Project
Women and law in Latin America
Client/funder:
Research Council of Norway
Start date:
Dec 2009 (Current)
Project members:
Rachel Sieder (project leader), Camila Gianella, John-Andrew McNeish
Thematic research group:
Peace, Conflict and the State
Geographical keywords:
Latin America
Last update: April 2010
In Africa and Latin America access to arable land remains a key factor determining people's economic conditions and possibilities for prosperity. Acknowledging this reliance, many international studies of poverty are also in agreement that the highest levels of poverty in Africa and Latin America continue to be found in rural districts. Common explanations of these persisting high levels of poverty in rural areas underline the symptomatic vulnerability of rural areas to natural disasters, war, and isolation from economic markets. Whilst accepting these symptomatic explanations, this project proposes that in search of solutions to inequality renewed qualitative consideration be made of deeper social structures of land conflict and land hunger in particular. Throughout Africa and Latin America the uneven distribution and patterns of ownership of land continue to produce serious levels of unrest and desperation. Although clearly linked to a complex of social prejudices and unequal power structures, we seek to investigate further whether the facilitation of conflict and hunger fundamentally lies with the continuance of competing legal norms, or legal pluralities.
Publications
Cultures of Legality: Judicialization and Political Activism in Latin America
Couso, Javier A., Alexandra Huneeus, Rachel Sieder (2010)
New York: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge studies in law and society) 287 p.
