Editing Land reform (section)

== Land usage and tenure ==
{{main|Land ownership and tenure}}
{{Social democracy sidebar}}
Land ownership and tenure can be perceived as controversial in part because ideas defining what it means to access or control land, such as through "land ownership" or "land tenure", can vary considerably across regions and even within countries.<ref>La Croix, Sumner. [http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/workingpapers/WP_02-13.pdf "Land Tenure: An Introduction"]. Working Paper no. 02-13. May 2002. University of Hawaii.</ref> Land reforms, which change what it means to control land, therefore create tensions and conflicts between those who lose and those who gain from these redefinitions (see next section).<ref name="Boone, Catherine 2007">{{cite journal |last1=Boone |first1=C. |title=Property and constitutional order: Land tenure reform and the future of the African state |journal=African Affairs |date=October 2007 |volume=106 |issue=425 |pages=557–586 |doi=10.1093/afraf/adm059 }}</ref>

Western conceptions of land have evolved over the past several centuries to place greater emphasis on individual land ownership, formalized through documents such as land titles.<ref>Locke, John. ''Two Treatises of Government''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [1689] 1991. and Smith, Adam. ''The Wealth of Nations''. Books 1—III. London: Penguin Books. 1999.</ref> Control over land may also be perceived less in terms of individual ownership and more in terms of [[land use]], or through what is known as land tenure.<ref>[http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y4307e/y4307e05.htm "What is land tenure?"] Food and Agriculture Organization.</ref> Historically, in many parts of Africa for example, land was not owned by an individual, but rather used by an extended family or a village community. Different people in a family or community had different rights to access this land for different purposes and at different times. Such rights were often conveyed through oral history and not formally documented.<ref>Dekker, Henri A.L. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_9AuGJ5oXpYC&q=Dekker,+Henri+A.L.+The+Invisible+Line: ''The Invisible Line: Land Reform, Land Tenure Security and Land Registration'']. Ashgate: Burlington, 2003. p. 2.</ref>

These different ideas of land ownership and tenure are sometimes referred to using different terminology. For example, "formal" or "statutory" land systems refer to ideas of land control more closely affiliated with individual land ownership. "Informal" or "customary" land systems refer to ideas of land control more closely affiliated with land tenure.<ref>"Land Law." Law and Development. The [[World Bank]]. February 23, 2007. [http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTLAWJUSTICE/0,,contentMDK:20372383~menuPK:1696138~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:445634,00.html],</ref>

Terms dictating control over and use of land can therefore take many forms. Some specific examples of present-day or historic forms of formal and informal land ownership include:
* Traditional land tenure, as practiced by the indigenous tribes of [[Pre-Columbian era|Pre-Columbian]] North America.
* [[Feudalism|Feudal]] land ownership, through [[fiefdom]]s
* [[Life estate]], interest in real property that ends at death.
* [[Fee tail]], hereditary, non-transferable ownership of real property.
* [[Fee simple]]. Under [[common law]], this is the most complete ownership interest one can have in [[real property]].
* [[Leasehold]] or [[renting|rental]]
* Rights to use a [[common land|common]]
* [[Sharecropping]]
*[[Run rig]] and [[rundale]]
*[[Well-field system|Well-Field System]]
* [[Easement]]s
*[[Kibbutz]] and [[moshav]]
*[[Satoyama]]
* Agricultural labor – under which someone works the land in exchange for money, payment in kind, or some combination of the two
* Collective ownership
* Access to land through a membership in a [[cooperative]], or shares in a corporation, which owns the land (typically by fee simple or its equivalent, but possibly under other arrangements).
* Government [[collectives]], such as those that might be found in communist states, whereby government ownership of most agricultural land is combined in various ways with tenure for farming collectives.