Land reform, planning and people: an issue of stewardship

John Bryden and Keith Hart
The Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research
University of Aberdeen, Scotland
3rd April 2000

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This paper examines the recent policy shift from state regulation to community participation as the framework for greater local decision-making. The authors do this by looking through the lens of land reform in Scotland; and in particular the issue of stewardship - a concept which appears to have won wide acceptance by most sides in the land reform debate.

By way of a conclusion the authors highlight the need for a more equal and widespread ownership of land as a condition of economic democracy, and that for devolution of power downwards to local communities. They argue that if concepts such as stewardship and community planning are used to obfuscate these real issues, such that no one knows what kind of power is being exercised by whom, then they merely constitute rhetorical devices cloaking the real interests and conflicts involved in the processes of devolution and land reform. As such they hinder realistic analysis of the issues, even if they may on occasion help to bring people together.