Taking Stock of Land Use Conflict Research: A Systematic Map with Special Focus on Conceptual Approaches

The literature on land use conflicts has significantly increased in number in recent years, and keeping track has become challenging. Moreover, “land use conflict” is a rather fuzzy concept; a coherent understanding of what it encompasses is presently missing. Thus, the objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the current state of land use conflict research, with a special focus on different conceptual approaches. A systematic mapping of 306 scientific, peer-reviewed publications on land use conflicts was conducted, combined with an interpretive analysis of how the term “land use conflict” is used. This revealed an extensive research field with several well-covered subfields but also some knowledge gaps. Moreover, four different conceptual approaches that have been applied in the literature were identified. The paper thus contributes to the formulation of an evidence-based research agenda and to an improved conceptual understanding of the term “land use conflict.”