Fair Land Governance and the Politics of Competing Claims
Since the start of the global land rush in 2010, land governance in both the Global South and North is increasingly characterized by multiple pressures and competing claims, balancing economic growth, environmental protection and social justice. Complex and interrelated crises, at local and global level, threaten development achievements and challenge the resilience of people and governance agents. Themes central to land governance have been shifting across the globe: Land and housing rights are increasingly insecure for marginalized groups, climate change affects vulnerable people’s ability to build livelihoods from their land, increasing numbers of people are displaced due to conflict, violence, political or economic instability, and despite many policy efforts, women experience inequality when it comes to their rights to land and resources. In recent times the Global North is reneging on its efforts to curb climate change, its efforts to (financially) support the Global South, and anti-immigration voices are getting stronger. Democracies and human rights are under pressure, across the globe. Meanwhile, activists have started to advocate for giving (land) rights to nature, being inspired by decoloniality and post-human approaches, and sometimes working successfully with powerful nature conservation lobbies. In a connected world, such global shifts have impact at local levels, creating conditions for competing claims on land. In this often grim and contested reality, how can we, as academics, practitioners, CSO’s and policy makers, as human beings, position ourselves in debates on fair transitions and competing claims on land; and how can we work towards more socially just, and inclusive and sustainable forms of land governance?
In this course we consider and debate the multiple and competing claims of various actors (e.g. governments, private sector, communities, non-human actors) on land, how these are framed, and how they can be understood. Claims to land are typically legitimized with references to the (envisioned) purposes of land, such as agriculture, habitation, conservation, and also to so-called non-economic and non-human demands. To make matters more complex, claims generally overlap in time, being situated in the past and present, while there is also an urgent need to consider future generations (and their claims). Debates as how to govern land amidst such competing claims is very much informed by the positionality of the actors. In this course we aim to provide a space to explore these complexities, teaching participants to recognize land right practices and legal approaches whilst at the same time offering methods to develop realistic and fair land governance.
The course is organized by the Netherlands Academy for Land Governance (LANDac), as part of the knowledge management activities of the LAND-at-scale program, in collaboration with the IOS Fair Transitions platform (Institutions for Open Societies). LANDac is a network of organizations interested in how land governance may contribute to sustainable and inclusive development. The LAND-at-scale program is a land governance support program for developing countries supported by RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency) with the aim to contribute to fair and just tenure security and access to land and natural resources for all. The LANDac Annual Conference forms part of the Summer School program.
LANDac Summer School
LANDac Annual Summer School 2025
Fair Land Governance and the Politics of Competing Claims
Since the start of the global land rush in 2010, land governance in both the Global South and North is increasingly characterized by multiple pressures and competing claims, balancing economic growth, environmental protection and social justice. Complex and interrelated crises, at local and global level, threaten development achievements and challenge the resilience of people and governance agents. Themes central to land governance have been shifting across the globe: Land and housing rights are increasingly insecure for marginalized groups, climate change affects vulnerable people’s ability to build livelihoods from their land, increasing numbers of people are displaced due to conflict, violence, political or economic instability, and despite many policy efforts, women experience inequality when it comes to their rights to land and resources. In recent times the Global North is reneging on its efforts to curb climate change, its efforts to (financially) support the Global South, and anti-immigration voices are getting stronger. Democracies and human rights are under pressure, across the globe. Meanwhile, activists have started to advocate for giving (land) rights to nature, being inspired by decoloniality and post-human approaches, and sometimes working successfully with powerful nature conservation lobbies. In a connected world, such global shifts have impact at local levels, creating conditions for competing claims on land. In this often grim and contested reality, how can we, as academics, practitioners, CSO’s and policy makers, as human beings, position ourselves in debates on fair transitions and competing claims on land; and how can we work towards more socially just, and inclusive and sustainable forms of land governance?
In this course we consider and debate the multiple and competing claims of various actors (e.g. governments, private sector, communities, non-human actors) on land, how these are framed, and how they can be understood. Claims to land are typically legitimized with references to the (envisioned) purposes of land, such as agriculture, habitation, conservation, and also to so-called non-economic and non-human demands. To make matters more complex, claims generally overlap in time, being situated in the past and present, while there is also an urgent need to consider future generations (and their claims). Debates as how to govern land amidst such competing claims is very much informed by the positionality of the actors. In this course we aim to provide a space to explore these complexities, teaching participants to recognize land right practices and legal approaches whilst at the same time offering methods to develop realistic and fair land governance.
The course is organized by the Netherlands Academy for Land Governance (LANDac), as part of the knowledge management activities of the LAND-at-scale program, in collaboration with the IOS Fair Transitions platform (Institutions for Open Societies). LANDac is a network of organizations interested in how land governance may contribute to sustainable and inclusive development. The LAND-at-scale program is a land governance support program for developing countries supported by RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency) with the aim to contribute to fair and just tenure security and access to land and natural resources for all. The LANDac Annual Conference forms part of the Summer School program.
Get an impression of previous years!