Questions about land control have invigorated thinkers in agrarian studies and economic history since the nineteenth century. ‘Exclusion’, ‘alienation’, ‘expropriation’, ‘dispossession’, and ‘violence’ animate histories of land use, property rights, and territories. More recently, agrarian environments have been transformed by processes of de-agrarianization, urbanization, migration, and new forms of primitive accumulation. Even the classic agrarian question of how the social relations of agriculture will be influenced by capitalism has been reformulated at critical historical moments, reviving or producing new debates around the importance of land control. The authors in this volume focus on new frontiers of land control and their active creation. These frontiers are sites where established power relationships are challenged by new enclosures and property regimes, producing new social and environmental dynamics in their stead. Contributors examine labor and production processes engaged by new configurations of actors, new agrarian and environmental subjects and the networks connecting them, and new legal and violent means of challenging established or imminent land controls. Overall we find that land control still matters, though in changed degrees and manners. Land control will continue to inspire struggles for a long time. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies.

The rehabilitation of those regions of the Tropics where monocropping has destroyed both local self-sufficiency and biologically rich and stable environments is fundamental to the success of any strategy for sustainable development. Dr Amanor draws on his study to suggest policies based on regeneration of the local economy, diversification of agricultural products and markets, community participation in drawing up environmental agendas and utilization of local farmers' knowledge.

Planning in the USA is a comprehensive introduction to the policies, theory and practice of planning. outlining land use, urban planning and environmental protection policies, this fully illustrated book explains the nature of the planning process and the way in which policy issues are identified, defined and approached.Planning in the USA offers a detailed account of urbanization in the USA. Focussing on policies relating to land use, urban planning and environmental protection, Barry Cullingworth reveals the problematic nature and limitations of the planning process, the fallibility of experts, and difficulties facing policy-makers in their search for solutions.Coverage includes:Land Use Regulation Transport, Housing and Community Development Public Attitudes to Planning Property Rights Environmental Planning and PoliciesGrowth Management Planning and Governance Planning problems are seldom easily solved. Barry Cullingworth's Planning in the USA is an essential book for students and planners and all who are concerned with the nature of contemporary urban and environmental problems.

This extensively revised and updated fourth edition of Planning in the USA continues to provide a comprehensive introduction to the policies, theory and practice of planning. Outlining land use, urban planning, and environmental protection policies, this fully illustrated book explains the nature of the planning process and the way in which policy issues are identified, defined, and approached. This full colour edition incorporates new planning legislation and regulations at the state and federal layers of government, updated discussion on current economic issues, and examples of local ordinances in a variety of planning areas. Key updates include: a new chapter on planning and sustainability; a new discussion on the role of foundations and giving to communities; a discussion regarding the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans; a discussion on deindustrialization and shrinking cities; a discussion on digital billboards; a discussion on recent comprehensive planning efforts; a discussion on land banking; a discussion unfunded mandates; a discussion on community character; a companion website with multiple choice and fill the blank questions, and ‘test yourself’ glossary terms. This book gives a detailed account of urbanization in the United States and reveals the problematic nature and limitations of the planning process, the fallibility of experts, and the difficulties facing policy-makers in their search for solutions. Planning in the USA is an essential book for students, planners and all who are concerned with the nature of contemporary urban and environmental problems.

This revised edition continues to provide a comprehensive introduction to the policies and practices of planning. Discussing land use, urban planning and environmental protection policies, the text explains the nature of the planning process.

The Amazon, the world's largest rain forest, is the last frontier in Brazil. The settlement of large and small farmers, squatters, miners, and loggers in this frontier during the past thirty years has given rise to violent conflicts over land as well as environmental duress. Titles, Conflict, and Land Use examines the institutional development involved in the process of land use and ownership in the Amazon and shows how this phenomenon affects the behavior of the economic actors. It explores the way in which the absence of well-defined property rights in the Amazon has led to both economic and social problems, including lost investment opportunities, high costs in protecting claims, and violence. The relationship between land reform and violence is given special attention. The book offers an important application of the New Institutional Economics by examining a rare instance where institutional change can be empirically observed. This allows the authors to study property rights as they emerge and evolve and to analyze the effects of Amazon development on the economy. In doing so they illustrate well the point that often the evolution of economic institutions will not lead to efficient outcomes. This book will be important not only to economists but also to Latin Americanists, political scientists, anthropologists, and scholars in disciplines concerned with the environment. Lee Alston is Professor of Economics, University of Illinois, and Research Associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research. Gary Libecap is Professor of Economics and Law, University of Arizona, and Research Associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research. Bernardo Mueller is Assistant Professor, Universidade de Brasilia.

Symposium papers apprasising the course United States land policy had taken in the 100 years since President Lincoln had signed the Homestead Act.

As part of the urbanization process, suburban development involves the conversion of rural land to urban use. When discussing the suburbs, most writers focus on particular countries in the northern hemisphere, implying that patterns and processes elsewhere are fundamentally different. The purpose of The Suburban Land Question is to identify the common elements of suburban development, focusing on issues associated with the scale and pace of rapid urbanization around the world. Editors Richard Harris and Ute Lehrer and a diverse group of contributors draw on a variety of sources, including official data, planning documents, newspapers, interviews, photographs, and field observations to explore the pattern, process, and planning of suburban land development. Featuring case studies from major world regions, including China, India, Latin America, South Africa, as well as France, Austria, the Netherlands, the United States, and Canada, the volume identifies and discusses the peculiarly transitional character of suburban land. In addition to place and time, The Suburban Land Question addresses the many elements that distinguish land development in urban fringe areas, including economy, social infrastructure, and legality.

Sustainability notions have been widely embraced by planners. However, the question of what can planners contribute to the advancement of such notions has not received much attention until now. This volume examines the potential contribution of planning to the advancement of sustainability at sub-national level, and the limitations it faces in doing so. Bringing together case studies from the US, UK, Poland, Israel, South Africa, The Netherlands and Italy, it covers a wide range of issues and contexts, ranging from the metropolitan to the community level. On the basis of these case studies, the book shows that planners do indeed have a variety of options to advance sustainability notions at these levels, and appear to be doing so. The book proposes that planners should operate at two levels: firstly to change institutional structures, and secondly to advance sustainability notions incrementally in the meantime, within the existing institutional constraints.