Why we need the concept of land-grab-induced displacement

This paper challenges the traditional threefold classification of forced migration, and proposes a new concept: land-grab-induced displacement. The concept sheds light on issues that are shrouded by the conventional typology. Displacement, frequently treated as the ‘collateral damage’ of war and climate change, or an unfortunate sacrifice necessitated by ‘development’, may often be better understood as part of the political economy of land. The notion of land-grab-induced displacement encapsulates cases in which people are forcibly uprooted primarily so that others can control the land and its resources. The argument draws on three examples –from Colombia, Ethiopia and Southeast Asia post-tsunami- in order to highlight the limitations of the standard categorisation, and the need to better integrate land questions into our analytical frameworks of forced displacement

Land restitution in Colombia: why so few applications?

The Victims and Land Restitution Law (Law 1448 of 2011[1]) offers Colombia’s displaced population a new route for reclaiming their land. It has received praise and criticism in almost equal measure, but there is one overarching concern: the low number of applicants. In 2012 Colombia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development estimated that 360,000 cases of either land abandonment or land usurpation would be considered for restitution under the new Law.[2] But more than half way through the process (the Law expires in 2021), the number of land claimants is less than a third of what was projected in 2012: as of August 2017, the Land Restitution Unit had received 106,833 applications. It seems that the majority of people who may be eligible for restitution have not even applied. Why

Expropriations of private property for economic 'development’ in the United States: re-thinking the titling and Rule of Law solutions to land grabs in the Global South

Mainstream discourses tend to treat land dispossession as a ‘developing’ country problem that arises due to weak/corrupt legal systems and inadequate property institutions. This article unsettles such discourses by examining expropriations for economic ‘development’ in the United States —a country typically deemed to have strong property institutions and a strong rule of law. Drawing on various examples, I propose that expropriation in the us is neither rigorously conditional nor particularly exceptional. While most ‘takings’ laws are supposed to restrict the State’s power, this restriction hinges on the definition of public use, purpose, necessity, or interest. And in many countries, including the us, these concepts are now defined broadly and vaguely so as to include private for-profit projects. Ultimately, the contents, interpretation, and application of the law are subject to social and political struggles; this point is habitually overlooked in the rule of law ‘solutions’ to land grabbing. For these reasons, titling/registration programs and policies aimed at strengthening the rule of law, even if successful, are likely to transform rather than ‘solve’ dispossession in the global South

Financialisation: a primer

Global financial markets have expanded massively in recent decades, dwarfing ‘real’ production and trade and impacting on multiple aspects of our economy, society and environment. The global financial crisis of 2008 sounded the alarm bells about the dangers of an unregulated financialised world, but hidden behind the seemingly impenetrable jargon of collateralised debt obligations and over-the-counter derivatives, it is hard to understand the nature of financialisation let alone know how to confront it. In the meantime, financialisation of our global economy has continued unchecked. This primer is a beginner’s guide to financialisation – explaining how it works, how it shapes our lives, the forces that lie behind it, and how we might start resisting processes that prioritise freedom for capital over human rights and democracy

The political economy of land and dispossession in Colombia

This thesis analyses land dispossession and associated displacement in Colombia from a critical, historical, political economy perspective. It illustrates how and why dispossession and related polices have changed, what is distinctive about contemporary processes and how these have been shaped by the country’s specific trajectory of economic development. I consider land grabs effected by private agents and coercive State-backed acquisitions, as well as other forms of dispossession; this generates new insights into what has happened in Colombia, where different forms overlap. In general, the thesis provides for a different and richer understanding of the underlying drivers, varied enabling factors, and complex mechanics of land dispossession in 21st century Colombia. The analysis serves to challenge superficial accounts of dispossession in Colombia specifically and mainstream explanations of the issue more broadly. The former treat dispossession as an aberration of the armed conflict and/or downplay the importance of other factors. The latter suggest that dispossession arises in the absence of clearly defined property rights and a strong rule of law or that it is imposed by governments for the ‘public good’. A critical political economy approach highlights and attends to the deficiencies of explanations that minimise the importance of history, power relations, social struggles, ideology and the wider socio-political-economic context. Dispossession has typically been investigated as an appendage to other issues, such as the development of capitalism or armed conflict. This thesis, by contrast, puts dispossession at the centre. I identify and critically analyse key claims about dispossession across varied theoretical fields and thus construct a broad conceptual framework that could be of use to other scholars interested in this growing area of research. I also advance a number of original arguments, including: that the capitalist land regime is laden with contradictions and that perpetuating growth based on capital accumulation relies on the imposition, violation and restriction of private property rights in land. The importance of property violations and restrictions in mobilising land for capitalist development is overlooked even by critical scholars who tend to associate dispossession with enclosures and privatisation. Overall, the thesis shows how analyses of land dispossession can shape the way we think about broader issues and opens up new questions for future investigation

Escaping capitalist market imperatives: commercial coca cultivation in the Colombian Amazon

The illicit coca economy has become a bulwark for smallholder farming in Colombia. This article helps explain why. Analysis of the social relations surrounding coca production in one of the country’s most important coca-producing municipalities shows that capitalist market imperatives are weak within this economy. Pressures to increase productivity are muted by fluid access to land, non-interest-bearing debts, and the lack of price competition between producers. Coca-growers are ‘improving’ production, but they mostly respond to opportunities rather than imperatives. In the context of multiple agrarian crises, the coca economy allows even less well-off producers to survive

Restitución de tierras en Colombia: ¿por qué las solicitudes son tan pocas?

Transcurrida la mitad del proceso oficial de restitución de tierras en Colombia, surgen preguntas acerca del motivo por el que la cantidad de reclamaciones es mucho más baja que lo esperado

A randomized trial of an Asthma Internet Self-management Intervention (RAISIN): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

<b>Background</b><p></p> The financial costs associated with asthma care continue to increase while care remains suboptimal. Promoting optimal self-management, including the use of asthma action plans, along with regular health professional review has been shown to be an effective strategy and is recommended in asthma guidelines internationally. Despite evidence of benefit, guided self-management remains underused, however the potential for online resources to promote self-management behaviors is gaining increasing recognition. The aim of this paper is to describe the protocol for a pilot evaluation of a website 'Living well with asthma' which has been developed with the aim of promoting self-management behaviors shown to improve outcomes.<p></p> <b>Methods</b><p></p> The study is a parallel randomized controlled trial, where adults with asthma are randomly assigned to either access to the website for 12 weeks, or usual asthma care for 12 weeks (followed by access to the website if desired). Individuals are included if they are over 16-years-old, have a diagnosis of asthma with an Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) score of greater than, or equal to 1, and have access to the internet. Primary outcomes for this evaluation include recruitment and retention rates, changes at 12 weeks from baseline for both ACQ and Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) scores, and quantitative data describing website usage (number of times logged on, length of time logged on, number of times individual pages looked at, and for how long). Secondary outcomes include clinical outcomes (medication use, health services use, lung function) and patient reported outcomes (including adherence, patient activation measures, and health status).<p></p> <b>Discussion</b><p></p> Piloting of complex interventions is considered best practice and will maximise the potential of any future large-scale randomized controlled trial to successfully recruit and be able to report on necessary outcomes. Here we will provide results across a range of outcomes which will provide estimates of efficacy to inform the design of a future full-scale randomized controlled trial of the 'Living well with asthma' website

‘Everything peasants do is illegal’: Colombian coca growers’ everyday experiences of law enforcement and its impacts on state legitimacy

For decades, Colombian governments have imposed a narrative linking illegal crops with statelessness and presenting ‘more state’ and specifically ‘more law enforcement’ as the solution to a swathe of problems in drug-producing regions. We draw on coca growers’ own accounts of law enforcement to critique this narrative. Their accounts – specifically from Putumayo in Colombia’s Amazonian frontier – refer to persecution for many of the things they do in their everyday lives, not just those directly related to the coca economy. Their livelihoods are constantly under threat from state forces as a result of counternarcotics operations but also due to the imposition of (phyto)sanitary and environmental norms. This generates resentment towards the state, undermining its efforts to establish authority in these territories. Thus, building on coca farmers’ accounts, we argue that state weakness in drug-producing areas is a problem of quality and not only quantity. Improving quality means transforming the way lawmakers and enforcers relate to rural citizens. If the Colombian state continues to wage war against the peasantry, it will hardly achieve effective governance of the coca frontier

Autophagy and polyglutamine diseases

AbstractIn polyglutamine diseases, an abnormally elongated polyglutamine tract results in protein misfolding and accumulation of intracellular aggregates. The length of the polyglutamine expansion correlates with the tendency of the mutant protein to aggregate, as well as with neuronal toxicity and earlier disease onset. Although currently there is no effective cure to prevent or slow down the progression of these neurodegenerative disorders, increasing the clearance of mutant proteins has been proposed as a potential therapeutic approach. The ubiquitin–proteasome system and autophagy are the two main degradative pathways responsible for eliminating misfolded and unnecessary proteins in the cell. We will review some of the studies that have proposed autophagy as a strategy to reduce the accumulation of polyglutamine-expanded protein aggregates and protect against mutant protein neurotoxicity. We will also discuss some of the currently known mechanisms that induce autophagy, which may be beneficial for the treatment of these and other neurodegenerative disorders