Land Grabbing As Development? ― Chinese and British Land Acquisitions in Comparative Perspective

Between 2000 and 2016, China and the UK acquired large areas of land through investment projects in sub-Saharan Africa. Illustrated by numerous rich and nuanced empirical accounts of such projects, Ariane Goetz explains the global phenomenon of land grabbing from the perspective of these two investor countries. She reflects on Chinese and British public policy, state-society relations, national developmental contexts, ideologies, and international relations and thereby gives insights into the political economies that enable these investments as well as the development ambitions and institutionalized paradigms of which they form a part.

Ariane Goetz is a political economist at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, Germany. Her work focuses on the political economy of foreign direct investment (FDI), land use, food, and energy at the intersection of international organization, national development, and global restructuring.