Erik Stubkjær
Version 1.0;

A Guide to Scientific Literature on Cadastre and Land Management


Doctoral theses | Reference titles | Scientific journals | Search tools | Research centres | Dictionaries | Bibliographies | Encyclopaedia | Web resources

Introduction

Research in cadastre and land management of international scope emerged in the late 1980s with textbooks (Dale, McLaughlin, 1988; Larsson, 1991) and Ph.D theses (Barnes, 1988). The organisational context was university departments lecturing geodetic surveying and sharing research findings within the International Federation of Surveyors, FIG. The scientific approach was informatics (information management, systems analysis) and economics, although the domain also depends on the disciplines of law and public administration, respectively.

Economics is a complex domain. New Institutional Economics and Development Economics are gaining interest, as New Institutional Economics was introduced for the FIG community, for example by Hans Sevatdal (1999, 2002). Armands Auzins introduced the reader to the theory of the Institutional Economics (2004), and recently, Tommy Österberg (2006), again with reference to Douglass C. North and Hernando de Soto stressed the difference between organisation and institution. Institutional Economics also provided a theoretical base for an European research project on 'Modelling Real Property Transactions' (ESF/COST G9, 2001-2005). Institutional Economics and Development Economics are integrated in the writings of heterodox economists like Ha-Joon Chang, Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Erik S. Reinert. Moreover, the latter's The Origins of Development Economics (2005) provides a frame for explaining the emergence of the European cadastre in Cameralism / Kameralwissenschaft.

New knowledge appears from doctoral theses, after 2000 especially from the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Administration, University of Melbourne. The present selection of theses intends to cover only the Land Administration / Cadastral aspect, with the exception of the thesis by Lemmens (2006). Except for a few theses in European languages, they are written in the English language. Whether this reflect the facts or the limitations of the editor remains to be seen. A list of reference titles serves the purpose of further characterizing the research domain.

A criterion for the selection of scientific journals was that the journal should include at least one interesting article, cf. the selection below. Proceedings from conferences, e.g. those organised by the FIG and the recent (2002) Permanent Committee on Cadastre in the European Union, often provide for valuable information, but the list would be long, distract from scope, and proceedings series are consequently not listed here.

The list of units presented under the heading of research institutes may have an European bias. The list does not include knowledge centres within the World Bank Group, the UN family of organisations, and donors, as these may easily be accessed through portals like http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org.
The dictionaries and bibliographies are often developed in the context of specific projects, thus no unified paradigm should be expected, cf. the remark that it "took a long time to prepare and finalise [the Land Tenure Dictionary], and brought home some of the linguistic and conceptual challenges faced when working in English and French." (Leonard, Longbottom, 2000).

Doctoral theses

Reference titles

This list of titles is selective and heterogeneous. It is not intended as a reading list for newcomers. Rather, the list serves the purpose of further characterizing the research domain.

Scientific Journals

The scientific journals are listed, partly as a guide for PhD-students and others, partly as a contribution towards the rating of scientific journals of relevance for the research domain. The former reason suggest a wider list of journals to be included than the latter.
The journals are grouped according to Impact Factor published in the Journal Citation Reports of Institute for Scientific Information. The Norwegian Norwegian register of scientific journals and publishers provides a rating in two levels (NDS level 2 and 1) which largely compares with the Impact Factors.
The domain of cadastre and land management rather relates to the Norwegian UHR fagråd: Økonomisk-administrative fag (economic-administrative branch) and more specifically the scientific discipline of: Arkitektur og bygningsteknologi (Architecture and construction technology), but as mentioned in the introduction: The domain is multi-disciplinary.
Some known journals were not included in the Journal Citation Reports. They are added in two further groups, depending on whether the journal editor provided information on abstraction/ indexing or not.
After grouping known journals in the above-mentioned 4 levels, Journal Citation Reports were again queried, now for a Journal Summary List from the following subject categories: ECONOMICS; GEOGRAPHY; LAW; PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT; PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. Browsing through the list, sorted according to Impact factor, yielded four more journal titles with Impact factor > 1.0, including Political Geography.

Search tools

Because of the multi-disciplinary character of the domain, search tools should be used when the issue of investigation has been pinned down. Notable, the above journal editors refer to indexing tools for the social sciences and specifically economics.

Research institutes

Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Administration, Department of Geomatics, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The Centre provides a focus for research in Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) and Land Administration by building on research relationships and creating new links through national and international collaboration. Five research topics include Land Administration and Cadastre. PhD theses 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006

Professor Ian Williamson was recently appointed Chair of the UN supported PCGIAP Working Group on "Spatially enabled government". http://www.geom.unimelb.edu.au/research/SDI_research/index.html

Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

Research in the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering covers the whole breadth of geodesy and geomatics. It does however include design of land administration systems; property formalization in developing countries; development of spatial data infrastructures; land policy/administration studies; property rights in aquaculture; land tenure and aboriginal rights. PhD theses 1993, 2006, 2006

International Institute for Environment and Development

London based IIED receives funding from aid and development ministries, intergovernmental agencies, foundations, and corporate and individual donors. Within the general heading of Institutions, governance and power, projects address: Land rights and tenure, and Legal empowerment for secure resource access. Previous projects include Land tenure and resource access in West Africa -
Marie Monimart (Natural Resources Group): How to promote - and advocate for - a more effective and sustainable integration of gender issues, integrating local societies' concept and visions, into poverty reduction, since little progress has been made so far to answer Esther Boserup's questions in 1970.
Isilda Nhantumbo (Natural Resources Group) Who owns and controls what [land and] forest resources and how the policy and legal framework provides ground for equitable ownership, access and control of resources. Isilda is also looking at how the devolution of resources tenure to local communities contributes to changing livelihoods and to the achievement of the MDGs in Africa.

Law and Goverance Group Law, Wageningen University

The research of the Law and Goverance Group is directed at the pivotal role of law (rules, agreements, institutions) for food production, quality and security, access to and ownership of natural resources, livelihood conditions of agricultural producers and rural entrepreneurs. Research is organized at different levels (varying from local to international) and different locations (inside and outside Europe). Research is organized under two themes, including Law, Governance and Natural Resource Management

Project Group Legal Pluralism, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Most contemporary legal systems – in developing countries and post-industrialised states – contain parallel and often contradictory regulations of social, economic and political organisation. These are based on different types of legitimation: international law, state law, religious law, customary law and forms of self-regulation. This type of legal complexity is called "legal pluralism". Four thematic domains include 3. Property, law and natural resources (in Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Mozambique and Morocco).

Land Tenure Center, Wisconsin-Madison

Under USAID's Translinks program, LTC works with partner organizations to design and implement integrated activities that help rural people gain skills
and capacity to manage natural resources sustainably and achieve equitable wealth creation under different environmental, social, and economic conditions.

Among others, the LTC offers links to Land Tenure Resources on the Internet

The OECD Development Centre

The OECD Development Centre (DEV, www.oecd.org/dev)  conducts comparative analysis and promotes informal policy dialogue on development issues of mutual interest for OECD Member countries and the emerging and developing economies.
Focus is general, e.g.
but land tenure and cadastral aspects are included, e.g.
Johannes Jütting is Senior Economist and Principal Administrator at the OECD Development Centre. He is the team leader for the Centre’s work programme on institutions, poverty and health, culture and gender. His responsibility includes conceptualising, managing and providing leadership for this program activity.

Dictionaries and Terminology aids

Bibliographies

Encyclopedia

Web resources

A Cadastre wiki is being prepared at Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey. Come back late February 2008.

Erik Stubkjær, est @ land.aau.dk, with contributions from among others Jesper Paasch, Stockholm; Volkan Cagdas, Istanbul; Gerhard Navratil, Vienna. Last 2008-12-11. - Added FAO thesaurus; Reference titles, etc; deleted content of Web resources.2007-12-05; Added more journals. 2007-11-..;
Motivation for journal rating (Danish) 2007-11-12; First draft 2003-10-29