2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Jan 31, 2025

2024-2025 Academic Catalog

SSJ 329 - Property and Community

“Property is not a thing, but a social relationship,” is this course’s point of departure. Owning or accessing land often implies exercising social control and power over others. There are ways to make land ownership more inclusive. In many areas around the world, women can neither access nor control land without permission of a man. In instances where colonial powers, expropriated land from native communities, land restitution slowly moves ahead. We will explore how development interventions to improve land access change community relations, family dynamics, and influence environmental outcomes. Among the questions we will address include: How do countries reconcile traditional law and Constitutional Law introduced during colonialism? How has the process of land grabbing changed across time? Can access to land make communities more resilient to climate change? How is land inextricably linked to cultural identity and well-being? Course readings are global and comparative in nature, allowing us to examine land relations and policy around the world. Students are involved in setting some of the collective learning objectives and course content. UG Capstone eligible seminar.

Formerly IDCE 329. Students who have already passed IDCE 329 cannot receive credit for SSJ 329 and should not take this course.

Anticipated Terms Offered: Varies