Between two hypes: Will “big data” help unravel blind spots in understanding the “global land rush?”

Zoomers, Annelies; Gekker, Alex; Schäfer, Mirko Tobias

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.11.017

Cited by 42 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Overall, our analysis supports the importance of looking at the three phases we have identified when studying global or regional land acquisitions to draw more accurate conclusions. Following our approach to explore changes in trade relationships, actors involved at country and investor levels, and in investment interests over time may also help address some of the critiques to previous quantitative evaluations of LSLA at global level that are considered too simplistic and sometimes inaccurate (Oya 2013, Scoones et al 2013, Zoomers et al 2016.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They generally assessed land deals (mostly agricultural) starting from the food and/or financial crisis of 2008 (Friis and Reenberg 2010, Zoomers 2010, Arezki et al 2011, Anseeuw et al 2013. However, most of these studies have been criticized for primarily focusing on assessing the amount of land acquired globally, only identifying top players and drawing broad global conclusions on the drivers and consequences of LSLA with limited critical discussion of data sampling, methods or results, and with little appreciation for latent, potentially informative patterns embedded in large data sets (Oya 2013, Scoones et al 2013, Zoomers et al 2016. More recently, some have attempted to identify determinants of LSLA through econometric and regression models (Conigliani et al 2018, Kareem 2018, Lay and Nolte 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transnational land acquisitions beyond the food and financial crises

Mechiche-Alami

Piccardi

Nicholas

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA) in resource-rich countries came to global attention after the food and financial crises of 2008. Previous research has assessed the magnitude of these land investments in terms of land areas acquired. In this study, we analyze the trends in the evolution of LSLA by framing the latter as virtual land trade network with land transactions occurring between 2000 and 2015, in order to shed light on the development and evolution of this system. Based on an index we introduce to represent both the number of countries and size of deals, we discover three main phases of trade activity: a steady increase from 2000 until 2007 (Phase 1) followed by a peak coinciding with the food and financial crises between 2008 and 2010 (Phase 2) and concluded by a decline from 2011 to 2015 (Phase 3). We identify 73 countries that remained active in land trading during all three phases and form a core of land traders much larger than previously thought. Using network analysis methods, we group countries with similar trade patterns into categories of competitive, preferential, diversified, and occasional importers or exporters. Finally, in exploring the changes in investors and their interests in land throughout the phases, we attribute the evolution of LSLA to the different stages in the globalization and financialization of different industries. By showing that land investments seem fully integrated as investment strategies across industries we argue for the urgency of better regulation of LSLA so that they also benefit local populations without damaging the environment regardless of their primary purpose.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transnational land acquisitions beyond the food and financial crises

Mechiche-Alami

Piccardi

Nicholas

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…We also engage with important scholarly debates on the theoretical framing and methodological quantification of land grabs (e.g. Anseeuw et al, 2013;Rulli, Saviori, & D'Odorico, 2013;Zoomers et al, 2016).…”

Section: The Eu's Position In the Global Land Grabbing Webmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research and political debates on global land grabbing have not subsided, despite the international media's waning attention to the phenomenon (Zoomers, Gekker, & Schäfer, 2016). Scholarly research has focused on four broad themes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transnational land investment web: land grabs, TNCs, and the challenge of global governance

Borras

Mills

Seufert³

et al. 2019

Globalizations

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Despite international media's waning attention, research and political debates on global land grabbing have not subsided. We argue the importance of understanding the 'transnational land investment web' of corporate and state actors and institutions, which are not always immediately visible. Focusing on transnational corporations (TNCs) based in the European Union (EU), we examine five sets of actors and institutional spheres through which these actors are able to grab lands beyond Europe. It is crucial to understand these not as individual sets of actors or institutions, but as interconnected sets, comprising a web. These are EU-based: (1) Private companies using regular institutional platforms; (2) Finance capital companies; (3) Public-private partnerships; (4) Development Finance Institutions; and (5) Companies using EU policies to gain control of land through the supply chain. One implication of this complex web is that democratic governance in the context of land grabs becomes an even more daunting challenge.

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“…The potential of big data to improve disaster response and management is stimulating significant interest from researchers, government, and the humanitarian community (e.g. Fadiya et al, 2014;Pu and Kitsuregawa, 2013;Shelton et al, 2014;Zoomers et al, 2016). This paper critically examines the existing evidence and explores the future potential for the use of actively and passively produced mobile phone data for managing humanitarian disasters caused by communicable disease outbreaks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence and future potential of mobile phone data for disease disaster management

2016

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Global health threats such as the recent Ebola and Zika virus outbreaks require rapid and robust responses to prevent, reduce and recover from disease dispersion. As part of broader big data and digital humanitarianism discourses, there is an emerging interest in data produced through mobile phone communications for enhancing the data environment in such circumstances. This paper assembles user perspectives and critically examines existing evidence and future potential of mobile phone data derived from call detail records (CDRs) and two-way short message service (SMS) platforms, for managing and responding to humanitarian disasters caused by communicable disease outbreaks. We undertake a scoping review of relevant literature and in-depth interviews with key informants to ascertain the: i) information that can be gathered from CDRs or SMS data; ii) phase(s) in the disease disaster management cycle when mobile data may be useful; iii) value added over conventional approaches to data collection and transfer; iv) barriers and enablers to use of mobile data in disaster contexts; and v) the social and ethical challenges. Based on this evidence we develop a typology of mobile phone data sources, types, and end-uses, and a decision-tree for mobile data use, designed to enable effective use of mobile data for disease disaster management. We show that mobile data holds great potential for improving the quality, quantity and timing of selected information required for disaster management, but that testing and evaluation of the benefits, constraints and limitations of mobile data use in a wider range of mobile-user and disaster contexts is needed to fully understand its utility, validity, and limitations.

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Between two hypes: Will “big data” help unravel blind spots in understanding the “global land rush?”

Cited by 42 publications

References 31 publications

Transnational land acquisitions beyond the food and financial crises

Transnational land acquisitions beyond the food and financial crises

Transnational land investment web: land grabs, TNCs, and the challenge of global governance

Evidence and future potential of mobile phone data for disease disaster management

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