A call for papers has been announced for Africa for Sale: Analysing and Theorizing Foreign Land Claims and Acquisitions, a conference to be held at Groningen University, the Netherlands, on 28-29 October 2010.
While the nature and scope of large-scale, foreign land acquisitions has been taken up by the non-governmental arena (e.g. NGOs) very little academic scholarship has addressed these deals both analytically and theoretically, from [comparative] historical and contemporary perspectives.
In turn, several important questions remain unanswered: What are the implications of foreign land leases for local populations? How are these deals mediated, structured and legitimized? What is the role of multinational corporations in the economic, political, social, and environmental governance of developing countries in Africa?
Contributions addressing the following four fields are particularly welcome:
1.) Food security: Foreign (government or company) investments in “unused,” arable land for large-scale agricultural production.
2.) Large-Scale Mining: Multinational claims to land for mineral exploitation
3.) Conservation Projects: International environmental NGO acquisition or control of land for biodiversity conservation and/or protected area management.
4.)Tourism: Land acquisitions for purposes of tourism development.
Abstracts should be submitted by 15 May 2010 to NVASconference2010 (at) hotmail.com .
Exporting China's Development to the World 