Land tenure formalisation as institutional transition in African cities: a critical examination.

我的跨学科研究重点是土地制度和土地保有权正规化的过程，解决对全球南方快速城市化城市的城市发展和减贫具有持久重要性的问题。由于约有10亿人生活在无规划的定居点，国际组织和发展中国家政府推动土地登记(正规化)，以应对快速城市化的城市带来的挑战。正规化政策的净收益仍不明朗。事实上，许多产权项目都遇到了执行方面的挑战，包括土地所有权使用率低，政府的沉没成本很大。因此，有必要进行更多的实证研究，研究当地在特定时空背景下对改善财产权的需求，以及如何通过政策举措满足这一需求。我的研究调查了达累斯萨拉姆(坦桑尼亚)的所有权倡议，分析了所有权使用率低的动机以及导致建立正式财产制度的过程。通过广泛的田野调查和混合方法分析，我的研究发现，邻居之间以及与当地公共当局之间的社会互动调解了选择和正规化的过程。在与当地学生的合作下，我收集和制作了一系列广泛的数据，包括行政地籍数据、初步调查数据、深度访谈、民族志观察和实验数据。总体而言，我的研究提供了重要的方法、理论和实证贡献，产生了政策建议，我已经将这些建议传播给政策制定者和其他利益相关者。更具体地说，我的工作发现，正规化政策在达累斯萨拉姆获得了相当大的社会支持，尽管接受程度较低。其次，在人口中，选择带有临时产权的正规化是相互依赖的，因为地块所有者在决定是否采用他们的所有权时，会参考其他人(邻居和社区领袖)的行为和建议。第三，社会互动也是正规化进程的中介：地方领导人和邻居承认财产的非正式动态对于正式财产的工具--地籍和调查地图--的合法化和可操作性至关重要。第四，地方领导人对所在社区对正规化的当地需求有准确的了解。这可以被用来向更具包容性的项目通报正规化。该研究金将通过一个雄心勃勃但可实现的与学术界和更广泛的受众接触的方案，进一步建立出版物的记录、研究网络以及在城市研究和机构研究的交叉点上创新的跨学科学术形象，从而帮助我发展学术事业。至关重要的是，这些活动将从我现有的工作和未来研究的机会中产生更大的影响。产出将包括在顶级期刊、会议、研讨会、与政策制定者和其他项目利益攸关方举行的会议上发表的一系列出版物，以及博客文章。为了探索未来进行比较、跨学科和与政策相关的研究合作的可能性，我将与i)达累斯萨拉姆大学、内罗毕大学和坎帕拉大学的当地学者；ii)伦敦经济学院内外相关领域的学者；iii)坦桑尼亚各级政府的决策者和其他项目利益攸关方，巩固现有的和新的网络。此外，我还将撰写我的下一个三年项目，为英国学院、勒弗胡姆信托基金和ESRC提供资金申请。最后，该奖学金将使我能够通过在社会规范和行为动力学中心(宾夕法尼亚大学)的短期访问、伦敦政治经济学院的课程和短期课程，扩展我现有研究的现有理论和方法方面。

My interdisciplinary research focuses on land institutions and processes of land tenure formalisation, addressing questions of lasting importance for urban development and poverty alleviation in rapidly urbanising cities of the Global South. With roughly 1 billion people living in unplanned settlements, international organisations and governments of developing countries promote land registration (formalisation) to address the challenges of rapidly urbanising cities. The net benefits from formalisation policies remain unclear. In fact, many titling projects have encountered challenges of implementation, including the low uptake of land titles, with large sunk costs for governments. Thus, there is a need for more empirical research studying the local demand for improved property rights in specific spatial-temporal contexts, and how this could be met through policy initiatives. My research investigates titling initiatives in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) analysing the motivations for low uptake of titles and the processes leading to the construction of a formal property system. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and mixed-methods analysis, my research finds that social interactions among neighbours and with the local public authority mediate the choices and the processes of formalisation. In collaboration with local students, I have collected and produced a wide set of data including administrative cadastral data, primary survey data, in-depth interviews, ethnographic observations and experimental data. Overall, my research provides important methodological, theoretical, and empirical contributions, resulting in policy recommendations, which I have disseminated to policymakers and other stakeholders.More specifically, my work finds that first, formalisation policies rally considerable social support in Dar es Salaam, despite of low uptake. Second, choices of formalisation with interim property rights are interdependent in the population, as plot owners refer to the behavior and advice of others (neighbours and community leaders) when deciding whether to uptake their titles. Third, social interactions also mediate the process of formalisation: informal dynamics of property recognition by local leaders and neighbours are essential to legitimise and operationalise the instruments of formal property: the cadastre and the survey map. Fourth, local leaders have accurate knowledge on the local demand for formalisation in their neighbourhoods. This could be leveraged to inform more inclusive projects of formalisation. The Fellowship will help me to develop an academic career by further establishing a track-record of publications, a research network, and an innovative interdisciplinary academic profile at the intersection of urban and institutional research, through an ambitious, yet achievable programme of engagements with academic and wider audiences. Crucially, these activities will generate higher impact from my existing work and opportunities for future research. Outputs will include a set of publications in top-tier journals, conferences, seminars, meetings with policymakers and other project stakeholders, and blog posts. To explore the possibility of future comparative, interdisciplinary and policy-relevant research collaborations, I will consolidate existing and new networks with i) local academics at the Universities of Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, and Kampala; ii) academics in related fields both within and outside the LSE; iii) policy-makers at all levels of governments and other project stakeholders in Tanzania. Moreover, I will write my next three-year project for funding applications to the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust and the ESRC. Finally, the fellowship will enable me to extend the existing theoretical, and methodological aspects of my existing research through a short-term visiting period at the Centre for Social Norms and Behavioral Dynamics (University of Pennsylvania), classes and short courses at the LSE.