“ Bring Back the Land ”—A Call to Refocus on the Spatial Dimension of Zimbabwe’s Land Reform

Konrad Hentze and Gunter Menz
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Konrad Hentze: Department of Geography, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 166, Bonn 53115, Germany
Gunter Menz: Department of Geography, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 166, Bonn 53115, Germany

Land, 2015, vol. 4, issue 2, 1-23

Abstract: In this article, we argue that research on land reform in the nation of Zimbabwe has overlooked possibilities of integrating geospatial methods into analyses and, at the same time, geographers have not adequately developed techniques for this application. Scholars have generally been captured within the debate focused on the success or failure of the Zimbabwean land reform program, and have neglected to analyze what has occurred where during the process of “ fast-track land reform ”. To date, no extensive national dataset of land ownership change, and the effect of this change on land use planning strategies, has been developed within the scientific community. As a result, most publications, even very detailed and thorough ones, have been based on regional case studies, broad estimates, or on outdated, cross-referenced statistics. To overcome the lack of spatio-temporal data, we propose an analytic framework to map Zimbabwe’s fast-track land reform and its country-wide effects. It emphasizes the potential of geographic information systems and satellite remote sensing to provide an objective basis for future studies of the subject.

Keywords: Zimbabwe; fast track land reform program; remote sensing; public participatory geographic information system (PPGIS); geomatics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:4:y:2015:i:2:p:355-377:d:49059

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