Land titling programs are introduced to create a stable and secure institutional environment that effectively resolves land conflicts. However, the process of land registration may also exacerbate latent conflicts or trigger new contestation, causing the opposite of what was intended – a largely conflict-ridden and non-credible tenure arrangement. To understand this apparent contradiction in more detail, this study combines theoretical advances on institutional credibility and conflict manifestation. We employ our approach in China's forest sector, and explore how recent titling experiences affected manifest (visible) and latent (imperceptible) conflicts, represented by a judicial and empirical dataset, respectively. The judicial dataset of court adjudications shows that the majority of manifest conflicts only started after the titling process had been completed, and that nearly half of disputed titles were revoked in court. A household survey in southwest China indicates that latent tenure conflicts were largely unaffected and unresolved by titling. Both analyses suggest that in many instances, the new titles were no remedy or direct driver to tenure disputes but instead have evolved as new indirect drivers to conflict in China's already ambiguous tenure arrangement.

Whereas the prospective benefits of formalization programs are well-understood and received, less attention has been placed on the feasibility of such actions. This paper studies titling under China's Collective Forest Tenure Reform. We employ the Formal, Actual, and Targeted (FAT) Institutional Framework, based on the ‘credibility thesis’, to examine whether titling increases tenure credibility. To do so, we draw upon interviews and surveys collected in the Wuling Mountain Area (Southwest China), and compare formal policy objectives to households’ targeted (desired) preferences and actual forest rights. Our findings show divergences between formal and targeted versus actual rights. While titles were widely issued, socially supported, and farmers deemed boundaries and plot sizes clear, there is a paradox: (i) half of forest titles did not record boundaries; (ii) boundaries were not uniformly recorded; (iii) no on-site surveying had taken place; (iv) plot data were based on replicating older data, estimates, or averages; (v) titles had not been issued in contested areas; (vi) farmers had a weak legal understanding of ownership and lease rights. We argue that due to pressure from the central government to complete titling in five years, forest registration has emerged as an 'empty institution': an institutional compromise where spatial complexities were disregarded and neglected during implementation. Although seemingly credible at present, such outcomes of formalization bear the risk that future changes could easily dampen the reform's institutional efforts and intentions.

On the basis that property rights provide effective incentives to their users, rights-based approaches have become well-received for purposes of improved resource management, production, and conservation. Recent reform in China's collective-owned forest sector has also been guided by a rights-based approach in generating new incentives and economic benefits for households. Forest property rights have been reconfigured into formal, private, and transferable form, and households are financially compensated for rights' attenuation. In this paper, we draw on a household survey (N = 331) and a series of interviews (N = 29) to empirically examine how three types of forest rights are exercised and perceived by rural households in the Wuling Mountain Area, a relatively poor and mountainous area in Southwest China. Our findings show that although the new rights arrangements are largely perceived as credible by households, the rights are rarely exercised, without tangible contributions to the intended benefits. In explaining this, we find that current economic values of household forests are low. This may suggest that rights-based approaches are unlikely to realize their intended effects if the natural resources themselves are of too little value, an oversight in conventional discussions on resource rights.

One of the most remarkable features of China's development path is its large-scale and fast-paced urbanization. As cities already accommodate more than half of China's population, new challenges to urban food systems have emerged concurrently. Concerns over environmental degradation and food safety have provoked growing dissatisfaction with China's food regime. Amidst these concerns, the aim of this paper is to study the role of new and alternative approaches to food, focusing in on the question of how community supported agriculture (CSA) can deal with the food-related issues emerging from China's development. The paper adopts Granovetter's notions of social embeddedness to describe CSA's relational role in consumer-farmer dynamics, as well as the structural role within its broader relational context. Empirical data is drawn from surveys distributed among CSA farms, and interviews with key stakeholders in the Chinese CSA movement. The study finds that the model of CSA demonstrates an innovative approach to deal with food safety issues, address sustainability, and operate in an environment where future food demands are most critical. Although the movement's structural embeddedness is bound by several limitations and contradictions, it is argued that the CSA model offers important insights and adds value into ameliorating China's food systems.