Cover -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Dedication -- Abstract -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of tables -- List of figures -- Acronyms and abbreviations -- Glossary -- Chapter One - Introduction -- Issues and questions in peri-urban land transactions -- Land Tenure in Context -- The making of customary land: Malawi scenario -- Land, economy and socio-demographic relations -- The Challenge of land governance: accounts from the print media -- The scope of this book -- Chapter Two - The Researcher as Participant: Method, Theory and Limitations -- Introduction -- Everydayness of peri-urban land transactions -- Insights from fieldwork -- Data and Data Collection -- Analysis of Data -- Relevance and Limitations -- Conclusion -- Chapter Three - Locating the peri-urban: the socio-cultural and livelihoods context -- Introducing the peri-urban -- Geography and population Dynamics -- Social Organisation and Kinship Relations -- Status and Hierarchy in the Peri-urban Villages -- Access to and Availability of Land -- Smallholder Farming in Peri-urban Villages -- Non-agricultural Economic Activities -- Living on piece work (ganyu) and as Security Guards -- Living in the Shadow of TEBA -- Conclusion -- Chapter Four - Commodification and objectification of Peri-urban Land -- The Prevalence of Selling Land -- The objectification of Customary Land -- Changing attitudes towards the selling of land -- Scarcity of land and the urgency to sell it -- The Motive to Sell Land -- Reselling Customary Land -- Speculative Reselling -- Diminishing Opportunities and Social Pressure -- Peri-urban Land Buyers -- Buyers as Strangers and Normalization of the Transactions -- Buyers as Bosses (mabwana ) -- Multiple Acquisitions of land -- Buying big and cheap land and the occult -- Setting the Price of Land -- Determining the Price.

Rising prices, demand and the value of peri-urban land -- Negotiating the Price -- Crisis Selling and Negotiability of Prices -- The Notion of Acceptable Limit -- Terms of Payment -- Paying for Land -- Conclusion -- Chapter Five - Practices and legitimation in peri-urban land transactions -- Introduction -- Group membership and peri-urban land -- Land, Kinship and Quasi-kinship Relations -- The Position of Strangers -- The Position of Husbands (akamwini ) and Wives (akamwani ) -- Sale Agreements -- Preparation and Meaning of Sale Agreements -- Witnesses in Sale Agreements -- The Symbolism of the Date Stamp -- Perceptions on the Validity of Sale Agreements -- The Signing Fee -- The Signing Fee in Everyday Life -- Negotiating the Signing Fee -- Questions about the Signing Fee -- Custom and Formalization of Land Acquisitions -- Conclusion -- Chapter Six - Peri-urban Land Disputes and Dispute Resolution -- Introduction -- Land Disputes in Perspective -- Land Disagreements -- Land Disputes -- Disputes Involving Strangers -- Lack of Consultation, Consensus and the Social Reproduction of kinbased relations -- Double or Multiple Selling of Land -- Disputes Related to Boundary Positions -- Disputes Resolution -- Customary Practices -- Engaging the Courts of Law -- Recourse to the Department of Legal Aid -- Engaging the State Police -- Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) -- Conclusion -- Chapter Seven - Intermediaries in Peri-urban Land Transactions -- Introduction -- Intermediaries in general perspective -- The estate agent as dobadoba -- Becoming Local Estate Agent -- Becoming Urban Estate Agent -- The Place of Estate Agents -- Advertising for Peri-urban Land -- Perceptions on Estate Agents' Interactions with Other Actors -- Disguised and Straddling Estate Agents -- Conclusion -- Chapter Eight - Intentionality and implications of selling peri-urban land.

Introduction -- Needing Cash Income -- Making Ends Meet -- Investing the Land Money -- Building Better Houses -- Buying the Driver's Licence -- Buying and Operating Zomanga Tauni (town builders) -- Socio-cultural implications of selling customary land -- Ganyu as an Embedded Socio-cultural Phenomenon -- Re-ordering of Social Relations -- Pressure to Relocate and Intergenerational Relations -- Sociopolitical position of village headmen -- Conclusion -- Chapter Nine - Epilogue on peri-urban land transactions -- Introduction -- On the Practices and Relations -- Towards a new perspective on peri-urban land relations -- Bibliography -- Back Cover.