New book explores the common narratives of social betterment that justify and enact land as commodity

February 10, 2021

A new book, co-edited by D. Asher Ghertner, Associate Professor, Rutgers Department of Geography, and Robert W. Lake Professor Emeritus, Bloustein School, explores the common storylines, narratives, and tales of social betterment that justify and enact land as commodity. Land Fictions interrogates global patterns of property formation, the dispossessions property markets enact, and the popular movements to halt the growing waves of evictions and land grabs.

This collection brings together original research on urban, rural, and peri-urban India; rapidly urbanizing China and Southeast Asia; resource expropriation in Africa and Latin America; and the neoliberal urban landscapes of North America and Europe. Through a variety of perspectives, Land Fictions finds resonances between local stories of land’s fictional powers and global visions of landed property’s imagined power to automatically create value and advance national development.  The book features a chapter, “The Sanctuary of the Collective: Contesting the Fictions of State-Led Land Commodification in Peri-Urban Guangzhou,” by Mi Shih, Ph.D. Associate Professor at the Bloustein School. 

Ghertner and Lake unpack dynamics of land commodification across a broad range of political, spatial, and temporal settings, exposing its simultaneously contingent and collective nature. The essays advance understanding of the politics of land while also contributing to current debates on the intersections of local and global, urban and rural, and general and particular.

Land Fictions is available directly from the publisher. At the time of press (February 2021) patrons may use the code 09FLYER to receive a 30% discount on the book or call 1-800-848-6224.

Recent Posts

NJSPL Report: Analyzing the Use and Equity of ARPA Funds

Report Release: Analyzing the Use and Equity of ARPA Funds in NJ Local Governments and Beyond New Jersey State Policy Lab The American Rescue Plan Act’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (ARPA-SLFRF) represent a historic $350 billion investment to...

Dr. Grafova Presented Posters from the VSR Research

Dr. Irina Grafova recently returned from the AcademyHealth Research Meeting in Minneapolis, where she had the opportunity to present two posters from the Virtual Schwartz Rounds emotional support program for nurses, run by the New Jersey Nursing Emotional Well-being...

Heldrich Report: Analysis of NJ Life Sciences, Tech Sectors

The Heldrich Center, in conjunction with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), is pleased to share a new workforce analysis of the life sciences and technology sectors in New Jersey, with a particular emphasis on the sectors’ intersection with...

Restrepo-Mieth Researches Tree Inventories in Galápagos, Ecuador

Who wants a tree inventory and why? The politics of inventorying urban forestry in Galápagos, Ecuador Abstract Trees make significant contributions to the urban experience by providing ecosystem services and aesthetic value. Considering these contributions, cities are...

NJSPL: Georeferencing Historical Maps for Geospatial Analysis

New Jersey State Policy Lab, Jonathan DeLura Our project to create a dataset of historical water bodies in New Jersey began by finding maps of historical water bodies. Two atlases were used to locate historical water bodies in New Jersey. The first was Atlas of the...