Critical Planning

The utility of land as a form of security is nothing new; however, the exact interpretation of “security” has shifted during times of crisis. Security through landedness can mean grounds from which to extract resources; a commodity to be bought, managed, and sold; a tract from which to draw sustenance; or a space for habitation and community building. This essay explores these many conflicting fluctuations in the identity projected upon land, by both the state and private interests, through the rise and fall of two specific patterns of land tenure: the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan and the agrarian, communal ejidal settlements of Mexico.