Doctoral Dissertation Research: Land Ownership, Cultural Identity, and the Legal Displacement of Family Commons in the Southeastern United States.

本博士论文项目研究了美国东南部gulla - geechee人与继承人财产所有权相关的法律脆弱性以及对继承人土地的文化依恋。该项目综合运用了法律地理学、批判性财产研究和政治生态学的方法，并结合了民族志和档案方法，回答了三个主要研究问题：土地所有者如何定义所有权并就继承人的财产进行土地使用谈判？这些做法如何与所有权和土地使用权的法律和司法定义相比较？继承人的所有人如何解决土地所有权冲突？这些问题的答案很重要，因为它们与土地私有化、圈地和自然商品化的全球进程有关。关于这些问题的现有研究大多来自于全球南方的研究，因此，在美国这样的地方研究共同拥有的家庭土地是有价值的，因为法律的力量和先进的资本主义被认为在很大程度上消除了其他财产制度。此外，本研究还说明了美国物权法是如何通过将权利定义为可以部分或全部分离和商品化的捆绑，从而创造出令人惊讶的圈地和公地的种类和程度。最后，该项目将通过人与人之间的社会关系而不是人与土地之间的关系来定义权利，从而为财产法在多大程度上变得没有地方的辩论提供信息。通过将关键的财产研究和法律地理学与政治生态学相结合，该项目使人们重新认识到财产对物质生计的重要性以及文化身份与土地的联系。这项工作的结果对于理解和打击继承人土地所有权的转移和丧失在美国东南部以外的地点是重要的。继承人所有权的未来将取决于土地所有者如何理解、应对和利用各种法律、经济和环境过程，这些过程决定了土地的价值和所有权。本研究的研究结果将与那些试图找到公平和公正解决继承人财产冲突的社区和组织分享，并通过学术会议和出版物传播。作为博士论文研究进步奖，该项目将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个独立的研究生涯。

This doctoral dissertation project examines the legal vulnerability associated with heirs' property ownership and the cultural attachment to heirs' land among Gullah-Geechee people in the Southeastern United States. Using an integration of approaches from legal geography, critical property studies, and political ecology, and using a blend of ethnographic and archival methods, this project answers three primary research questions: How do landowners define ownership rights and negotiate land use on heirs' property? How do these practices compare to legal and judicial definitions of ownership and land use rights? How do heirs' owners resolve conflicts over landownership? The answers to these questions are important because they are relevant to the global processes of land privatization, enclosure, and the commodification of nature. Much of the existing research on these issues comes from research on the Global South, therefore it is valuable to study commonly owned family land in a place such as the U.S. where the power of law and advanced capitalism are thought to have largely erased alternative property regimes. Furthermore, this research illustrates how American property law creates surprising varieties and degrees of enclosures and commons by defining rights as bundles, which can be separated and commodified in part or whole. Finally, this project will inform debates about the extent to which property law has become placeless, by defining rights through social relationships between people instead of between humans and the land. By combining critical property studies and legal geography with political ecology, this project brings place back into an understanding of the importance property to material livelihoods and the connection of cultural identity to land. The results of this work are important for an understanding of and combating the displacement and loss of heirs' landownership beyond sites in the Southeastern United States. The future of heirs' ownership will be shaped by how landowners understand, combat, and harness a variety of legal, economic, and environmental processes that determine how land is valued and claimed. The research findings of this study will be shared with communities and organizations that are attempting to find equitable and just solutions to heirs' property conflicts, as well as disseminated via academic conferences and publications. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project will provide support to enable a promising student to establish an independent research career.