Interdisciplinary Seminar "The Political Economy of Land Grabbing"

Interdisciplinary Seminar in WT 2013/2014:
 

The Political Economy of Land Grabbing

Target Group

This joint seminar of the Institute for Economic Research, the Seminar of Political Science and the Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institute targets Master students of

• Economics (M.Sc. Economics, M.Sc. VWL, Diplom VWL) and
• Political Science. 

The seminar is entirely held in English language.

Content:

Land Grabbing refers to large-scale land acquisition and lease contracts between state or private investors on the one side and state agencies of the target countries - mostly developing countries - on the other side. Such large-scale land deals have been criticized for a variety of reasons including forceful deprivation of land and related livelihood options from previous land users, putting food security in the target countries at risk and giving rise to violent social conflicts. At the heart of such criticism lies the assumption that power asymmetries are misused to the severe detriment of local land users.

In this seminar we will use the approach of Political Economy to understand the power asymmetries and conflict dynamics of Land Grabbing and the role of institutional design options at international, national, regional and local levels to regulate land use and land transactions.
 

Date:

• Preparatory meeting: Tuesday, October 29, 2013, 16-18h, lecture room 1016, KG I.
  
• Two-day block seminar: January 20 and 21, 2014 (Monday & Tuesday).

Place and Costs:

• The seminar will take place in the unique atmosphere of the Uni-Haus Schauinsland.
• The costs for breakfast, 2x lunch, dinner, coffee breaks and lodging (max. 50€ per person) have to be covered by seminar participants.
• Participants have to arrange their travel arrangements to the Schauinsland (ca. 30 mins.) themselves. Facilitation and a limited number of lifts is offered by the organizers.

List of topics

Registration modalities

• The number of participants is restricted to a maximum of 24 students.

• August 1-30, 2013 by email to christoph.oberlack@vwl.uni-freiburg.de

• If seminar slots remain available after August 30, registration would be possible after that date.

• Required information: name, surname, matriculation code, course of study, semester, your 3 most preferred topics.

• Note: Students of economics and political science can apply for the topics supervised by their respective institutes (see supervisors in the list of topics).

• You will receive a confirmation about your application by email. 

Examination modalities

• Term paper, participation in class, presentation

Presentations

Block I: Economic and Political Foundations of Land Grabbing

• Amal Froidevaux & Nora Zirkelbach: Land grabbing and the theories of global political economy
• David Eickhoff: Notions of property and strategies of land grabbing
• Astri Gautama & Ramona Kammerer: The ‘resource curse’ and land grabbing: Two different approaches to the same problem?

Block II: Actors, Power and Conflict Dynamics in Land Grabbing

• Viktor Kempf: Land grabbing and conflict studies – Key concepts of conflict resolution, management and transformation
• Matthew Bonick & Israel de la Luz: Conflict mitigation by formalization of land tenure: opportunities and constraints
• Felix Idelberger: Competing uses of land: Between shifting cultivation and land grabbing
• Ana Cavalcante & Boban Dodevski: The role and power of the state in controlling land grabbing
• Mihaela Pavlova & Shi Pu: The incentives to resist and revolt against land grabbing activities

Block III: Land grabbing and development strategies

• Kerstin Lohr: Land grabbing as a national strategy for food security
• Gan Jin & Jza Rizvi: Land transactions as a means to foster poor nation’s development – a neoclassical perspective

• Joshua Otasowie & James Njorge: Does fracking imply land grabbing?

Photo

• Group photo
• Inside 1
• Inside 2