in developing nations. This 'land rush' was a marker of increased land commodification and agricultural financialization, but has also been associated with global narratives of agricultural modernization, and development through FDI of 'cheap, unproductive and/or idle' farmland. Yet, as this book demonstrates, global investment dynamics are dictated by complex economic, political, socio-historical dynamics in any host country. Focusing on the land rush in Tanzania, the contexts of six investment projects in the nation are examined and unpacked, helping to understand the ways in which political struggles over land, capital and authority all feed into determining the goals - and eventually the outcomes - of the 'farmland investment game'.

"Recent decades have seen a wave of land law reforms across Africa, in the context of a 'land rush' and land grabbing. But how has this been enacted on the ground and, in particular, how have women experienced this? This book seeks to re-orientate current debates on women's land rights towards a focus on the law in action. Centring on cases involving women litigants, the book considers the extent to which women are realising their interests in land through land courts and follows the progression of women's claims to land - from their social origins through processes of dispute resolution to judgment"--Unedited summary from book cover.

"After the global financial crisis of 2008, a new trend in foreign direct investments (FDI) emerged: investors' rising interest in farmland in developing nations. This 'land rush' was a marker of increased land commodification and agricultural financialization, but has also been associated with global narratives of agricultural modernization, and development through FDI of 'cheap, unproductive and/or idle' farmland. Yet, as this book demonstrates, global investment dynamics are dictated by complex economic, political, socio-historical dynamics in any host country. Focusing on the land rush in Tanzania, the contexts of six investment projects in the nation are examined and unpacked, helping to understand the ways in which political struggles over land, capital and authority all feed into determining the goals - and eventually the outcomes - of the 'farmland investment game'."--

This volume provides up-to-date information on what has happened in the African ‘land rush’, providing national case studies for countries that were heavily impacted. The research will be a critical resource for students, researchers, advocates and policy makers as it provides detailed, long-term assessments of a broad range of national contexts. In addition to the specific questions of land and investment, this book sheds light on the broader international political economy of development in different African countries.

Since the year 2000, millions of hectares of land in the Global South have been acquired by foreign investors for large-scale agricultural projects, displacing and disrupting rural communities. Women are especially disadvantaged by the global land grab: they are less likely to inherit, control, or make decisions over land, but often need land to support themselves, their families, and their communities. While international organizations have developed global guidelines to improve land governance, tensions still run high as the current policies fall short. Gender and the Global Land Grab introduces a feminist conceptual framework to analyze land governance policy around the world. Andrea Collins shows how gender norms, biases, and expectations shape land politics at different levels of governance. Drawing on examples from sub-Saharan Africa and with an in-depth case study of land politics in Tanzania, the book assesses guidelines developed by institutions such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Bank to highlight essential considerations for developing and implementing gender-sensitive policy. Illustrating how gender shapes resource policy across all levels of political activity, Gender and the Global Land Grab provides valuable tools for transforming global policymaking.

From the shaping of new homelands in the Cherokee Nation to the export of sand from Cambodia to shore up urban expansion in Singapore, The Social Lives of Land reveals the dynamics of contemporary social and political change. The editors of this volume bring together contributions from across multiple disciplines and geographic locations. The contributions showcase novel theoretical and empirical insights, analyzing how people are living on, with, and from their land. From Mozambique to India, Indonesia, Ecuador, and the colonial United States, the scholars in this collection uncover histories and retell stories with a focus on the lived experiences of rural and urban land dispossession and repossession. Contributors: Kati Álvarez, Clint Carroll, Flora Lu, Richard Mbunda, Gregg Mitman, Paul Nadasdy, Robert Nichols, Andrew Ofstehage, Laura Schoenberger, Kirsteen Shields, Emmanuel Sulle, Erik Swyngedouw, Gabriela Valdivia, Katherine Verdery, Callum Ward, Ciara Wirth, Emmanuel King Urey Yarkpawolo

Examines the new challenges facing Africa's pastoral drylands from large-scale investments and how this might affect the economic and political landscape for the regions affected and their peoples.

THIS work is a meeting of the minds. People of different political and ideological beliefs articulate their positions on the question of race in the United States that has bedeviled the nation since its founding. Conservatives, liberals and independents as well as those who don't have any political affiliation or ideological positions exchange views, debate, offer suggestions and provide solutions to race problems facing the United States. There are those who contend that the United States does not have a race problem. It is individuals who have problems and they are the ones who complain about racism blaming society for their own failures in life. Their problems have nothing to do with race. Then there are those who say the United States has a race problem but it is not a major one as it once was. Others contend that racism is one of the biggest and most urgent problems facing the nation. Immigrants from all parts of the world also express their views and beliefs from different political and ideological perspectives on a subject that has divided the nation and continues to be one of the most contentious in the history of the country. There are immigrants who don't see racism as a major problem in the United States even if they admit it exists. There are those who agree with many Americans that racism still exists and it is a major problem. Although immigrants, they also offer solutions to a problem that, from their own experience, is a major one and should be addressed to achieve racial equality. White nationalists also take part in the discussions on race, exchanging views with conservatives, liberals, independents and immigrants. They explain their position and offer solutions to the race question, some of which don't differ much from the solutions proposed by some people who would be considered to be an integral part of the mainstream and not on the fringes of the American society. There is no consensus on the final solution to the race problem, or an answer to the race question, in the United States. But there is some agreement on some race issues that cuts across racial and ideological lines, for example, with some black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean articulating positions that are in conformity with the positions of those who are in the conservative movement, contrary to what most black Americans believe. Other immigrants, including black ones, are squarely within the liberal tradition of the Democratic party. And there are those who don't embrace Republican or Democratic positions but take an independent position on race matters that is also different from the position taken by independents in the American political mainstream. The race question may be far from being resolved. But the views, proposals ans solutions presented in this book may help to point in the right direction toward a final solution to the problem that the United States has faced since slavery.

Stefan Ouma seeks to debunk the misconceptions and assumptions about "finance-gone-farming" with a penetrating analysis of case studies taken from both the developed and developing world. The book provides fascinating insights into the inner workings of the agri-focused asset management industry.