Fair Land Governance and the Politics of Competing Claims

Starting point for the Summer School is the recognition that ongoing transitions in the name of climate change and clean energy are deeply unfair in multiple ways. During the Summer School we will explore both theoretical and practical perspectives with representatives of several faculties.

New climate policies and green investments place huge burdens on people and land in the Global South as well as on land inhabited by marginalized populations in the Global North. Laws, regulations, and institutions, that are designed to make these policies and investments more ‘inclusive’ generally fail to do so. Instead, they often play a critical role in “green” forms of resources capture and extractivism because these are mobilized and instrumentalized by resourceful elites.

The result is that existing inequities are deepened and that the means of marginalized people to protect their rights, lands, waters, forests, pastures, and territories are increasingly put under pressure. To turn the tide and deepen the search for social justice, this course builds on the invaluable experience of actors in land governance – on land grabbing, on protecting and defending rights through land tenure reforms, on advocacy and grassroots activism – and connects it to exploring more-than-human perspectives in debates on fair transitions, and its potential for strengthening solidarities.

We look forward to an exciting transdisciplinary collaboration that we hope will draw many of you to Utrecht, The Netherlands. The summer school follows the 2024 IOS Fair Transitions / LANDac International Conference (3-5 July) with the same theme.