Social meaning and material constraints of land scarcity in Northern Namibia (ILMI Working Paper No. 13)
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Date
2021-03
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Integrated Land Management Institute, Namibia University of Science and Technology
Abstract
The paper scrutinizes perceptions of and discourses about scarcity of land in northern Namibia in order to
show the multiple meanings that land has for the population. It is based on two years of fieldwork, and
brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on why people argue that land is scare. Our research
contributes to a better understanding of the meaning of land in a rapidly changing setting, in which
demands for land are changing and diversified. Furthermore, new land uses have come into play, and
subsistence agriculture is no longer the mainstay of livelihoods, but one of the many sources. We argue for
a more nuanced concept of scarcity of land, in order to acknowledge the different meanings of access to
land to different people and to improve land policies.
Description
Keywords
Land scarcity, Agricultural Development, Land reform, Resource Management, Meaning of Land
Citation
Bloemertz, L., Nghitevelekwa, R., Prudat, B., Weidmann, L., Dobler, G., Graefe, O., & Kuhn, N. (2021). Social meaning and material constraints of land scarcity in Northern Namibia (ILMI Working Paper No. 13). Integrated Land Management Institute.