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No owners, no masters: A critical exploration of land access and community land stewardship at Mondeggi Bene Comune

Berg, Frida Østerby LU (2022) HEKM51 20221
Department of Human Geography
Human Ecology
Abstract
Sustainable land stewardship is key for human and environmental wellbeing, yet existing policy frameworks fail to adequately grapple with the question of land access. Building on the literature on land concentration, this thesis explores strategies for land access that traverse the legal and illegal realms by examining the conflict between Mondeggi Bene Comune, a land occupation near Florence, Italy, and the local authorities. Through an ethnographic field study at the occupation, it explores research questions concerning what the conflict is about, how the occupiers navigate legal and illegal strategies to retain control of the land, and what this reveals about the problem of land access on a wider scale. By viewing the occupiers as... (More)
Sustainable land stewardship is key for human and environmental wellbeing, yet existing policy frameworks fail to adequately grapple with the question of land access. Building on the literature on land concentration, this thesis explores strategies for land access that traverse the legal and illegal realms by examining the conflict between Mondeggi Bene Comune, a land occupation near Florence, Italy, and the local authorities. Through an ethnographic field study at the occupation, it explores research questions concerning what the conflict is about, how the occupiers navigate legal and illegal strategies to retain control of the land, and what this reveals about the problem of land access on a wider scale. By viewing the occupiers as engaged in an ecological distribution conflict with an ontological dimension, it argues that their project of community land stewardship clashes with the perceptions of land as property and source of profit held by the authorities. This thesis shows that to address structural barriers to land access, it is necessary to mobilise a diversity of tactics that cross legal and illegal realms to obtain land access and experiment with new lifeworlds on the land that aspire to operate outside of the existing institutions of state and market. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Berg, Frida Østerby LU
supervisor
organization
course
HEKM51 20221
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Land access, occupation, political ecology, environmental conflict, community land stewardship, repeasantisation
language
English
id
9097395
date added to LUP
2022-09-28 11:11:48
date last changed
2022-09-28 11:11:48
@misc{9097395,
  abstract     = {{Sustainable land stewardship is key for human and environmental wellbeing, yet existing policy frameworks fail to adequately grapple with the question of land access. Building on the literature on land concentration, this thesis explores strategies for land access that traverse the legal and illegal realms by examining the conflict between Mondeggi Bene Comune, a land occupation near Florence, Italy, and the local authorities. Through an ethnographic field study at the occupation, it explores research questions concerning what the conflict is about, how the occupiers navigate legal and illegal strategies to retain control of the land, and what this reveals about the problem of land access on a wider scale. By viewing the occupiers as engaged in an ecological distribution conflict with an ontological dimension, it argues that their project of community land stewardship clashes with the perceptions of land as property and source of profit held by the authorities. This thesis shows that to address structural barriers to land access, it is necessary to mobilise a diversity of tactics that cross legal and illegal realms to obtain land access and experiment with new lifeworlds on the land that aspire to operate outside of the existing institutions of state and market.}},
  author       = {{Berg, Frida Østerby}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{No owners, no masters: A critical exploration of land access and community land stewardship at Mondeggi Bene Comune}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}