My current dissertation project focuses on post-war land reform and related agrarian and environmental change in El Salvador’s rural landscapes. Through a multi-sited analysis I examine the social and environmental legacy of the country’s post-war land reform (PTT) and subsequent state-sponsored parcelization program (PROSEGUIR). In this work, I seek to understand the land transfer process as it has played out through the lives and landscapes of land transfer families and communities. I chart the establishment of local institutions for environmental governance and examine the roles these institutions play in land use and conservation strategies both regionally and nationally.
Theoretically, my research seeks to establish improved linkages between scale processes through analysis of both 'micro scale' and 'macro scale' phenomenon. I employ methodological tools such as ethnography and remote sensing, drawn from the both social and natural sciences in an attempt to better articulate interrelationships between land-use policies, social institutions and land use-change processes in rapidly transitioning rural landscapes of Mesoamerica.
As awareness of the centrality of land as an asset for rural livelihoods leads to an expansion of land related policy programming in the international donor community, this research is intended to broaden the frame of reference as to what constitutes 'better' land policy and seeks to understand how modern-day land reform can be improved as tool for establishing sustainable rural livelihoods and landscapes and deepening social equity and stability.
My past work includes analysis of the linkages between political violence and land degradation in rural agricultural systems in El Salvador, land-related conflict resolution in Guatemala, participatory planning methodologies for natural resource management, and ecological and social consequences of economic liberalization in Central America.
Research interests: political ecology, land reform and agrarian change, environmental governance, Central America.
Contact Ariane de Bremond by email: ariane.debremond@gmail.com |
