APCCRPR : Conversations

Fitness Landscapes of Real Property Rights

Mike McDermott

Mike McDermott will discuss the complexity paradigm, axiology, and the morphogenesis of property rights. Drawing on current events in Fiji and other developing nations, Mike will explain why the Western property rights model is often an inappropriate fit when applied to countries on a different development level.

Mike first qualified as a valuer in 1974. Since that time, he has travelled to over 70 countries, gaining both a broad and deep understanding of the problems facing the developing world, which resulted in a second career as a land-related policy, legal and institutional facilitator.

In 2006, he led a team addressing land tenure, institutional frameworks, legal and gender-related issues for a smallholder irrigated farming development in Swaziland. In 2007, he conducted a World-Bank funded Property Valuation, Fees, and Finance Study in Palestine, and in 2008 an Asian Development Bank Study on decentralising land-related revenue administration. When not undertaking international assignments, Mike is the senior commercial/industrial valuer for Herron Todd White, Darwin.

He commenced doctoral studies in DAB in 2008.