University of Flordia doctoral student, David R. Garcia, under the supervision of Dr. Allan F. Burns, will investigate how the transformation of diverse land ownership systems into individual private property affect the social organization and well-being of rural communities. The overaching research question asks how such processes reconfigure social ordering, collective action, and environmental beliefs and practices.
The research will be carried out in Q'eqchi'-Maya communities of the lowland agricultural frontier of Chisec, Guatemala, where contemporary land policies entail reforms of collective tenure traditions in frontier lands where land tenure is uncertain. Garcia will employ a mixed methods approach including archival research in land registers and open-ended interviews to unravel how pre-existing social practices figure into the transformation of property regimes among diverse social actors including state officials, local grassroots leaders, and community organizers and members. He also will gather social network data in three Q'eqchi' villages with varying levels of private land titling. The analysis of the network data will probe the effects of distinct levels of land privatization on social structure, social support, and collective action.
The research is important because the transformation of collective lands into privately held lands is happening throughout the world. The results of this research will contribute to ongoing theoretical and policy debates regarding the social effects of property rights and ownership systems. The research may inform policy makers who need to evaluate land policy alternatives as they seek to reduce social conflict, poverty, and social exclusion. The research also will contribute to the education of a graduate student from an underrepresented group.
