ABSTRACT
In World Brain (1938), H.G. Wells noted an interesting dilemma facing the social sciences. Namely, that as knowledge becomes more fragmented and specialized within disciplines, it also becomes increasingly detached from real development problems facing humanity. This knowledge has become increasingly less useful to policymakers who are forced to confront reality, a reality that trespasses on the boundaries of any single discipline and exists by virtue of its dynamic interconnections between differing fields of knowledge. Using a human ecology framework by integrating the knowledge of sociology, history, and economics, this chapter responds to H.G. Well’s challenge in the context of the current global debates on land reform and tenure security.
