UNC-Chapel Hill, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research & Economic Development. Graduate Student Proposal

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1 GRANTSOURCE LIBRARY UNC-Chapel Hill, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research & Economic Development Graduate Student Proposal Sponsor: Graduate School, UNC-Chapel Hill Program Title: Off Campus Dissertation Fellowship Department: Geography Funding Type: Dissertation Year: 2009 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY STATEMENT All materials comprising the Successful Proposals Database are provided by the GrantSource Library as a service to the Carolina community. All proposals contained in this database are the property of their original authors and protected by copyright laws and, subject to applicable laws, may not be reproduced, modified, republished, distributed, transmitted, or otherwise exploited in any manner without explicit permission. The proposals may be downloaded provided that they are used only as a personal reference tool and are not fully or partially plagiarized. Plagiarism is a violation of the UNC-Chapel Hill Honor Code as well as possible grounds for rejection of grant funding by sponsors. The GrantSource Library would like to thank all UNC-Chapel Hill graduate students who have shared their winning fellowship proposals with their colleagues. We would also like to encourage any graduate student who has won a fellowship, grant, or other award to consider contributing the proposal(s) to the Successful Proposal Reference database. gs@unc.edu.

2 The role of land property rights in rural development: the case of Sardinia, Italy Abstract: The earliest classical political economists considered land a fundamental factor of production. The desire to control this natural resource was key to the construction of modern property rights, especially private property. In today s complex globally-integrated world, market, civil society and government actors alike have come to agree that international business requires effective commitment to private property rights. In the European Union (EU), land privatization has become a key economic development tool, as illustrated by the EU s strategic guidelines for rural development, aimed at establishing a market-oriented agricultural sector and consolidating Europe s agrifood production. These policies are having different outcomes throughout the region, as each subregion has its own land use history and rural development patterns. The goal of this project is to analyze the value of creating property rights through land privatization as an economic development strategy, particularly in rural development. The geographic focus is the Italian region of Sardinia, which displays some of the most interesting known cases of hybrid land management systems, offering important lessons for understanding rural land use and the functionality of land property and ownership in more nuanced ways. Research Questions and Hypotheses: Based on extensive pre-dissertation field research, three key questions will be addressed: 1) How have European political priorities influenced changes in the legal status of land and land management practices at the household level in rural Sardinia? 2) How have recent struggles over maintaining traditional land use practices and arrangements influenced EU debates about privatization? 3) How are changes in property law articulated with new divisions of household labor, especially in gender related work? Hypothesis of 1st Question: The EU s LEADER program in Sardinia has successfully integrated customary local common property practices with new economic revitalization and 1

3 development measures, with the effect of promoting diversified rural land use by households, giving rise to new job training and skill development programs for youth. Hypothesis of 2 nd Question: Peasants' struggles for maintaining access to local resources in contemporary Europe have influenced political and theoretical debates over land privatization. The EU s Common Agricultural Policy promotes preserving local, customary land use arrangements, and conservation of Europe's rural heritage. Hypothesis of 3 rd Question: Social and cultural adaptations made by women in response to changing local and regional economies have been a central motor to the newly emerging EU-induced economic order, yet gender inequity remains, women's contributions remaining markedly uncredited and unrewarded through economic or political gains. Background: Italy incorporates a very diverse system of land property regimes: public and private property intersect with common property patterns generated and honored at local levels. Within Italy, Sardinia s land tenure models represent the outcome of 200 years of common property practices, which have shifted with changing legal and political landscapes but persist by creating hybrid mixtures with private property. These arrangements, with different outcomes in different subregions of the country, have resulted from peasants struggles to preserve access to local resources through times of change, including the period during which the EU emerged as a force in rural development. Two sub-regions best represent Sardinia s diverse land tenure models: the Provincie of Gallura and Ogliastra, each with its own property configuration. The EU Rural Development Plan recognized the variety of Sardinia's property regimes, a first step toward acknowledging diversity in land tenure models and their importance in shaping long-term rural development strategies. 2

4 Theoretical Framework: The theoretical framework that informs this research integrates three fields of study: 1) property studies; 2) development studies, and 3) political ecology studies. 1) A rich literature has developed on the political and social dimensions of property (Singer 2000, Niederle 2004, Rose 1994), on the relation between social and legal models regulating access to resources (Ehrlich 2002, Gurvitch 2001, Carbonnier 1997, Ferrari 1983, and Masia 1992), and on how development goals and property regimes work on the ground (Verdery 2003, Song & Chen 2006, Dorondel & Serban 2000, Godoy, Kirby&Wilkie 2001, Gudeman 2004). Paradoxically, as Joseph Singer clarifies, property is both an individual entitlement and a social system (2000, 14), and as such is always subject to negotiation. These studies offer theoretical tools for understanding why property rights systems are political and how they are renegotiated, and how the terms of those negotiations vary widely across time and space (Von Benda-Beckmann et al 2006). 2) Within development studies, particularly interesting in the context of this research, is the literature addressing the complex interplay of economic, political and environmental factors underpinning current patterns of rural development and access to resources (Baviskar & Attwood 1995, Dorondel & Serban 2000, Godoy et al. 2001, Gudeman 2004). Studies on local alternatives to development policies and local populations land use patterns (Blaser et al 2004, Esteva et al 1997, Williamson 2003) are particularly important for understanding Sardinian local development patterns and their role in addressing people s needs and in promoting livelihood. 3) Political ecology studies offer the methodological frame for analyzing the interrelation between environmental practices and political processes (Blaikie & Brookfield 1985, Paulson, Gezon & Watts 2003). Peasant and agrarian studies (Collier 1999, Edelman 1999, Kloppenburg 1988, Paige 1975, Striffler 2002, Wright & Wolford 2003) offer insights into people s grassroots struggles over resource access and over power to negotiate, and 3

5 what Peet and Watts (1993) define as the emancipatory potential of political struggles for environmental justice. These studies provide the tools for seeing how peasant resistance develops as a product of the interrelation between people s needs, their physical environment, and local socio-economic conditions. Research Design: The different dimensions of landed property that my study will analyze are defined by a broad variety of data, both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative methods used will mostly be interviewing, both structured and unstructured, and I will transcribe and code data with a qualitative software package, AtlasTi. Using this research design, I will answer each key question and test hypothesis: 1) In order to understand how the land management practices in Gallura and Ogliastra have been impacted by changing policy perspectives at EU and regional levels, I will use structured and unstructured interviews with peasants, and at the regional and local government offices responsible for the implementation of the LEADER program, the tool through which new EU rural development policies have been locally implemented. The goal is to assess if and how local land use and rural development practices are: making the best use of natural and cultural resources, improving the quality of rural life, and adding value to local products, particularly by facilitating access to markets for small production units (INEA 2006). For the analysis of agricultural production and economic impacts of the activities implemented in the rural territories, I will use broad statistical data compiled by the Sardinian Regional Development Agency. 2) In order to understand if local struggles over maintaining land use practices have influenced EU privatization debates, I will apply two levels of analysis: the local and the general. Local analysis will study the land census in Gallura and in Ogliastra, and general analysis will refer to the Sardinian Rural Development Plan now in force, which reflects the policies promoted by the EU Rural Development 4

6 Plan. Participant observation, coupled with unstructured interviews with local peasants, economic actors and town officials, are the core methodological tools used in this part of the research. Data analysis follows the approach promoted by the EU's LEADER program: I will build a chart in which I will identify for each subregion strengths and weaknesses of existing land use models with the goal of understanding how policies implemented by the regional plan are influenced by Gallura s and Ogliastra s land tenure systems. 3) Participant observation and interviewing will concretely probe gender patterns in the division of labor and their impacts on rural development, as well as the roles women have in negotiating land use and preserving local access to resources. I plan to accompany women and men during their daily routines and monitor different tasks they perform in both rural areas and in surrounding urban areas. Archival research in local libraries, archives and museum collections, both private and public, will also offer me historical information for understanding changes that have occurred in gender patterns, past conflicts over gender equity, the ways in which these conflicts were resolved, and the impact of all these conflicts on local economic and social life. Research Preparation: With UNC Geography Department funding, I did 3 summer field work seasons, laying the foundations for my research in the two case study locations, where town officials and local institutions have offered support for my research. They have committed to providing logistical support and to facilitating contacts with local agricultural businesses, and libraries and archives holding historical information on the local regional economy. An Off Campus Fellowship would allow completion of the following research: - Phase I: January 2009 March ) Data gathering in Ogliastra and Gallura, and beginning data analysis. 2) A survey, after 6 weeks, of additional local residents, to collect 5

7 comparative data and confirm evolving hypotheses. - Phase II: March 2009 June 2009 My goal is to analyze and elaborate field data and start writing the first chapters of my dissertation. 6