The Future of Land Governance in Shifting Glocal Contexts
Utrecht, the Netherlands | 2-4 July 2025
Call for Sessions now open! Extended to 19 January 2025!
As the LANDac contribution to the LAND-at-scale knowledge management programme draws to a close, we are pleased to use our Annual Conference 2025 as a space to share the rich learnings over five years of collaboration, and to use these learnings to inform how land governance can contribute towards equality and justice in an increasingly polarising world. We will offer two days of thought inspiring keynotes, panel sessions, round tables and other sessions for which we welcome your suggestions. Prior to the conference, on 2 July, we host a day with an educational focus, providing space for PhD and MSc students to present and exchange their work.
Over the five year period, we have seen changes in global and local contexts. Complex and interrelated crises threaten development achievements and challenge the resilience of people and governance agents. Themes central to the LAND-at-scale learning agenda have seen shifts: land and housing rights are increasingly insecure (2024 PRIndex Report), climate change more and more affects 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 efforts, women still experience inequality when it comes to their rights to land and resources. In recent times the Global North is starting to renege on its efforts to curb climate change, its (financial) support to the Global South, and anti-immigration voices are getting stronger. Democracies and human rights are under pressure, across the globe. In a connected world, such global shifts have impact at local levels. In this rather grim reality, how can we, as academics, practitioners, CSO’s and policy makers, as human beings, contribute with our plurality of knowing, of seeing, of imagining, to a more just, inclusive and sustainable land governance?
Knowledge management is a way to bring these different stakeholders together with the aim to strengthen the implementation of land governance projects and programmes and inform policy in both the Global South and North. Dedicated components aim to work on generating, managing, disseminating, and using knowledge, with a focus on learning and adaptive programme management. This conference will zoom in on how plurality of knowledges have shaped and changed the implementation of land governance activities. With an integrated KM-strategy, implemented with and by LANDac and its partners, knowledge management and learning have been at the heart of the LAND-at-scale programme since its inception. The aim was to contribute towards the impact both at global programme level, and of the local in-country projects. The LAND-at-scale knowledge management programme brought together academia, practitioners, CSOs, policy makers and donors. This has taken shape in several collaborations such as between LANDac partners and the donor, and between the knowledge management partners and implementing organisations across the different countries. At country level, practitioners from different backgrounds and with different ways of thinking jointly worked towards shared outcomes. At the LANDac conference, we want to reflect on: What lessons can be learned from such collaborations, what has been the impact? At the same time, we want to look forward to see how these experiences can inform future land governance interventions in a glocal world where interconnected global and local issues are being reshaped.
Conference themes
The themes of the 2025 conference align with the objectives and themes of the LAND-at-scale knowledge management programme. In addition to the themes outlined below, cross-cutting themes are tenure security, gender and climate change in both rural and urban contexts. We welcome empirical, theoretical and philosophical contributions as well as practical and impact-oriented ones in the Global South and North. We now invite session proposals on the following themes (please consult the instructions for submission below).
Shaping collaborations for just land governance
Working towards a fairer world involves addressing challenges at multiple scales and domains. Collaborations across different social and geographical spaces, disciplines, and positionalities might offer ways to address interconnected issues, but such collaborations come with challenges of their own. For this theme, we are interested in understanding the negotiation of power and knowledge in such collaborations and the transformative potential that might or might not be generated. We welcome sessions that discuss experiences of collaboration, how these engage with difference and plurality, and the (dis-) encounters involved. (How) can co-creation work? How to deal with different views on what is “just” and how to get there? How to translate lessons from one experience of collaboration to the next? Is collaboration always better than no collaboration?
Impact of knowledge
To effectively address the complex challenges of good land governance, knowledge management increasingly operates at the intersection of legal, social, economic, and environmental dimensions, while striving to integrate diverse sources of knowledge. Within this theme, we seek to deepen our understanding of how integrating diverse knowledge sources can create meaningful impact. We welcome contributions that address the following key questions. What is the influence of various knowledge sources on policy and practice in the field of land rights and governance, and how do policy and practice, in turn, shape these sources? What are the pathways through which such impacts are achieved? Moreover, what lessons can we draw from these pathways to optimise the use of diverse knowledge sources?
Scaling and innovating approaches to land governance
Land and housing rights are increasingly insecure. New approaches and thinking have been implemented to strengthen land governance. One line of development focuses on new technologies, while another approach focuses on new collaborations and policy instruments directed at fit-for-purpose or bottom-up and community-based initiatives. What have we learned from such new methods and approaches? (How) can these be scaled responsibly to different contexts? And how to ensure institutionalisation for durable solutions and long-term sustainability?
Land governance in contexts of increased migration and mobility
Debates on land politics and migration have conventionally focused on fixing people to a particular space by regularising land tenure, containing migrants within a territory, and enforcing boundaries against outsiders. In these debates, little attention has been paid to how land and human mobilities are mutually linked – how land politics and governance arrangements shape migration, and how mobilities influence land use and access to land for different groups of people. As increasing numbers of people are on the move due to conflict, to climate change, to build livelihoods and seek opportunities; or many people are also immobile despite risks, we need new insights into the question whether the focus on fixing people in a place or securing land titles helps people – especially when we pay attention to intersectional gender inequalities and power relations – to prosper in the increasingly volatile world. Given the salience of mobility and immobility worldwide, this theme invites contributions to the question how to make land governance – traditionally geared towards sedentarism – better prepared for future migration/mobility?
Land governance in post-conflict contexts/settings
Violent conflicts tend to seriously influence land and property-related issues, due to protracted displacement and partial return, irregular war-related acquisitions, and erosion of land governance capacity and legitimacy. What is the role of land governance and its reform in post-conflict period? How does it help rebuild war-torn societies or instead cause new conflict? How to deal with overlapping land rights due to government endorsed, but contested reallocation, long-term occupation of land by refugees, or competing tenure systems? To what extent can reform programmes from less conflictive settings inspire post-conflict reforms?
Global connections, local approaches
The world is interconnected, people engage across places. In recent times of geopolitical shifts and increased nationalism – while global interconnectedness has not weakened – land governance at local levels faces new challenges. Under this theme we want to explore the following questions: What is the space for local ways of land governance and climate resilience particularly when financed by Western (donor) funds? What is the role of international relations in re-shaping control over land and natural resources and ‘vice versa’? How does decolonisation play out within land governance, and with new geo-political actors entering the scene? And how can local voices and knowledges be better represented in global value chains, trade agreements, and international policies for food security and climate change?
Submitting session proposals
The window for submitting session proposals is now open and closes on 19 January 2025. Session proposals must be submitted in English using the submission form which you can download here. Email the completed form to: landac2025@gmail.com.
Please note that we will only consider proposals using the format, indicating title, contact person, which of the themes the session relates to; what will be the format of the session; and if they open up to submission of abstracts or select all presenters themselves.
Session organisers, please note: even though we will offer some opportunity for online presentations, the session organiser commits to being physically present in Utrecht and taking responsibility for hosting the session.
The 2-day conference kick-offs with prominent keynote speakers, followed by several rounds of parallel sessions in 1,5 hour slots and a closing keynote plenary. As in previous editions of the conference, we welcome a variety of formats: paper presentations, panel discussions, round tables for these two days. On 3 July we will close the day with drinks, offering ample opportunities for networking.
Prior to conference, on 2 July, we host a day for early career researchers, providing space for PhDs and MSc students to share their knowledge, think about how to present this knowledge to other stakeholders, and to inspire each other. This day is open for all.
The conference will be concentrated on-site, in Utrecht. We aim to stream keynote sessions. We will have the possibility to host a limited number of sessions in hybrid format.
Regular updates on keynote speakers, accepted sessions, and other details on the programme will be shared through the LANDac website and the LANDac mailing list.
Key Dates
The conference takes place on 3 and 4 July 2025.
The Call for sessionscloses on 19 January 2025. Applicants will be informed on the acceptance of their session by 23 January 2025.
Accepted sessions will be published and call for abstracts for papers will open on 27 January 2025 and close on 23 February 2025. Acceptance of papers will be communicated by 3 March 2025.
On 2 July 2025 an early career researchers event will kick-off the conference. Calls for interest will be open from 27 January – 23 February.
Registration will open early February 2025 and close end of June 2025.
Please note: Visa application procedures to the EU are lengthy. We strongly advise to start booking an appointment well ahead of time.
Registration and Fees
Registration for the conference will open in February and close at the end of June 2025. • Early Bird fee: €175 (before 17 April 2025) • Regular fee: €225 (from 17 April 2025) • PhD students: €100 • MSc students: €50
Updates on the programme will be published on the LANDac website.
Organising Committee
Kei Otsuki (IDS-UU, co-chair), Femke van Noorloos (IDS-UU, co-chair), Wytske Chamberlain (LANDac/LAND-at-scale), Gemma van der Haar (LANDac & WUR), Marja Spierenburg (Leiden University), Dimo Todorovski (ITC-University of Twente), Gemma Betsema (RVO LAND-at-scale), Mathijs van Leeuwen (Radboud University), Bertus Wennink (KIT Institute), Brent Sandtke (IDS-UU).
Supported by
Summer School
The conference forms part of the LANDac/Utrecht University Summer School. This Summer School takes place from 30 June – 11 July. Titled “Fair Land Governance and the Politics of Competing Claims”, it offers a space to explore the multiple and competing claims of various actors on land, how these are framed and how they can be understood. For more information and to register, visit the Utrecht Summer School website. For enquiries, contact landac2025@gmail.com.
Last Updated: 8th January 2025 by Coordinator
LANDac Annual Conference 2025
CALL FOR SESSIONS
Plurality of Knowledge:
The Future of Land Governance in Shifting Glocal Contexts
Utrecht, the Netherlands | 2-4 July 2025
Call for Sessions now open! Extended to 19 January 2025!
As the LANDac contribution to the LAND-at-scale knowledge management programme draws to a close, we are pleased to use our Annual Conference 2025 as a space to share the rich learnings over five years of collaboration, and to use these learnings to inform how land governance can contribute towards equality and justice in an increasingly polarising world. We will offer two days of thought inspiring keynotes, panel sessions, round tables and other sessions for which we welcome your suggestions. Prior to the conference, on 2 July, we host a day with an educational focus, providing space for PhD and MSc students to present and exchange their work.
Over the five year period, we have seen changes in global and local contexts. Complex and interrelated crises threaten development achievements and challenge the resilience of people and governance agents. Themes central to the LAND-at-scale learning agenda have seen shifts: land and housing rights are increasingly insecure (2024 PRIndex Report), climate change more and more affects 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 efforts, women still experience inequality when it comes to their rights to land and resources. In recent times the Global North is starting to renege on its efforts to curb climate change, its (financial) support to the Global South, and anti-immigration voices are getting stronger. Democracies and human rights are under pressure, across the globe. In a connected world, such global shifts have impact at local levels. In this rather grim reality, how can we, as academics, practitioners, CSO’s and policy makers, as human beings, contribute with our plurality of knowing, of seeing, of imagining, to a more just, inclusive and sustainable land governance?
Knowledge management is a way to bring these different stakeholders together with the aim to strengthen the implementation of land governance projects and programmes and inform policy in both the Global South and North. Dedicated components aim to work on generating, managing, disseminating, and using knowledge, with a focus on learning and adaptive programme management. This conference will zoom in on how plurality of knowledges have shaped and changed the implementation of land governance activities. With an integrated KM-strategy, implemented with and by LANDac and its partners, knowledge management and learning have been at the heart of the LAND-at-scale programme since its inception. The aim was to contribute towards the impact both at global programme level, and of the local in-country projects. The LAND-at-scale knowledge management programme brought together academia, practitioners, CSOs, policy makers and donors. This has taken shape in several collaborations such as between LANDac partners and the donor, and between the knowledge management partners and implementing organisations across the different countries. At country level, practitioners from different backgrounds and with different ways of thinking jointly worked towards shared outcomes. At the LANDac conference, we want to reflect on: What lessons can be learned from such collaborations, what has been the impact? At the same time, we want to look forward to see how these experiences can inform future land governance interventions in a glocal world where interconnected global and local issues are being reshaped.
Conference themes
The themes of the 2025 conference align with the objectives and themes of the LAND-at-scale knowledge management programme. In addition to the themes outlined below, cross-cutting themes are tenure security, gender and climate change in both rural and urban contexts. We welcome empirical, theoretical and philosophical contributions as well as practical and impact-oriented ones in the Global South and North. We now invite session proposals on the following themes (please consult the instructions for submission below).
Working towards a fairer world involves addressing challenges at multiple scales and domains. Collaborations across different social and geographical spaces, disciplines, and positionalities might offer ways to address interconnected issues, but such collaborations come with challenges of their own. For this theme, we are interested in understanding the negotiation of power and knowledge in such collaborations and the transformative potential that might or might not be generated. We welcome sessions that discuss experiences of collaboration, how these engage with difference and plurality, and the (dis-) encounters involved. (How) can co-creation work? How to deal with different views on what is “just” and how to get there? How to translate lessons from one experience of collaboration to the next? Is collaboration always better than no collaboration?
To effectively address the complex challenges of good land governance, knowledge management increasingly operates at the intersection of legal, social, economic, and environmental dimensions, while striving to integrate diverse sources of knowledge. Within this theme, we seek to deepen our understanding of how integrating diverse knowledge sources can create meaningful impact. We welcome contributions that address the following key questions. What is the influence of various knowledge sources on policy and practice in the field of land rights and governance, and how do policy and practice, in turn, shape these sources? What are the pathways through which such impacts are achieved? Moreover, what lessons can we draw from these pathways to optimise the use of diverse knowledge sources?
Land and housing rights are increasingly insecure. New approaches and thinking have been implemented to strengthen land governance. One line of development focuses on new technologies, while another approach focuses on new collaborations and policy instruments directed at fit-for-purpose or bottom-up and community-based initiatives. What have we learned from such new methods and approaches? (How) can these be scaled responsibly to different contexts? And how to ensure institutionalisation for durable solutions and long-term sustainability?
Debates on land politics and migration have conventionally focused on fixing people to a particular space by regularising land tenure, containing migrants within a territory, and enforcing boundaries against outsiders. In these debates, little attention has been paid to how land and human mobilities are mutually linked – how land politics and governance arrangements shape migration, and how mobilities influence land use and access to land for different groups of people. As increasing numbers of people are on the move due to conflict, to climate change, to build livelihoods and seek opportunities; or many people are also immobile despite risks, we need new insights into the question whether the focus on fixing people in a place or securing land titles helps people – especially when we pay attention to intersectional gender inequalities and power relations – to prosper in the increasingly volatile world. Given the salience of mobility and immobility worldwide, this theme invites contributions to the question how to make land governance – traditionally geared towards sedentarism – better prepared for future migration/mobility?
Violent conflicts tend to seriously influence land and property-related issues, due to protracted displacement and partial return, irregular war-related acquisitions, and erosion of land governance capacity and legitimacy. What is the role of land governance and its reform in post-conflict period? How does it help rebuild war-torn societies or instead cause new conflict? How to deal with overlapping land rights due to government endorsed, but contested reallocation, long-term occupation of land by refugees, or competing tenure systems? To what extent can reform programmes from less conflictive settings inspire post-conflict reforms?
The world is interconnected, people engage across places. In recent times of geopolitical shifts and increased nationalism – while global interconnectedness has not weakened – land governance at local levels faces new challenges. Under this theme we want to explore the following questions: What is the space for local ways of land governance and climate resilience particularly when financed by Western (donor) funds? What is the role of international relations in re-shaping control over land and natural resources and ‘vice versa’? How does decolonisation play out within land governance, and with new geo-political actors entering the scene? And how can local voices and knowledges be better represented in global value chains, trade agreements, and international policies for food security and climate change?
Submitting session proposals
The window for submitting session proposals is now open and closes on 19 January 2025. Session proposals must be submitted in English using the submission form which you can download here. Email the completed form to: landac2025@gmail.com.
Please note that we will only consider proposals using the format, indicating title, contact person, which of the themes the session relates to; what will be the format of the session; and if they open up to submission of abstracts or select all presenters themselves.
Session organisers, please note: even though we will offer some opportunity for online presentations, the session organiser commits to being physically present in Utrecht and taking responsibility for hosting the session.
Conference Format (draft)
The 2-day conference kick-offs with prominent keynote speakers, followed by several rounds of parallel sessions in 1,5 hour slots and a closing keynote plenary. As in previous editions of the conference, we welcome a variety of formats: paper presentations, panel discussions, round tables for these two days. On 3 July we will close the day with drinks, offering ample opportunities for networking.
Prior to conference, on 2 July, we host a day for early career researchers, providing space for PhDs and MSc students to share their knowledge, think about how to present this knowledge to other stakeholders, and to inspire each other. This day is open for all.
The conference will be concentrated on-site, in Utrecht. We aim to stream keynote sessions. We will have the possibility to host a limited number of sessions in hybrid format.
Regular updates on keynote speakers, accepted sessions, and other details on the programme will be shared through the LANDac website and the LANDac mailing list.
Key Dates
The conference takes place on 3 and 4 July 2025.
The Call for sessions closes on 19 January 2025. Applicants will be informed on the acceptance of their session by 23 January 2025.
Accepted sessions will be published and call for abstracts for papers will open on 27 January 2025 and close on 23 February 2025. Acceptance of papers will be communicated by 3 March 2025.
On 2 July 2025 an early career researchers event will kick-off the conference. Calls for interest will be open from 27 January – 23 February.
Registration will open early February 2025 and close end of June 2025.
Please note: Visa application procedures to the EU are lengthy. We strongly advise to start booking an appointment well ahead of time.
Registration and Fees
Registration for the conference will open in February and close at the end of June 2025.
• Early Bird fee: €175 (before 17 April 2025)
• Regular fee: €225 (from 17 April 2025)
• PhD students: €100
• MSc students: €50
Contact
Contact the conference organisers by email: landac2025@gmail.com
Updates on the programme will be published on the LANDac website.
Organising Committee
Kei Otsuki (IDS-UU, co-chair), Femke van Noorloos (IDS-UU, co-chair), Wytske Chamberlain (LANDac/LAND-at-scale), Gemma van der Haar (LANDac & WUR), Marja Spierenburg (Leiden University), Dimo Todorovski (ITC-University of Twente), Gemma Betsema (RVO LAND-at-scale), Mathijs van Leeuwen (Radboud University), Bertus Wennink (KIT Institute), Brent Sandtke (IDS-UU).
Supported by
Summer School
The conference forms part of the LANDac/Utrecht University Summer School. This Summer School takes place from 30 June – 11 July. Titled “Fair Land Governance and the Politics of Competing Claims”, it offers a space to explore the multiple and competing claims of various actors on land, how these are framed and how they can be understood. For more information and to register, visit the Utrecht Summer School website. For enquiries, contact landac2025@gmail.com.
Category: Conference 2025, Conference News, Events, News