Technology as a problem in Southern African land tenure reform
Jackson, Jonathan
This draft paper has been presented at the occasion of the Symposium 'Land redistribution in Southern Africa', 6-7 November 2002, Pretoria SA. A final version of this paper will be published February 2003.
Hernando de Soto is an influential economist who argues that the use of formal land rights by the poor in third world societies would have large benefits both within third world countries and in their relations to the wealthy countries. However De Soto sees surveyors as part of the problem in achieving this goal, not the solution. This presentation tries to understand this criticism . I submit that De Soto is mistaken in thinking that technicians can enter a titling process after the problems have been solved at higher level. Rather, the titling system is intrinsically technical and a successful system needs to invent itself by an interleaving of technical, social and political components. The exposition of the development of the English land registry by its Chief Registrar, in 1931, is used to support this view.
Event: Symposium Land Redistribution in Southern Africa
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