Tobias Haller

Fabian Käser

Mariah Ngutu

This Special Issue contributes to the debate on land grabbing as commons grabbing with a special focus on how the development of state institutions (formal laws and regulations for agrarian development and compensations) and voluntary corporate social responsibility (CRS) initiatives have enabled the grabbing process. It also looks at how these institutions and CSR programs are used as development strategies of states and companies to legitimate their investments. This Special Issue includes case studies from Kenya, Morocco, Tanzania, Cambodia, Bolivia and Ecuador analysing how these strategies are embedded into neo-liberal ideologies of economic development. We propose looking at James Ferguson’s notion of the Anti-Politics Machine (1990) that served to uncover the hidden political basis of state-driven development strategies. We think it is of interest to test the approach for analysing development discourses and CSR-policies in agrarian investments. We argue based on a New Institutional Political Ecology (NIPE) approach that these legitimize the institutional change from common to state and private property of land and land related common pool resources which is the basis of commons grabbing that also grabbed the capacity for resilience of local people.

Does Commons Grabbing Lead to Resilience Grabbing? The Anti-Politics Machine of Neo-Liberal Development and Local Responses

Tine De Moor

Christian Rohr

Thomas Breu

Heinzpeter Znoj

This volume focuses on how, in Europe, the debate on the commons is discussed in regard to historical and contemporary dimensions, critically referencing the work of Elinor Ostrom. It also explores from the perspective of new institutional political ecology (NIPE) how Europe directly and indirectly affected and affects the commons globally. Most of the research on the management of commons pool resources is limited to dealing with one of two topics: either the interaction between local participatory governance and development of institutions for commons management, or a political- economy approach that focuses on global change as it is related to the increasingly globalised expansion of capitalist modes of production, consumption and societal reproduction. This volume bridges the two, addressing how global players affect the commons worldwide and how they relate to responses emerging from within the commons in a global- local (glocal) world. Authors from a range of academic disciplines present research findings on recent developments on the commons, including: historical insights; new innovations for participatory institutions building in Europe or several types of commons grabbing, especially in Africa related to European investments; and restrictions on the management of commons at the international level. European case studies are included, providing interesting examples of local participation in commons resource management, while simultaneously showing Europe as a centre for globalized capitalism and its norms and values, affecting the rest of the world, particularly developing countries. This book will be of interest to students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines including natural resource management, environmental governance, political geography and environmental history.

Global Connections and Local Responses

The Commons in a Glocal World

Claudia Zingerli

Intercultural, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research interfaces confront researchers with considerable challenges. Towards Shared Research portrays how scholars from different disciplinary and geographical origins and at various academic career stages strive for a more inclusive and better understanding of knowledge about African environments. The book is addressed to researchers, facilitators, and policy-makers to make a case for participatory and integrative approaches resulting in systemic and co-created analyses.

Participatory and Integrative Approaches in Researching African Environments

Towards Shared Research

Tobias Haller

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