Estate, property, territory; birthright, inheritance, kingdom, promised land. Far too often, a feudal understanding of land and its owners and sub-owners breeds its commodification and austerity. Land as an asset, as providential or ancestral fief that one acquires, is granted, or 'gets' rather than makes, greens and cultivates, is not just exclusionary; it is enough to warrant wars, enough to warrant violating the same land, unironically. The discourse around immigration, aboriginal custodianship & displacement, ecological conservation and abuse, all centre around land—less so along who owns it and more along who nurtures it.

A contemporary 'fief' thus pervades the physical, implying a more immediate circle of control for individuals, replacing claims with responsibility, grants with borrows and owners with custodians. This week's issue is thus on the issue of land itself; because when it comes to land, we are all on borrowed time. From the fictional sands of Arrakis as fief mirroring present turmoil in Dune, to the prescient

words of poet Rahat Indori beseeching land as irrigated by the very blood of its many inhabitants, it is on what connects one to their land, their fief, beyond ledgers and tenders, and what must be done to preserve it. 'Rural Rebellion' at the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin construes a narrative of reclamation for rural areas as lands of indigenous innovation and wisdom. An on-ground report from COP29 mirrors continuing fears over traditional boundary-keeping and the binding hope that the community offers. An archival conversation with artist Himali Singh Soin delves into her subversive practice of using poetry and fiction to evade fiefdom over the planet's poles.

“Go back to where you came from,” say the defenders of fiefs everywhere, a battle cry. And we shall, to the land and cosmic dust. Until then, the only fief that matters and the only fealty to swear by is a planetary one.