Community and conservation land ownership in highland Scotland: A common focus in a changing context

Legislation on the topic of land reform will enter statute during the lifetime of the first administration of the Scottish Parliament. It is thus timely to review types of land ownership that have evolved in Scotland in the recent past. This paper briefly reviews the context of the current land reform debate. It considers the characteristics of community and conservation ownership, exemplified in case studies of the North Assynt Estate (owned and run by the Assynt Crofters Trust) and the Sandwood Estate (owned by the John Muir Trust). Positive and negative aspects of these two management structures are illustrated and a convergence in management approaches, towards a focus on community interest and involvement, is demonstrated. The emergence of a social sector in land ownership is considered.     

Landowners and urban development: the Ramsden Estate and nineteenth-century Huddersfield

Decisions taken by a dominant landowner had different effects at different times on the changing housing market in Huddersfield. During the early stages of urban growth the Ramsden Estate held a virtual monopoly in land, but failed to exercise its power to control building. Corruption by local agents led to the establishment of tenancy at will, an unusual system of land tenure, which encouraged the development of a very small-scale building industry. Changes in ownership in the 1840s were followed by stiff measures to control the character of building including the prohibition of back-to-back houses. By the second half of the century, competition between landowners increased and the Ramsden Estate was unable to attract large numbers of builders, forcing it eventually to provide land on terms they dictated.     

Land titling and poverty reduction in Southeast Asia: realising markets or realising rights?∗

AusAID has supported land titling projects in Southeast Asia with the World Bank for over two decades. These involve the first-time issuance of a land title in cases where the ownership rights of current occupiers are largely assured. Reflecting neoliberal thinking on private property rights and development, the rationale is that titling builds land markets and increases tenure security, investment and access to institutional credit. However, international research indicates that land titling can be neither sufficient or necessary to deliver such benefits and, under some circumstances, can harm poor landholders’ wellbeing. In this respect, attention is paid to political factors in addition to property rights per se which influence their tenure security. It is argued that the value which neoliberalism places on the exclusivity of ownership of land, to enable its efficient use and allocation, can be in conflict with the importance to poor people of secure access and use rights. If AusAID is to fully commit to poverty reduction goals, then there will need to be more attention paid to the social justice dimensions of land distribution in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.     

Between court and counts: Carolingian Catalonia and the aprisio grant, 778–897

In the late eighth century, Charlemagne issued a new kind of land grant in Septimania and the Spanish March to refugees fleeing Muslim Spain. This grant, the aprisio , was made from fiscal land in deserted areas and included special rights and immunities. Previous scholars have interpreted the aprisio in economic and military terms as a mechanism to entice settlers to the region in order to make the land productive and to provide warriors to defend the Frankish frontier. This article suggests that political concerns also may have played an important role, arguing that the aprisio grant was an attempt by Carolingian kings to limit the power exercised by very powerful marcher counts.     

城市内部不同所有制制造业区位时空演变研究——以无锡为例

制造业发展及其区位演变是中国近30年来城乡空间发展的主要动力,不同所有制制造业区位变迁是解读经济体制改革作用于城乡空间发展机制的重要视角。基于1985、2004、2013年制造业企业数据,运用空间分析技术及计量模型,探讨无锡不同所有制制造业区位演变规律及其体制动因。结果表明:无锡制造业空间从以中心城区为主的"单中心"格局向以郊区为主的"多中心"格局演进,表现出显著的郊区化和空间不均衡特征,其中土地有偿使用的市场力量和各类开发区设立的行政引导是重要驱动机制,而区位通达性因素的影响相对较弱;不同所有制制造业的区位演变呈现出差异化的体制响应特征。本研究对无锡的产业布局优化和城乡规划具有重要参考意义。     

论汉代土地所有制的结构和运动

本文从土地所有制形成和发展的前提--劳动与土地的结合这一思维视角,分析了汉代土地所有制的结构和运动的前提条件、基本结构、运动特点和运动的结果,从中总结出中国专制主义中央集权时代土地所有制的形成和发展规律.     

A Stake in Place? The Geography of Employee Ownership and its Implications for a Stakeholding Society

In recent years employee ownership has become a means by which some workers facing privatization, closure or takeover have attempted to defend their jobs and communities. Proponents of a 'stakeholding' society have advocated the widening of share ownership as a means of democratizing the economy, building partnerships and achieving consensus at work. But is employee ownership able to sustain local investment and industrial partnership? Through a detailed case study of a management and employee buyout in the railway industry, I suggest that the ability of employee ownership to fix investment in place may be enhanced by relations of 'stakeholding', increasing employee commitment to the firm and its future. In the case studied here, however, lack of employee power and finance effectively excluded most workers from the processes and philosophy of the buyout. The new ownership structure did little to reshape local relations between workers and those in control. While ownership cannot eradicate economic threats to community, it might, if used as a mechanism to promote new styles of management and employee commitment, foster long-term success. It is argued that government and trade unions can do more to promote wider employee ownership and participation at work in the future.     

The Conservatives' Search for a Middle Way in Housing, 1951-64

The Conservatives returned to power in 1951, determined to createa property-owning democracy by freeing the market in land andhousing. But freeing the market proved to be no panacea andaroused much criticism. Most important, public housing continuedto expand as the major alternative to private home ownership,in part because the supply of private rented housing declinedprecipitously. Dismayed at this situation, the Conservativesbecame increasingly concerned to find an affordable alternativeto the continued expansion of public housing. To achieve thisgoal, they attempted to foster novel types of private ownershipin the form of societies that could provide either some sortof co-operative housing or rental housing at cost. Ultimately,these attempts to create a middle way in housing failed becausethey ignored the realities of the property market.     

Transitions in Payments for Ecosystem Services in Guatemala: Embedding Forestry Incentives into Rural Development Value Systems

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programmes increasingly reflect multiple stakeholder demands and rarely operate in market form. In Guatemala, the earliest forestry incentives — a form of PES — benefited larger landowners and functioned as subsidies for both extractive forest production and ecosystem services. Smallholders and indigenous communal land managers in Guatemala campaigned for PES programmes to meet their needs, leading to the creation of a second programme that focuses on improving rural development, coupled with ecosystem services. This article examines how these historically marginalized groups have used PES as an opportunity to engage with the state and demand embedded development that more strongly reflects their values of forests and their desired relationship with the Guatemalan state. As a result of this activism, these Guatemalan forestry incentives reach smallholders more successfully than PES programmes in many other countries. However, more far-reaching changes in land use are tempered by power imbalances and structural inequalities that are unaddressed and, in fact, reinforced by PES programmes, such as underfunding, narrow conceptions of land ownership, and unequal representation.     

Actors,Decisions and Policy Changes in Local Urbanization

Land-use policies have long been recognized as important driving forces of urbanization, but little research has been conducted on the interrelationship of actors, policy decision processes and changes in the built environment. In this paper, we use the advocacy coalition framework to analyse policy decisions that affected the development of the built environment in three Swiss municipalities between 1970 and 2007. We found that all three municipalities experienced the same major policy changes, namely a new definition of the role of urban management (1970s); the adoption of an environment- and problem-oriented approach in land-use planning (1980s) as well as an increased emphasis on public participation and intra-municipal coordination (1990s). Although national laws and actors have shaped the crucial driving forces of urban change, local actors, their coalitions and the local distribution of resources crucially determined these decisions in the study period. Our findings suggest that a stronger focus on local actors, their coalitions and resources could greatly improve our understanding of spatial development processes in Switzerland. For instance, as land ownership turned out to be a crucial resource, Swiss municipalities could benefit from engaging more actively in the land market.     

农村土地交易的权利配置及利益分享

农村土地交易的现状是令人担忧的,现行物权法为农村土地交易厘清了所有权及其相关权利的关系。但是。农村土地交易仅仅依靠物权法是无法解决的。农村土地交易权利配置与利益分享机制是解决农村土地问题的关键。构建以农地发展权为基础的农地制度,再进行具体的制度安排,是构建我国土地交易利益分享机制的有效途径。     

旅游增权理论本土化研究——云南迪庆案例

增权是促进旅游发展公平性和可持续性的有效途径。本文通过对云南省迪庆州政府、开发商与当地居民在旅游发展中的权力关系状态的实地调查,探索将旅游增权理论应用于中国旅游实践的框架和途径。研究表明,在旅游发展过程中,由于旅游资源产权界定不清晰、信息不对称、缺乏权利意识和管理技能,社区居民普遍处于被排斥的无权状态,导致了旅游发展中尖锐的社会冲突,成为我国旅游发展面临的最大的约束和引发各种社会矛盾的根源。必须打破不平衡的权力关系,增进社区的权能。其中,明晰资源产权,改革旅游资源租赁使用制度是解决所有问题的起点,同时也需要信息增权和教育增权的支持。     

Hill of Thorns: Custom,Knowledge and the Reclaiming of a Lost Land in the New South Africa

This article provides a detailed ethnographic exploration of a case of land restitution in South Africa. It shows how the development discourse invoked during the process of reclaiming land, rather than being imposed in an entirely top‐down manner, has been the result of negotiations between those claiming and those — in government and NGOs — who have helped them claim. The resulting knowledge about the ownership and appropriate governance of land reveals a complex and often contradictory understanding of concepts like ‘custom’, ‘community’ and ‘power’.     

Land as fictitious commodity: the continuing evolution of women's land rights in Uganda

In sub-Saharan Africa, colonial influences have altered traditional practices as a way to manage that which Polanyi labeled as ‘fictitious commodities’ of land, labor, and money. Land has now become a highly marketable commodity and an intrinsic part of the global economy. Over the past century, Uganda's land rights have evolved from communal rights to that of male-dominated, individual ownership practices that have excluded women. Despite constitutional provisions, which confer title of both a deceased husband's property rights and equal rights to property within a marriage to a wife, postcolonial patriarchal tradition prevails. This article examines historical changes in land rights in Uganda and discusses the impact of shifts in land rights from communal ownership to individual tenure, altering power structures and attempting to create marketable land title. The Ugandan women's movement's opposition to policies and implementation of laws that exclude women has been unable to facilitate the required changes in unbiased access to land rights, despite apparent victories in revisions to the letter of the law. Situated within contemporary interpretations of tradition and pressures of market demand, this article shows that women's access to landownership and use are restricted by misinterpretation of traditional law and a lack of enforcement of contemporary legal rights. To illustrate the impact of a lack of access to land, this article examines an empirical case study of widowed subsistence farmers in southern Uganda. Women in Uganda continue to lose ground, quite literally, decreasing the possibility of gender equity in terms of land.     

唐代土地私有权问题研究

唐代土地所有权经历了从公有到私有的动态演变过程。唐代土地私有权的形态包括永业田、园宅墓田、寺院土地。在国家法律逐渐放宽对土地买卖限制的背景下,唐代土地私有权的扩张主要是通过土地买卖实现的。唐代中后期土地私有权极度发展,地主庄园成为土地高度私有化的典型体现。     

汉代限田制说

张家山汉简《二年律令.户律》之受田宅律文,其实施对象是汉初军队系统的复员人员,而非全国人民,是"法以有功劳行田宅"精神的具体体现。此土地授予前属于国有,授予后即归被授者私有。"授田"与"授田制"是不同的概念,汉代虽然存在授田的现象,但并不存在战国授田制那种形式的土地制度。军功授田、民户自有的土地以及买卖而来的土地是汉初名田的三个来源。汉初,国家一方面承认民户对土地的所有权,同时对土地的转让、买卖和继承予以一定的限制,其方法是不同等级规定不同的数量限额,目的是维护既存的等级制度和抑制土地兼并。因此,汉代名田制是土地私有制基础上的限田制。     

Impact of property rights and ownership on the development of Warsaw’s contemporary city centre

The paper raises the problem of the impact of unregulated property and ownership rights on the development of the city centre. It applies to Warsaw as a post-socialist city that has recorded fast economic growth since the country’s communist regime collapsed in 1989. We follow the course of changes in the city centre of Warsaw, in particular, those pertaining to land use and high-rise buildings for office use as investments that encounter difficulties under the unregulated status of construction sites and lack of clear regulations for private property restitution that was nationalized under socialism. To describe and explain the difficulties, we provide data showing the location of large companies and office buildings, and examples of conflicts as well. Unregulated ownership issues and property rights weigh on Warsaw’s city centre, now vastly dispersing and gravitating westwards, and prevent the district from rational and effective development.     

Housing Developments in Moscow in the 1990s

Ownership of an apartment is fast becoming something that most Muscovites will have in common. The privatization of the housing stock has resulted in a highly speculative housing market, and the buying and selling of apartments is slowly altering the social geography of Moscow. The construction of Western-style housing catering to the newly wealthy, while still very limited, is nonetheless symbolic of the changes under way. Control over property, that is, land and buildings, is a highly contentious political issue in Russia. Land represents wealth, and in Moscow there is strong political resistance to allowing private ownership of it. This paper examines some of dimensions of the privatization of housing in particular, and the private and public sector interests involved in property development in general. 7 figures, 2 tables, 16 references.     

‘NOBLESSE DE ROBE’ IN A CLASSLESS SOCIETY

This article deals with the effect of ownership and control of land on women's remarriages in early modern Western Norway. Marrying a tenant widow gave her new husband the right to tenure. On freeholder farms the eldest son, according to Norwegian odelsrett and åseterett, had the right to inherit the farm. When land-seeking youngsters obtained tenure by marrying tenant widows, these widows became highly attractive marriage partners, in contrast to widows of freeholder peasants where no secure position could be obtained for the new husband. Legal succession rights thus highly restricted the decisions of freeholder peasants' widows. Tenant widows had a wider range of choices closely linked to their control over land and land transfer. They were not mere passive marriage objects. In an open tenant land market widows could choose between running their farm by hired labour or with assistance from their children, they could remarry and thus acquire male labour in their household or they might benefit from giving up their tenure. Their decisions to a considerable degree influenced succession patterns on Norwegian tenant farms in the early modern period.     

改革人事档案“终身”制之我见

随着社会主义市场经济的发展和干部人事制度的改革,人事档案管理的“终身”制已越来越不适应新形势发展的需要。对此,笔者建议,可以借鉴法国《档案法》的有关规定,允许人事档案有一定的封闭期。同时,建立人事档案的多种形式,即一人一生可以只有一份人事档案,也可以有多份人事档案,也可以没有人事档案。