Based on the lessons learned from the review of existing toolkits (phase 1), MetRe phase 2 will test an improved questionnaire for the measurement of social regulations, specifically land rights. The questionnaire addresses property rights as a bundle of rights, recognising the separation of rights to sell, rent, develop, inherit, etc. Within these multiple domains, the objects of measurement will be normative limits to action, such as permissions and pressures (advice), soft and hard sanctions that incentivise or disincentivise action. MetRe 2 takes seriously the claim that rights are socially constructed. Accordingly, it will explore the heterogeneity of normative boundaries for various positions in the social network, providing new insights into the inequality dimension of rights. It will also measure how networks have historically mediated access to property, the dos and don'ts of current land holding (i.e. what landowners can and cannot do), arbitration and conflict resolution. Compared to existing tools, the questionnaire contains further improvements. For example, it will measure social expectations to identify the norms that underpin common behaviour and to leverage residents' perceptions of them, before trialling an experimental approach to elicit demand for various forms of policies that affect the functionality and fairness of the status-quo.
MetRe 2 is the result of a cross-disciplinary collaboration initiated by the British Academy's Talent Development Award. It will be piloted in Accra (Ghana) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) in early 2026, with a survey funded by the International Growth Center. Fieldwork in Accra and Dar es Salaam will allow us to test a diagnostic survey in cities characterised by distinctive informal systems of land governance, supporting the introduction of an appropriate balance of standardisation and customisation in the survey questionnaire. The two contexts provide interesting background for comparative qualitative analysis. For example, in Accra, the land belongs to the Ga people, and chieftaincies or families retain authority over the land. Ethnicity plays a much more important role in land allocation and exchange. In Dar es Salaam, instead, land is vested in the government, community leaders are elected political figures who govern land de facto, and unregistered middlemen operate in formal and informal land markets. In each city, I selected both central and peri-urban sites, which had varying levels of urban development, customary law influence and socio-economic profiles.Â