Fixing a Swamp of Cobras: The Clash between Capital and Water in Shaping Urban Vulnerabilities

This paper addresses how capital can refashion landscapes and patterns of risk and vulnerability. Drawing on the emblematic case of the conversion of Thailand’s Cobra Swamp into Suvarnabhumi International Airport we argue that there is a fundamental clash between the internal logic of capital accumulation and the ecology of water that occurs in places in which land is under water for much of the year. Counterintuitively investment in public infrastructure such as airports targets locations that are exposed to flood risks. While the literature on capital fixes tends to treat “land” writ large, this paper adds a dimension that has been overlooked in the theoretical work, by highlighting the significance of the ecology of the land in which such fixes occur as a means of understanding patterns of investment, land use change and vulnerability. Our analysis draws on three separate but related concepts of capital “fixes”—spatial, technological and high/low road fixes. We argue the importance of recognising the specific ecological characteristics of land that capital “fixes”. This perspective has global significance in providing critical insight into the ways in which capital creates and accommodates the kinds of vulnerabilities and risks associated with climate change.     

江苏省土地城镇化的空间分异及其主导因素探测

实现新型城镇化战略的重要前提是科学认识土地城镇化的特征及机制,其难点在于识别影响土地城镇化的主导因素以进行针对性调控。基于空间自相关分析、地理探测器等方法,识别江苏省土地城镇化水平的空间分异特征及其主导因素。结果显示：①江苏省的土地城镇化水平为38.90%,呈现出南高北低的梯度分异格局。②土地城镇化水平的热点区、次热点区集中分布在苏南以及苏中的南通市区、泰州市区及其周围县（市）,次冷点区包围着冷点区主要分布苏北的县（市）及苏中的宝应县。③人口集聚类、经济发展类、社会投资类的因素对土地城镇化空间分异影响最为显著;基础设施类、开放水平类的部分因素的对土地城镇化空间分异有一定的解释能力。     

Policy of Delay: Evidence from a Bayesian Analysis of Metropolitan Land‐Use Choices

Do local policymakers strategically use delay in permitting development to forestall the growth machine? The mantras of smart growth and sustainable development assume local governments can balance the competing values of economic development, ecology, and equity interests in a community. We employ a political market framework to explain differences in local government land use decisions. This framework conceptualizes policy choices as resulting from the interplay between the aggregate policy demand by residents, developers, and environmental interests and the aggregate supply by government authorities. Delays can be imposed strategically through processes of development approval by city governments where industry strength and form of government vary within county‐level service‐delivery fragmentation. We utilize novel Bayesian multilevel modelling of data collected from 2007 and 2015 surveys of Florida city planners and find strong institutional effects and multilevel relationships.     

Rule of Law Expedited: Land Title Reform and Justice in Burma (Myanmar)

Abstract

The development of rule of law is touted as one of the most important considerations in Burma (Myanmar) today, yet its meaning is highly contested after fifty years of military rule. This paper will examine how the rule of law in Burma’s transitional political environment has been influenced by the legacies of military rule and the government’s development policies since 2011. A series of laws introduced by the Thein Sein government under the rubric of rule of law and good governance had a significant impact upon small hold farmers across the country. While some laws specifically related to farmers and their land, others encouraged private investment in the land used by farmers. The combined effect of these laws was to formalise the pattern of land grabbing that had developed under the previous government and to encourage land speculation. Moreover, they show how an expedited procedural rule of law incited conflict and further injustice. Any progress towards substantive justice and a more democratic rule of law must keep pace with improvements in the country’s limited administrative and judicial capacities. Whether, and how far, Burma can develop and move beyond a thin or procedural rule of law will be tested as the country experiences life under the NLD government.     

Negotiating Green Space with Landed Interests: The Urban Political Ecology of Greenway in the Pearl River Delta,China

Land‐centred urbanisation has precipitated shortage of green space in Chinese cities. However, in the Pearl River Delta, an ambitious greenway system has recently managed to flourish. It is intriguing to ask how this has become possible. Informed by the perspective of urban political ecology, this paper finds that the greenway project in the Pearl River Delta represents a set of politically realistic endeavours to alleviate urban green space shortage by adapting to, rather than challenging, powerful landed interests. Three interlocking dimensions about land—municipal land quota, rural land use claims, and real estate development—have influenced why, where and how greenways have been created. Based on these findings, we argue that research on China's politics of urban sustainability necessarily needs to understand the country's land politics.     

西周时期周天子拥有土地法权的意义

在西周土地关系问题上,周天子作为全国最高的统治者,其土地所有权无疑是最重要的一环。周天子所拥有的土地法权具有非常重要的实际意义,成为西周推行其他各项政策和制度的前提,体现并维护着周天子作为天下共主的地位和权利。     

南宋砧基簿与鱼鳞图册的关系

鱼鳞图册源于南宋初的砧基簿,因限于史料,一般多将砧基簿与鱼鳞图册等同起来。实际上,设计之初的砧基簿基本上依旧属于户籍系统,随后才逐渐从中演化出了属于独立的专门地籍性质的鱼鳞图册。鱼鳞图册出现的前提是在田亩登记在砧基簿土地绘图的基础上,对田段采用字号编排以脱离户名,从而使分散的土地绘图通过分级简化方式制成都保以上合图。这一过渡完成于南宋中期。     

大别山解放区土改政策演变探析

大别山解放区土改政策的演变深受政治、军事环境影响。最初受我强敌弱和老区经验影响,实行彻底土改,取得一些成效。但随着后来敌强我弱,对形势估量不够和其他主观错误,没有及时转变政策,造成"急性土改",给干部群众造成很大损失。认识到错误后,在中央和毛泽东指示下又实施分地区分阶段有步骤的土改政策。最后根据中央指示重点实施统一战线性质的减租减息政策。土改政策演变过程是一个政策日趋符合实际的过程,体现着土改与军事、干部、群众等工作的互动,充满着中央和地方的思考交流,展示着毛泽东的从谏善断、邓小平的求实思考。大别山解放区土改政策的演变非常典型,为全国其他新区的土改提供了重要借鉴。     

Between Boundaries: From Commoning and Guerrilla Gardening to Community Land Trust Development in Liverpool

Emerging in the cracks of the ownership model are alternatives to state/market provision of affordable housing and public/private‐led regeneration of declining urban neighbourhoods, centred on commoning and collective dweller control. This paper explores how the community land trust model can become an effective institutional solution to urban decline in the context of private property relations. It explores a case study of a CLT campaign in Granby, a particularly deprived inner‐city neighbourhood in Liverpool, England. The campaign seeks to collectively acquire empty homes under conditions of austerity, which have opened up the space for grassroots experimentation with guerrilla gardening, proving important for the campaign in gaining political trust and financial support. This paper discusses the potential of the CLT model as a vehicle for democratic stewardship of place and unpacks the contradictions threatening to undermine its political legitimacy.