Land Titling as Social Cleavage in Zambia and Malawi

• In Event: Politics of Land Reforms and Agrarian Change

Abstract

This study interrogates the unanticipated developmental consequences of land titling
by focusing on its impacts on community relations. While property rights and secure
access to land are critical to rural livelihoods, we know less about how changes in
property rights regimes transform village communities. This paper examines the social
and political consequences of titling on cooperation within communities, which in
turn have a variety of developmental implications. We argue that households with a
land title are less reliant on local customary institutions for access to land; therefore, they
are exempt from the customary institution’s rules and obligations. This can create
important social divisions within a community as some are less beholden to and integrated
into the community. We test this insight using a conjoint survey experiment
implemented in Zambia and Malawi. We find that survey respondents expect individuals with
land titles to be less cooperative in community activities. Three mechanisms connect land titling to lower perceptions of cooperation: costs to social order, costs to systems of collective land sharing, and symbolic values. These results suggest that land titling can impact within-community cooperation, independent of (and in addition to) established identity-based debates over land rights.

Authors

• Lauren Honig, Boston College

• Adam Harris, University College London