Routledge Global Trends in Land Tenure Reform: Gender Impacts (Routledge ISS Gender, Sexuality and Development Studies)

This book explores the gendered dimensions of recent land governance transformations across the globe in the wake of unprecedented pressures on land and natural resources. These complex contemporary forces are reconfiguring livelihoods and impacting women’s positions, their tenure security and well-being, and that of their families. Bringing together fourteen empirical community case studies from around the world, the book examines governance transformations of land and land-based resources resulting from four major processes of tenure change: commercial land based investments, the formalization of customary tenure, the privatization of communal lands, and post-conflict resettlement and redistribution reforms. Each contribution carefully analyses the gendered dimensions of these transformations, exploring both the gender impact of the land tenure reforms and the social and political economy within which these reforms materialize. The cases provide important insights for decision makers to better promote and design an effective gender lens into land tenure reforms and natural resource management policies. This book will be of great interest to researchers engaging with land and natural resource management issues from a wide variety of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, development studies, and political science, as well as policy makers, practitioners, and activists concerned with environment, development, and social equity. Review "This carefully researched book is a welcome new contribution to our understanding of the implications of major ongoing changes on the land front, which are taking place all around the world, especially in developing countries. The case studies – which span a range from Argentina to Zimbabwe – deepen our understanding of the risks as well as potential benefits for women and men, for productivity and growth as well as equity. The book provides relevant and important lessons and insights for anyone interested in development." Jeni Klugman, Harvard University, USA "Powerful changes in land tenure regimes are taking place globally, yet all too often a gender lens is missing. Through 14 case studies, this volume documents the gender impacts of land grabs, the formalization of customary tenure, the privatization of communal lands, and post-conflict resettlement reforms and makes a strong case for the urgency of improving women’s tenure security. This is a must-read for all those concerned with processes of agrarian change." Carmen Diana Deere, University of Florida, USA "Gender is so frequently and scandalously overlooked in discussions of land tenure reform that one can only welcome this exciting new collection, which ranges across the continents and provides compelling examples of women’s struggles to assert the rights which are so frequently denied them." Robin Palmer, Mokoro, UK "This volume provides much-needed empirical evidence on the gender impacts of a range of transformations of land rights. The case studies provide nuance to our understanding of how many planned land tenure reforms as well as new economic opportunities have affected women’s security of tenure. Alas, despite growing evidence of the importance of women’s land rights, few of the reforms have strengthened women’s control over land, but there are many lessons in this volume on what can be done (or not done) to improve this in the future." Ruth Meinzen-Dick, International Food Policy Research Institute, USA About the Author Caroline S. Archambault is an anthropologist and Senior Researcher in the International Development Studies Group at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Annelies Zoomers is a human geographer and Professor of International Development Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands.