Course: Interdisciplinary Master Seminar on "The Political Economy of Land Grabbing"

Land Grabbing refers to large-scale land acquisition and lease contracts between investors on the side and state agencies of the target countries - mostly developing countries on the other side. Such large-scale land deals have been criticized for a variety of reasons including forceful deprivation of land and livelihood options from previous land users, putting food security in the target countries at risk and giving rise to violent social conflicts. At the heart of such criticism lies the assumption that power asymmetries are misused to the severe detriment of local land users.

In this seminar we will use the approach of Political Economy to understand the power asymmetries and conflict dynamics of Land Grabbing and the role of institutional design options at international, national, regional and local levels to regulate land use and land transactions.

Course Overview

Further information (examination and registration modalities, topics etc.) can be found here.