ABSTRACT

Large-scale land acquisitions (LaSLA), otherwise ‘land grabbing’ in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), raise difficult normative questions the current literature does not sufficiently explore. LaSLA is associated with development opportunities; however, it also threatens the well-being of local people because of displacement and dispossession. To investigate the processes and outcomes for LaSLA to be considered as ‘just and fair,’ we evaluate the impacts of a LaSLA project on local livelihoods in Tanzania. Specifically, we apply John Rawls’ Theory of Justice to the project and compare the results with empirical insights gained from our fieldwork. We find that LaSLA has the potential to improve the living standards of local people, we cannot consider LaSLA as just and fair because it contradicts Rawls’s principles of justice and deteriorates the livelihoods of local people. Our findings suggest that it is critical to scrutinize LaSLA investments, involve local people in decision-making, and build the capacity of host governments to negotiate better LaSLA deals.

摘要

在撒哈拉以南非洲 (SSA) 的大规模土地征用 (LaSLA)，否则就是“土地掠夺”，提出了当前文献未充分探讨的困难的规范问题。LaSLA 与发展机会相关；然而，由于流离失所和被剥夺，它也威胁到当地人民的福祉。为了调查 LaSLA 被视为“公正和公平”的过程和结果，我们评估了 LaSLA 项目对坦桑尼亚当地生计的影响。具体来说，我们将约翰·罗尔斯的正义理论应用于该项目，并将结果与​​从我们的实地调查中获得的经验见解进行比较。我们发现 LaSLA 具有提高当地人生活水平的潜力，我们不能认为 LaSLA 是公正和公平的，因为它违背了罗尔斯的正义原则并恶化了当地人民的生计。我们的研究结果表明，审查 LaSLA 投资、让当地人参与决策以及培养东道国政府谈判更好的 LaSLA 交易的能力至关重要。