Geographies of land use: Planning, property, and law

Abstract

In this article, we draw attention to the geographies of “land use,” which to date have been underexamined and undertheorized within urban geographical literature. To do so, we review insights from a growing set of literature in geography, urban planning, law, and socio‐legal studies, among others, to outline how urban space is shaped through the relationships between land use, planning, property, and law. We first look at the relationships between land‐use planning and power relations in place. We go on to focus on the law, and the ways in which it structures and controls land use, property, and social activities in the city. We conclude by reviewing how law and legal concepts can serve as instruments of resistance and a source of alternate futures in urban spaces. In sum, we argue that a deeper interrogation of land use, and its relationships to planning, property, and law, can lead to a better understanding of how liberal‐democratic cities operate, and offer tools for resisting opaque and legalistic land‐use planning programs.

Land, property, and territory: Mutual embeddedness as understood by thetongbianphilosophy

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Exposing the legal and bureaucratic underpinnings of gentrification: Municipal property transfers through alley closures in Washington, DC

“…Some scholars are more explicit about property ownership as a form of power that enables a right to the city, or the right of ordinary people to shape urban processes. Property ownership is powerful not just for those who perpetuate gentrification, but also for those who contest it (Wideman and Lombardo, 2019). In the context of dispossession caused by gentrification, Blomley (1997, 2008) argues for a recognition of collective property as a way to legitimize the rights of the poor as they challenge displacement.…”

Supervision of Subdistrict Heads as Temporary Deed Making Officials in the Indonesian Positive Law Perspective

“…Inequality in land ownership can create detrimental social disparities and become a source of conflict. Apart from that, unfair land control can also trigger political instability, considering that land is often the basis of people's lives in rural areas (Wideman & Lombardo, 2019).…”