State of Land in the Mekong Region

The Mekong region is in the midst of profound social and environmental change. Despite rapid urbanization, the region remains predominantly rural with more than 60 percent of its population living in rural areas, the vast majority of whom are engaged in agriculture. This population not only continues to grow, but is also disproportionately poor and reliant on land and forest resources. Due to the rapid growth of its agricultural sector, the Mekong region has become a global centre of production and trade for commodities such as rubber, rice, cassava, wood, sugar cane and oil palm. While accelerated flows of global investment and the trade of land-intensive commodities have contributed to growing GDP and the enrichment of some societal actors, outcomes have been highly unequal. The benefits of development have largely accrued to the urban elite, while costs have largely been borne by the rural poor, transforming rural land relations and presenting new insecurities for land tenure. The Mekong region may be at a tipping-point, and transformational change is imperative to sustainably address the needs of agricultural smallholders. Data and information are urgently needed to understand these changes, to inform more equitable and innovative decision-making, and to monitor the outcomes of these decisions. The State of Land in the Mekong Region thus brings together key data and information on current status and trajectories of change with regard to land resources, their social distribution, and the conditions of governance that shape them.1s

Posted: The Campaign Sign Landscape, Race, and Political Participation in Mississippi

Cultural landscapes offer potential insights into cultural processes. As a cultural/political landscape element, the domestic campaign sign is linked to a variety of socio-cultural and political processes. Examination of the geographical distribution of 2004 presidential election campaign signs posted throughout the town of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, illustrates that race is a factor in understanding who chooses to post signs. Historically, limitations on political participation in the South would have included use of landscape for communication, imposing a sort of metacommunicative landscape hegemony. Further, patterns of sign postings and voter turnout indicate that both activities are forms of political participation that are embraced differently by different social groups