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Understanding Land Grabs in Africa: Insights from Marxist and Georgist Political Economics

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The Review of Black Political Economy

Abstract

Research on current land grabs in Africa has proliferated. Yet, little work has been done explicitly reflecting on competing frameworks for analysing the phenomenon. This paper engages two contrasting approaches, namely Marxian and Georgist, assesses their relevance, and teases out insights for recent land grab research in Africa. It warns against any attempts at combining the ‘best’ elements in each approach, but demonstrates how these different perspectives can help re-theorise ongoing research on land grabs, especially in Africa.

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Acknowledgments

I gratefully acknowledge – without implication - the helpful comments by three anonymous reviewers, Dr. Don Munro, Prof. Cecilia Conrad (the editor), and Prof. Spike Boydell. I am particularly grateful to Dr. Don Munro who carefully read the paper and offered thorough and helpful suggestions on substantive theoretical points and from whose insights on Marxian analysis this paper has benefitted considerably.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Built Environment, University of Technology, Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Franklin Obeng-Odoom

  2. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva, Switzerland

    Franklin Obeng-Odoom

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  1. Franklin Obeng-Odoom
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Correspondence to Franklin Obeng-Odoom.

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Obeng-Odoom, F. Understanding Land Grabs in Africa: Insights from Marxist and Georgist Political Economics. Rev Black Polit Econ 42, 337–354 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12114-015-9209-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12114-015-9209-2

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