Annelies Zoomers

Utrecht University | UU

In recent decades, small-scale farmers’ market orientation approaches have increasingly been adopted to tackle the problem of food insecurity. However, little is known about how this affects other non-market exchange relationships. The present paper addresses this knowledge gap using qualitative data gathered from small-scale farmers at three selec...

Residents of Kampung Prawirotaman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia respond differently to night-time tourist activity. This historic batik kampung was transformed into an international tourist destination, sowing resident discontent over traffic, anti-social behaviour and noise. Conflict with religious values also features in this dynamic. Observations and i...

Rural drinking water systems (RDWS) in Bangladesh and elsewhere fail more often than we would want. The acknowledgment that pure community management models will not reverse this trend is growing: RDWS users need support. In an attempt to further understanding what this support could look like we in particular zoom in on the role of public agencies...

In this article, we link NGO-supplied drinking water infrastructure projects with collective action development approaches. Although governing local, shared drinking water systems (DWS) requires users to act collectively, users rarely organize such collective action successfully by themselves. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are therefore fre...

A new era of global interventionism in African cities is emerging, the implications of which for existing claims to urban space are poorly understood. This is particularly true for the claims of farmers. Despite being a ubiquitous feature of many African cities, urban agriculture broadly exists in a conceptual limbo between rurality and urbanity, l...

People have always been on the move, either in search for greener pastures, both figuratively and literally speaking, or in order to escape war, persecution, famine, or environmental hazard. Many people have created their ways of life based on movement and regular migration, lacking what Scott [1] (p. 327) calls the “ ‘nerve centers’ that a state m...

Rather than committing exclusively to one drinking water option, households in Bangladesh often use a portfolio of sources that, in varying ways, to varying extents satisfy one or more out of several preferences they hold with regard to their drinking water. What happens if a new option is added to that mix? In communities of Bangladesh’ Southweste...

Rather than committing exclusively to one drinking water option, households in Bangladesh often use a portfolio of sources that, in varying ways, to varying extents satisfy one or more out of several preferences they hold with regard to their drinking water. What happens if a new option is added to that mix? In communities of Bangladesh' Southweste...

Food security has become a major problem in Ethiopia. To reverse the situation, inclusive businesses, such as malt barley production, are being promoted. However, the determinants of inclusion in the malt barley industry and the food security impacts of inclusion have not been studied systematically. Thus, the objectives of the present research wer...

There was a heightened global interest in large-scale Jatropha cultivation for the past few decades, and this incited investment toward the crop in many developing countries. Many saw Jatropha as a green fuel that could possibly be an alternative to fossil fuel, which has adverse implications to deal with the impacts of climate change. However, Jat...

Investing in large transport projects affects the (potential) economic development of metropolitan areas. Yet, very little critical research has been performed to understand how to assess these effects. The relationship between infrastructure investments and regional economic development is complex and indirect, and many theoretical and methodologi...

In Ethiopia, there have been increased efforts to promote market-oriented vegetable production. Given that food security is a crucial issue in Ethiopia, the question is whether market-oriented vegetable production will actually help farmers to become more food secure. Using a mixed methods approach, the present research gathered empirical evidence...

In Ethiopia, there have been increased efforts to promote market-oriented vegetable production. Given that food security is a crucial issue in Ethiopia, the question is whether market-oriented vegetable production will actually help farmers to become more food secure. Using a mixed methods approach, the present research gathered empirical evidence...

Land subsidence has severe physical and economic implications for both areas and people. Numerous scholars have shown that land subsidence has had massive impacts at global, national and regional levels, and that the impacts were usually responded to by the government. However, little attention has been paid to what land subsidence means to people’...

The aim of this special issue is to push forward the frontier of development studies by analysing local livelihoods from a ‘flows of capital/people’ perspective. In development studies, and especially in livelihood research, local development has long been defined in terms of local people’s agency and the importance of capitals and capabilities. Ov...

With this article we contribute to debates on urban land governance and sustainable urban development in Africa by providing an empirical analysis of forced displacement and resettlement associated with infrastructure development in Beira city, Mozambique. In recent years Beira has become the recipient of numerous investment flows targeting the bui...

When the refugee ‘crisis’ is referred to the focus is usually placed on large and uncontrollable flows of refugees coming to Europe. The real ‘crisis’, at least in terms of numbers, however clearly takes place somewhere else. In Lebanon 19% of the current population consists of Syrian refugees. In Europe this is only 0,06%. Apart from the fact that...

The EU aims to establish 'deals' with third countries: political packages which encompass clear targets and joint commitments. A 'win-win-win' situation is envisaged by combining different policy elements beyond migration, such as trade and development. This article aims to contribute to the debate about 'new' migration partnerships by looking back...

This paper discusses Tania Murray Li's article After the Land Grab: Infrastructural Violence and Indonesia's Oil Palm Zone, placing it in the wider debates about global land grabbing and inclusive development.

Tourists are particularly vulnerable when natural disasters occur in regions that they are visiting. It is assumed that they lack awareness and understanding of the actions that they need to take in such circumstances. This study examines the responses of tourists in times of disaster, building on empirical data collected through large-scale survey...

Processes of globalization have generated new opportunities for smallholders to participate in profitable global agro-commodity markets. This participation however is increasingly being shaped by differentiated capabilities to comply with emerging public and private quality and safety standards. The dynamics within Indonesia’s oil palm sector illus...

In the Global South, there is a push to drive agricultural modernisation processes through private sector investments. In West African drylands, land concessions are required for such agri-businesses are often negotiated through customary authorities, and inject large amounts of money into localised rural systems with low cash bases. The article ar...

This article aims to contribute to current discussions about “making cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable” (SDG 11) by linking debates that are currently taking place in separate containers: debates on the “global land rush” and the “new urban agenda”. It highlights some important processes that are overlooked in these debates and adv...

Land acquisition for urbanisation in Vietnam has become a hot topic, attracting attention not only from land administrators, but also from the media and politicians. This paper draws on the case of Hue to investigate how farmers reconstruct their livelihoods after land loss. The findings indicate that the majority of people are able to reconstruct...

What started as a media-driven hype about the global land rush has developed into a well-established academic debate on land governance and an important domain for policy intervention. Research over the past decade has deepened our understanding of how land, water and forests, which were once considered to be local assets and the sources of livelih...

Land subsidence can have a considerable impact on the socioeconomic viability of areas. In urban areas, land subsidence tends to damage buildings and infrastructures gradually, while in rural peat land it slowly destroys vegetation. The damages will worsen since climate change has further implications for the areas affected by land subsidence. In I...

Over half of the world population is currently living in cities, and this is expected to rise to 70 per cent by 2050. Urban sprawl is changing landscapes and livelihoods in peri-urban and rural areas. Peri-urban areas offer new opportunities for innovation and agricultural niche markets, but their expansion also puts pressure on open areas and gree...

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development claims that all sustainable development goals (SDGs) are integrated and indivisible. In this session we specifically look at the linkages between SDG 11 (" Sustainable city life ") and SDG 15 (" Conserving forests and other ecosystems "). The goal of making cities safe, resilient and sustainable cannot be...

This paper proposes to analyse implications of large-scale investments in physical infrastructure for social and environmental justice. While case studies on the global land rush and climate change have advanced our understanding of how large-scale investments in land, forests and water affect natural resources and social relationships especially i...

This paper argues that global linkages, flows and circulations merit a more central place in theorization about local development. In particular, we make connections across two dominant types of global flows that shape our world tremendously: international migration and large-scale land investments. The paper compares the two hypes and underlines t...

In a paper co-written with Peter Knorringa in 2008, Bert Helmsing advocated a rethink of the role of the private sector in development. Especially among civil society representatives, views tended sometimes to hostile simplifications that did not do justice to the rather more nuanced realities on the ground. Instead, the authors stressed the divers...

The past several years have seen a huge number of publications, conferences and campaigns on “land grabbing” or large-scale acquisition of land, most often in Africa. Land-grabbing became a fiercely debated issue and the attention rapidly evolved into a real hype which has generated a wealth of knowledge. This global land grab awareness has coincid...

In response to recent accumulation crises, the development community has begun to call for greater focus on 'inclusive green growth' (IGG). African governments have accordingly been encouraged to develop mechanisms to leverage private sector investments that are both inclusive of the poor and that contribute to the development of the green economy....

Since the 1990s, Vietnam's progressive integration into the global market economy has triggered major economic and social transformations. In spatial terms, these are marked by a massive conversion of agricultural land for industrial and urban development. While this process has attracted considerable attention from media and researchers, much of t...

With global concerns over climate change and forest degradation, poverty reduction in and around forest areas seem to be less prominent on the agenda, even though there is an intrinsic link between poverty and deforestation. In this highly complex context, where forests must fulfill roles that range from global to local ecological and socio-economi...

Under Vietnam’s State land ownership regime, the Government holds supreme authority over compulsory land acquisition. The results show that many improvements in land acquisition policies have been made, but poor implementation measures largely cannot prevent or even mitigate the adverse impacts on displaced persons. In particular, ineffective compe...

This essay analyzes “sustainable population growth and migration” in relation to the aim of achieving sustainable development. It is striking that in sustainability debates much attention is given to “population growth” and “overpopulation,” while issues such as aging, urbanization, and migration are neglected. What are the implications of these de...

Today, palm oil is the world’s most traded vegetable oil, and given the growing interest in bio-fuel as an alternative for fossil fuel, worldwide demand is rapidly increasing. In Indonesia, one of the most important oil palm suppliers, the area covered by oil palm trees is rapidly expanding, providing people with new employment and income opportuni...

Larger producers are those that can better address the costs through economies of scale, since the input sellers and traders who buy their grain have oligopolistic positions in the market. The purchasing power of larger producers allows them to get better input prices and cheaper access to transport access, as well as to store their production whil...

This article does not present new evidence about the land rush, but reveals the urgent need of broadening the debate by including a few key issues that are so far neglected. Transnational land acquisitions are a logical outcome of globalisation and neoliberal policies resulting in processes of disembedding land from local societies. Control over la...

La variabilidad climática que va en aumento está dificultando el sistema de subsistencia en las comunidades andinas. Sequías prolongadas e inundaciones cada vez más intensas afectan gravemente la base productiva. Este estudio muestra la diversidad de los problemas ecológicos a los que se tiene que enfrentar las comunidades campesinas en la cuenca d...

This article aims to show that the benefits of international migration (often presented as a ‘global flow’) very much depend on the positionality of the areas involved, as well as the regional particularities. It is argued that countries producing south-north migration or diasporic states are in a more favorable position to benefit from internation...

This article analyzes how people in the Bolivian Andes cope with environmental stress. Specifically, it examines the role environmental migration plays in how people cope with climate change. In the Andes, the climate is highly variable, forcing people to cope with extreme weather conditions that range from extreme droughts and intensive rain and f...

Cape Verde is an archipelago with a long history of migration flows. It is estimated that half a million nationals live overseas. But now that their country is developing into 'the most democratic nation in Africa' and has become a lower middle income country, considerable numbers are returning home. This paper provides an overview of current migra...

The global land grab is causing radical changes in the use and ownership of land. This ‘foreignization’ of space is driven primarily by the acquisition of land for growing biofuels, food crops and/or nature conservation. In addition, pressure on the land is rapidly increasing due to entrepreneurs investing in tourism development (including resident...

The potential of migrants to promote poverty reduction and development in their regions of origin – which is generally referred to as the ‘migration and development nexus’ – is a hot topic on the development agenda. Several seminars on this issue have recently been held, such as the 2006 UN Migrants in Development Cooperation conference, the three...

This paper discusses the concepts of translocal development, development corridors and development chains, based on the insights obtained in the preceding case studies. As intermediate theoretical concepts they provide a geographical framework for understanding local development in a context of globalisation. The implications for policy include the...

The current global land grab is causing radical changes in the use and ownership of land. The main process driving the land grab, or ‘foreignisation of space’, as highlighted in the media and the emerging literature is the production of food and biofuel for export in the aftermath of recent food and energy crises. However, there are several other p...

Cape Verde has traditionally been a country of out-migration: approximately half a million people live in Cape Verde, while an estimated half a million nationals live overseas. Now, however, the country is undergoing economic development and consolidating its democratic status, and this is encouraging people to return. This article presents an over...

'This book is an extraordinary intellectual and political tour de force. For the first time, the complex power-laden processes that shape the relationships between water rights, politics and identity are explored in ways that are academically stimulating, intellectually enriching and politically significant - an indispensible guide for all those wh...

In this introductory contribution to this special issue of "TESG", we want to question the usual way of conceptualising places and borders in the debate about transnationalism. We argue, that in studies of transnationalism, on the one hand the idea of nation-states as spatial containers is overcome, but on the other hand also reproduces the same sp...

The past two decades have seen the steady emergence of various bilateral and multilateral migration agreements between Europe and migrant-sending countries in the global South. This article provides a critical assessment of the way the EU – and individual countries such as Spain, France and Italy – have played active roles in reshaping old and deve...

This article illustrates the impact of rural-urban relations on the livelihood strategy and income level of peasants by focusing on the question of whether small farmers within easy reach of a city are better off and/or have better prospects for improving their situation, than those living outside the urban sphere of influence. In order to answer t...

For many years, rural development has been one of the priority goals of Dutch development co-operation. Rural development projects were seen as important drivers of development, as they provided the inputs for industrial development and increased export earnings, and contributed to food security. Stagnating agricultural production, environmental de...

Nowadays, the old assumption that indigenous peoples should give up their cultural practices and identities in order to assimilate and ‘progress’, has been replaced by a more flexible and dynamic perception of indigeneity. This article — based on fieldwork carried out in the southern part of the Bolivian Andes between 1995 and 2004 — offers a micro...

This article aims to contribute to the discussion about how to make development interventions more effective by analyzing the factors contributing to the success or failure of rural development projects. We made an aggregate level analysis of 46 projects in the field of agricultural research (AR), water management (WM), natural resource management...

This article discusses the value of livelihoods studies and examines the obstacles which have prevented it from making a greater contribution to understanding the lives of poor people over the past decade. After examining the roots of the livelihoods approach, two major challenges are explored: the conceptualization of the problem of access, and ho...

This article analyses the implications of land liberalisation for sustainable development. More specifically, an effort is made to clarify the functioning of land sales markets in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and assess the potential of such markets to contribute to poverty alleviation, agricultural development and sustainable land use. It deals with such...

This paper explores new insights generated by livelihood research with respect to poverty problems in the world and how people deal with global challenges. Through the examination of the changing outlines of livelihood in the present era of globalisation, the authors unravel the fuzzy relationship between globalisation and local development from an...

Carmen Diana Deere and Magdalena León, Empowering Women: Land and Property Rights in Latin America (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001), pp. xxv+486, $24.95, pb. - - Volume 35 Issue 2 - ANNELIES ZOOMERS

This paper explores new insights generated by livelihood research with respect to poverty problems in the world and how people deal with global challenges. Through the examination of the changing outlines of livelihood in the present era of globalisation, the authors unravel the fuzzy relationship between globalisation and local development from an...

Compilation of key issues in urban and regional development debates in the early 2000s; focusing on urban economics, local governance, partnerships and urban development, livelihoods, rural-urban linkages and regional development, and urban poverty reduction in the policy arena.