Contested Property Claims will set focus on the ideas, practices, and institutions of property that contribute to shaping human relationships in societies around the world. Behind all property regimes lie histories of appropriation and expropriation, and from within they are constantly challenged by those who point to the social injustices that they can produce. We can call these attempts to interrupt the dominant system of contracts and exchanges ‘contested property claims’. They are points of friction where economic, political, and ethical issues around property are brought to light, and they illustrate how disagreements over property force social actors to reason about the institution of property as such.

We invite scholars from all fields to submit paper proposals on the ways property is performed and contested.

Read more on the conference website.

To propose a paper please send an abstract of (max.) 300 words to contestedpropertyclaims@cas.au.dk. Please use this address for any inquiries about the conference. The closing date for receiving abstracts is 15 September 2015.

Dates: 10th-11th of December 2015
Venue: Aarhus University

For more information, please contact Maja Hojer Bruun (mhb@learning.aau.dk)

The Trustland project convened a four day workshop focusing on LAND issues from January 27- 30. During the first two days researchers presented findings from their extended case studies of various kinds of land conflicts and issues across Northern Uganda. On the third day practioners working with land issues presented their projects, programs and perspectives and researchers and practioners met in groups to discuss how research might be useful for policy and practice. On the last day of the workshop Professor Sara Berry from John Hopkins University and Professor Morris. Ogenga-Latigo gave public lectures in  Gulu University Main Hall.

In connection with my Masters programme in Human Security, I spent 3 months in Gulu, where I collected some qualitative and quantitative data on consumption of home brews in the greater Gulu area (Pece, Kabedopong, Olailong, Lacor, Negri). Continue reading →

Interesting book about displacement economies in Africa: http://www.zedbooks.co.uk/node/16925

A couple of texts on customary tenure:

• Text by the Norwegian Refugee Council
• Text by Ker Kwaro Acholi

The Journal of Peace and Security Studies is now online. The first issue is a special issue entitled ‘Unfolding Land Conflicts in Northern Uganda.’ The articles can be downloaded from the journal’s website: http://www.jpss.ug

Dear all Trustlanders,

Please click here to see a draft call for papers for a panel on Land, Displacement and Boundaries for the Annual meeting of African Studies Association, Indianapolis, IN November 20-23 2014.

For information about the meeting see http://www.africanstudies.org/annual-meetings/future-annual-meeting-dates.

If you are interested, please send the title of your paper and an abstract of max. 200 words to: lotte.meinert@cas.au.dk and Daivi RodimaTaylor <rodima@bu.edu> before March 11, 2014.

Time: Wednesday 4 December, 2.15-4.00 pm. Venue: Meeting Room 2, Conference Center, Stakladen, Aarhus University

Peter Geschiere is one of the leading authorities on witchcraft within anthropology and beyond. For decades he has been at the forefront of the intellectual effort to rethink of the relationship between modernity, globalization and witchcraft.  In recent years, professor Gescihere has begun a large comparative project that seeks to understand the similar processes that inform witchcraft on the one hand and ideas about belonging, group identity and nationalism on the other.  This talk will present ideas from his most recent book Witchcraft, Intimacy and Trust (The University of Chicago Press, 2013).

On 15 November 2013, Christian Friis Bach, the Minister for Development Cooperation in Denmark, will take part in a panel debate about land rights in Africa. He has recently been criticized for claiming that collective rights are obstacles to Development. The debate will be in Danish. Further information is found here: http://www.u-landsnyt.dk/nyhed/29-10-13/kom-til-debat-om-jordrettigheder-med-christian-fri