The meaning of public land for the Flemish peasantry: Lessons drawn from the positioning of Flemish peasants on the recent cases of land privatization

Abstract

In the ninety’s the modernization project of agriculture reached its intellectual and material limits. Since then, the world entered into a new rural development era, which is the search for a new model of agricultural development. Within this new rural development, we see the re-emergence of the peasantry. There is a growing number of peasants farming in Belgium and they usually farm in private land. The recent cases of privatization of public land in Belgium have nonetheless been met with opposition by peasants. This study researched the meaning that public land has for the Flemish peasantry through the opinion of eight Flemish peasants interviewed during a period of three months. The study concludes that (1) for the Flemish peasantry public land is seen as an opportunity and that it should be used to benefit peasants and society, (2) the way Flemish peasants think about public land and land highlights the fact that they do not see land as a commodity, that is why they are looking for alternatives to access to the use of land without owning it, (3) that their relation with land is based on respect, care and reciprocity that aims for continuity and (4) that they believe they are changing the world through resistances that are happening on their mode of production and through the way they relate to their community.

— Abstract, taken from the master dissertation.