Inalienable Properties: The Political Economy of Indigenous Land Reform, Jamie Baxter

Inalienable Properties explores contrasting approaches to property rights by four Indigenous communities to illustrate how inalienability – restrictions on the ability to buy and sell land – is linked to community leadership and decision-making structures that have long-lasting consequences for communities. Drawing on new research about institutional change in organizational settings, Jamie Baxter explores when and how community leaders have sustained inalienable land rights without turning to either persuasion or coercive force – the two levers of power normally associated with political leadership. He also challenges the view that liberalized land markets are the inevitable result of legal and economic change.

1 Keeping the Land, Making the Market

2 Property Stories

3 Leaders and Land Reform

4 Save or Sell?

5 Ideas and Interests in Uncertain Times

6 The Future of Inalienable Properties

Notes; Bibliography; Index