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Evaluating Collective Action for Effective Land Policy Reform in Developing Country Contexts: The Construction and Validation of Dimensions and Indicators

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  • Lin Zhou

    (Chair of Land Management, School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich (TUM), 80333 Munich, Germany
    Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (CEENRG), Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3QZ, UK)

  • Walter Timo de Vries

    (Chair of Land Management, School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich (TUM), 80333 Munich, Germany)

  • Alexandra Panman

    (Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London, London WC1H 9EZ, UK)

  • Fei Gao

    (State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping, and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China
    Department of Aerospace and Geodesy, Professorship for Big Geospatial Data Management, Technical University of Munich, 85521 Munich, Germany)

  • Chenyu Fang

    (Department of Aerospace and Geodesy, Professorship for Big Geospatial Data Management, Technical University of Munich, 85521 Munich, Germany
    Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Spatial Analysis (LISA), Department of Land Economy, 16-21 Silver Street, Cambridge CB3 9EP, UK)

Abstract

Although land reform can be motivated by different policy objectives, it always involves the participation of many actors. Insights from New Institutional Economics suggest that individual interests that are not aligned with collective interests tend to undermine the goals of reform. This study provides a viable framework and measures for social capital, trust, and cooperation performance and their interrelationships to compensate for the existing separate analysis of these three factors and their rare application in achieving goals of collective action. We also build a strong and deepening theoretical foundation for the indicator design, providing a rich representation of social capital, trust, and cooperation performance. After being presented with variables, indicators are used to further elaborate on the variables to enhance the richness and science of the indicator design. The validation results of indicators from 12 experts and 223 respondents are to yield an average reliable coefficient as a positive sign of reliability and validity of the evaluation process with Kendall’s Co-efficient of Concordance (W) through R programming. This study emphasizes the importance of collective action for sustainable land use and effective land policy reform, a topic that remains underrepresented in most land reform analyses.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin Zhou & Walter Timo de Vries & Alexandra Panman & Fei Gao & Chenyu Fang, 2023. "Evaluating Collective Action for Effective Land Policy Reform in Developing Country Contexts: The Construction and Validation of Dimensions and Indicators," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-21, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:7:p:1401-:d:1192724
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