Working Paper 62

Title
Property Regimes in the Context of War and Displacement: Chad, Croatia and Azerbaijan in comparison

Author
Lale Yalçin-Heckmann, Andrea Behrends, Carolin Leutloff-Grandits

Department
Central Administration

Year of publication
2003

Number of pages
31

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Working Paper 62

Abstract
Property regimes are about people and relations among them as well as about values and norms and their enforcement. Surprisingly, these have been discussed primarily within ordered and peaceful political contexts. In this paper we discuss three case studies where war, violence and displacement have been impinging upon property regimes. We explore the effects of war and displacement on the norms, values and practices of property and look at consistencies in the ways property relations and practices are shaped in conflict situations. The discussion of these issues starts with case studies from Chad, Croatia and Azerbaijan, goes on to display the specificities of violence and displacement in each case, and ends with a comparative discussion of how notions of land and housing as territory, as a scarce resource or as an economic resource are articulated differently under different experiences of violence and displacement.