Over the past decade land has again moved to the centre of resource conflicts, agrarian struggles, and competing visions over the future of food and farming. This renewed interest in land necessitates asking the seemingly simple, but pertinent, question ‘what is land?’ To reach a more profound understanding of the uniqueness of land, and what distinguishes land from other resources, this symposium suggests the notion of ‘land imaginaries’ as a crucial lens in the study of current land transformations. Political-economy, and the particular economic, financial, or political interests of various actors involved in land projects do not directly result in, or translate into, outcomes, such as dispossession and enclosure, increased commodification, financialization, and assetization, or mobilization and resistance. All these processes are informed by different imaginaries of land—the underlying understandings, views, and visions of what land is, can, and should be—and associated visions, hopes, and dreams regarding land. Drawing on a variety of case studies from across the world, crossing Global North/South and East/West, and including contemporary and historical instances of land transformation, this symposium addresses the multifaceted ways in which implicit, explicit, and emergent understandings of land shape current land transformations.

中文翻译：

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“重新构想土地：土地转型的重要性、影响和不平衡轨迹”研讨会简介

在过去十年中，土地再次成为资源冲突、土地斗争以及对未来粮食和农业的竞争愿景的中心。对土地重新燃起的兴趣需要问一个看似简单但中肯的问题“什么是土地？” 为了更深入地了解土地的独特性，以及土地与其他资源的区别，本次研讨会提出了“土地想象”的概念，作为研究当前土地转型的关键镜头。政治经济以及参与土地项目的各个参与者的特定经济、金融或政治利益不会直接导致或转化为结果，例如剥夺和圈地、商品化、金融化和资产化，或动员和抵抗性。所有这些过程都来自于对土地的不同想象——对土地是什么、可以是什么和应该是什么的潜在理解、观点和愿景——以及相关的关于土地的愿景、希望和梦想。利用来自世界各地的各种案例研究，跨越全球北/南和东/西，包括土地转型的当代和历史实例，本次研讨会讨论了对土地形状的隐性、显性和新兴理解的多方面方式当前的土地转型。