A Joint Project of the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) and the Inter-Church Organization for Development and Cooperation (ICCO), the general objective of the conference is to contribute toward a critical understanding of the contemporary mainstream land policies in the context of the imperatives of poverty eradication, social justice and development in developing countries and transition economies. The conference aims to promote debates that have the rigor of scientific enquiry and reasoning, and at the same time sensitive to the socio-political urgency of land policy questions in the contemporary context.