The real estate turn in policy and planning: Land monetization and the political economy of peri-urbanization in Asia

Abstract

This paper argues that one of the fundamental forces shaping contemporary periurban political and spatial change in Asia is the rapid escalation of land values. These land price increases present state actors with acute opportunities and challenges, leading them to develop new strategies of land management that seek to exploit urbanization processes in the interest of extending state power. Specifically, governments in much of Asia have sought to monetize land—to use government powers of land management to realize substantial increases in land values, in order to extend state power either by directly extracting revenue for government from land development, or by distributing the profits of land development to powerful corporate backers of the state. Focusing attention on this comparative political economy of land monetization can therefore provide powerful explanatory insights into emergent patterns of social and spatial inequality and political contestation. The paper further compares state land monetization strategies in Jakarta, Chongqing, and Kolkata, and uses the findings to sketch out a comparative framework for understanding these strategies and their implications for spatial and political development.