Tariq Rahman Lahore is an ancient city. Lahore is a megacity. Though I can think of nothing more cliché to say about an Asian city than describing it as a “land of contrasts,” I do find the tension between Lahore’s history and present to be a productive one to think with when it comes to […]
Conflict-related displacement is increasingly central in shaping land claims, property relations, and modes of belonging in Africa. The new African Studies Review Forum Land Disputes and Displacement in Post-Conflict Africa (2017, guest editors: Daivi Rodima-Taylor and Lotte Meinert) explores territoriality, belonging and boundary making in plural sites of public authority in African communities that are […]
Kristine Juul There is a widespread perception that mortgage is still rare in rural Africa, as most people lack formal titles to land. In a northern cattle-trading town of Senegal, I was surprised to find out that mortgaging was rather common, and people were losing their houses and farm plots. As elsewhere in rural Sahel, […]
Nate Coben and Melissa K. Wrapp Many academics and activists have critiqued the mortgage industry as a central engine of global financialization. Indeed, mortgages have long been espoused as vehicles of liberalization, liquidity, and economic development. And yet in our two very different field sites—South Africa and Ireland—we saw people doing a lot of work […]