Suchergebnisse

Land ownership has long been a source and outcome of political power in the Philippines. This article shows how in the 1990s land and politics continued to be closely entwined, but the disposal of agricultural land for urban uses, rather than its ownership, was sought by the powerful. By examining the process of land use conversion in Manila's extended metropolitan region, two dimensions of the politics of land are examined: policy choices relating to the uses of land that reflect a particular set of developmental priorities and the facilitation of conversion through the use of political power relations to circumvent regulations. These points are made at three interconnected scales: the national scale of policy formulation, the local scale of policy implementation and regulation, and the personal scale of everyday power relations in rural areas. The article draws on fieldwork in the rapidly urbanizing province of Cavite, south of Manila.

Land ownership has long been a source & outcome of political power in the Philippines. This article shows how in the 1990s land & politics continued to be closely entwined, but the disposal of agricultural land for urban uses, rather than its ownership, was sought by the powerful. By examining the process of land use conversion in Manila's extended metropolitan region, two dimensions of the politics of land are examined: policy choices relating to the uses of land that reflect a particular set of developmental priorities & the facilitation of conversion through the use of political power relations to circumvent regulations. These points are made at three interconnected scales: the national scale of policy formulation, the local scale of policy implementation & regulation, & the personal scale of everyday power relations in rural areas. The article draws on fieldwork in the rapidly urbanizing province of Cavite, south of Manila. 2 Tables, 2 Figures, 16 References. [Copyright 2003 Sage Publications, Inc.]

Attempts at understanding the urbanization process in Southeast Asia have, in recent years, focused on the emergence of extended metropolitan regions around primate cities. Many have argued that with a landscape of intensively mixed 'rural' and 'urban' activities, such regions represent a distinctive Asian form of urbanization and a challenge to the conventional urban‐rural dualism. The implication, both in theoretical and policy terms, is that such regions of mixed land use form new 'urban' landscapes that will persist into the future on the basis of balanced 'agro‐industrial' development. Drawing on fieldwork in a town on Manila's agricultural periphery, this paper argues that such understandings present a static view of these regions, limited by macro‐level data and analysis. A more ethnographic understanding of the social processes of 'everyday urbanization' at the interface of the 'urban' and the 'rural' dispels any sense of a stable rural‐urban landscape or balanced development. The evidence points to an incompatibility of functions leading to the gradual 'squeezing out' of agriculture due to a changing economic calculus in agricultural households brought on by labour market shifts; environmental conflicts between agricultural and urban‐industrial activities; social and cultural transformations in rural society; a political framework of bureaucratic corruption in the regulation of urbanization; and the influence of personalized power relations in agrarian society.—Ces dernières années, les efforts pour comprendre le processus d'urbanisation en Asie du sud‐est se sont concentrés sur la naissance des régions métropolitaines étendues autour des cités centrales. Beaucoup soutiennent que ces régions, avec leurs paysages d'activités 'rurales' et 'urbaines' intensivement mélangées, représentent une forme d'urbanisation typiquement asiatique et mettent la dualité traditionnelle urbain‐rural en question. L'implication, théoriquement et politiquement, est que de telles régions, avec leur utilisation mixte du terrain, forment de nouveaux paysages 'urbains' qui persisteront dans l'avenir sur une base de développement 'agro‐industriel'. Basé sur un travail de terrain dans une ville de la périphérie agricole de Manille, cet article soutient que de telles approches présentent une vue statique de ces régions, limitée par des données et une analyse de niveau macroscopique. Une approche plus ethnographique des processus sociaux de 'l'urbanisation de tous les jours' au point de rencontre du 'rural' et de l'urbain' dissipe toute impression d'un paysage rural‐urbain stable ou d'un développement équilibré. Les données font ressortir une incompatibilité de fonction causant un 'écrasement' graduel de l'agriculture dûà un calcul économique changeant dans les ménages agricoles occasionné par les changements du marché du travail; des conflits de l'environnement entre les activités agricoles et les activités urbaines‐industrielles; des transformations sociales et culturelles dans la société rurale; une structure politique de corruption bureaucratique de la réglementation de l'urbanisation; et l'influence des relations personnelles de pouvoir dans la société agraire

Kelly reviews 'Agrarian Reform in the Philippines: Democratic Transitions and Redistributive Reform' by Jeffrey M. Riedinger.