Land Tenure and the Future of Cities

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2019) | Viewed by 18796

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture, and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
Interests: social and legal aspects of property rights; social conflict over land; land use policy formation and implementation; informal settlement upgrading; peri-urban land management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We have become an urban planet and it is estimated that cities are growing by over 1 million people per week—primarily in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Many new urban residents reside in informal settlements (slums) with no secure land rights. Secure land rights has long been associated with a variety of social and political rights, and economic opportunities. Yet in developed countries, millenials appear to be eschewing land ownership for alternate tenure forms. What form of land tenure makes sense for the future? Should existing forms be more widely available? Are there alternative models for these unprecedented conditions? Scholars working on these and related questions in developing, transition, and developed countries are encouraged to contribute.

Prof. Harvey M. Jacobs
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • urbanization
  • land tenure
  • land ownership
  • informal settlements
  • settlement upgrading
  • mega-cities

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 8270 KiB  
Article
Evolution and Collapse of Ejidos in Mexico—To What Extent Is Communal Land Used for Urban Development?
by Melissa Schumacher, Pamela Durán-Díaz, Anne Kristiina Kurjenoja, Eduardo Gutiérrez-Juárez and David A. González-Rivas
Land 2019, 8(10), 146; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/land8100146 - 07 Oct 2019
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 14644
Abstract
The ejido system, based on communal land in Mexico, was transformed to private ownership due to neoliberal trends in the 1990s. Based on the theory of stakeholders being agents of change, this study aimed to describe the land policies that changed the ejido [...] Read more.
The ejido system, based on communal land in Mexico, was transformed to private ownership due to neoliberal trends in the 1990s. Based on the theory of stakeholders being agents of change, this study aimed to describe the land policies that changed the ejido system into private development to show how land tenure change is shaping urban growth. To demonstrate this, municipalities of San Andrés Cholula and Santa Clara Ocoyucan were selected as case studies. Within this context, we evaluated how much ejido land is being urbanized due to real estate market forces and what type of urbanization model has been created. These two areas represent different development scales with different stakeholders—San Andrés Cholula, where ejidos were expropriated as part of a regional urban development plan and Santa Clara Ocoyucan, where ejidos and rural land were reached by private developers without local planning. To analyze both municipalities, historical satellite images from Google Earth were used with GRASS GIS 7.4 (Bonn, Germany) and corrected with QGIS 2.18 (Boston, MA, US). We found that privatization of ejidos fragmented and segregated the rural world for the construction of massive gated communities as an effect of a disturbing land tenure change that has occurred over the last 30 years. Hence, this research questions the roles of local authorities in permitting land use changes with no regulations or local planning. The resulting urbanization model is a private sector development that isolates rural communities in their own territories, for which we provide recommendations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Tenure and the Future of Cities)
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19 pages, 238 KiB  
Article
Legitimacy Dilemmas in Direct Government Intervention: The Case of Public Land Development, an Example from the Netherlands
by Alexander Woestenburg, Erwin van der Krabben and Tejo Spit
Land 2019, 8(7), 110; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/land8070110 - 09 Jul 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3486
Abstract
The current paper examines the legitimacy dilemmas that rise from local governments’ direct policy instruments and market interventions. It takes the case of public land management strategies. The paper argues that current societal challenges—such as energy transition, climate change and inclusive urban innovation—require [...] Read more.
The current paper examines the legitimacy dilemmas that rise from local governments’ direct policy instruments and market interventions. It takes the case of public land management strategies. The paper argues that current societal challenges—such as energy transition, climate change and inclusive urban innovation—require planning practices to be more effective. Direct government instruments such as direct market interventions have proven to significantly reduce the implementation gap of planning practice. Looking at significant urban challenges, municipalities worldwide could be urged to apply such direct government instruments on a larger scale in the future. However, although direct government intervention in markets can be very effective, it is also controversial in terms of legitimacy. It explicitly and inevitably introduces financial incentives to the organization of government. Balancing these incentives against spatial planning interests unavoidably causes dilemmas. Based on eight Dutch case studies, this paper develops a framework to systematically spell out the legitimacy dilemmas that stem from public market intervention. It facilitates an explicit discussion on varying instrumental rationalities and improving the legitimacy of public action. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Tenure and the Future of Cities)
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