Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)
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The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) engages in research, training, policy development and advocacy in relation to land and agrarian reform, rural governance and natural resource management. It is committed to social change that empowers the poor, builds democracy and enhances sustainable livelihoods.
Collections in this community
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Fact Check [4]
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Policy Briefs (PLAAS) [108]
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Policy Submissions [13]
Recent Submissions
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Policy Brief 55: Food in the time of coronavirus: Why we should be very, very afraid
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, 2020-04-01)The social legitimacy of the ‘COVID-19 lockdown’, government’s regulations imposed to contain the spread of the virus, is most likely to run aground unless an urgent plan can be made to ensure that everyone in the country ... -
The political economy of land governance in Africa: The role of universities in decolonising curricula and promoting critical scholarship
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, 2019-10-08)Decolonising the land requires decolonising our universities. In South Africa there is a live conversation about the need to decolonise our universities—an idea that expands beyond transforming our curricula, to drawing ... -
An activist's user guide to regional and international guidelines and principles for large-scale land-based investments
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, 2019-12-01)As multinational corporations continue to invest in large-scale, land-based, commercial ventures in Africa, a need to regulate such investments to protect the rural poor, especially women, has been identified. A number of ... -
PLAAS Submission on 18th Constitutional Amendment Bill
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, 2020-02-28) -
Amendment submission: National policy for beneficiary selection and land allocation
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, 2020-03-02)PLAAS has read and considered the implications of the National Policy for Beneficiary Selection and Land Allocation and submits the following comments and recommendations to the Director-General: Rural Development and Land Reform. -
Narratives of scarcity: Framing the global land rush
(Elsevier, 2019)Global resource scarcity has become a central policy concern, with predictions of rising populations, natural resource depletion and hunger. The narratives of scarcity that arise as a result justify actions to harness ... -
Elite Capture in Land Redistribution in South Africa
(PLAAS, 2019-12-03)The research on elite capture in land redistribution in South Africa was conceived against the background of a significant decline in systematic research on land reform outcomes. Data on land reform outcomes and more ... -
PLAAS Annual Report 2018
(PLAAS, 2019-08)PLAAS had a busy 2018. With the land reform debate catapulted into the public sphere, new teaching initiatives, and various research projects and outputs, our team had quite a year. We had a successful and productive year. ... -
Is the Blue Justice concept a human rights agenda?
(PLAAS, 2019-11-21)What is Blue Justice? This concept is situated in social justice for small-scale fisheries (SSFs)—a narrative popular with civil society movements and academics to garner support for the adoption and implementation of the ... -
Differentiation and development: The case of the Xolobeni community in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
(PLAAS, 2019-11-15)Most agrarian scholars argue that long historic processes of colonialism, capitalist development and implementation of neo-liberal structural policies in Sub-Saharan Africa have resulted in deagrarianisation and its sub-genre ... -
Whose Land Question? Policy deliberation and populist reason in the South African land debate
(PLAAS, 2019-11)On 4 and 5 February 2019, the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), along with colleagues from the Universities of Fort Hare and of Rhodes, hosted a national conference entitled Resolving the Land ... -
Submission for consideration in developing a supportive regulatory environment for the growth and trade in medicinal and recreational marijuana in South Africa
(PLAAS, 2019-11-12)Since 2017, three separate events have influenced the legality of cannabis in South Africa. Firstly, a licensing framework was introduced for the domestic cultivation and manufacture of medicinal cannabis by the Department ... -
Improving policy coherence for food security and nutrition in South Africa: a qualitative policy analysis
(Springer Netherlands, 2018)Like most other low and middle-income countries, South Africa must address a rising burden of diet-related chronic disease in a situation of persistent food insecurity and undernutrition. Supply-side policy interventions ... -
What price cheap goods? Survivalists, informalists and competition in the township retail grocery trade
(PLAAS, 2019-08-31)About 54% of South Africa’s township microenterprises trade in food or drink. More than two-thirds of these are grocery retail businesses in the form of spaza shops and smaller ‘house shops’. These are the predominant ... -
Rethinking food security Agro-food systems change and the Right to Food in Southern Africa (Malawi)
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2019)This information resource serves as a practical guide aimed at state officials and policymakers on the right to food and critical perspectives on changing agro-food systems within the context of climate change. It does so ... -
Gender, politics and sugarcane commercialisation in Tanzania
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2019)This article explores relationships between state, corporate capital and local stakeholders in the political economy of sugarcane from a gender perspective. The findings, based on empirical research at the site of Tanzania’s ... -
Training of trainers module for gender sensitive community engagement in large scale land based investments in agriculture
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2019)WHY THIS TRAINING OF TRAINERS (ToT) MODULE? In 2013, the African Union (AU) commissioned an assessment study on the occurrence of large-scale land-based investments in agriculture (LSLBI). The study was commissioned under ... -
An Analysis of Renunciation in Terms of s 2(C)(1) of the Wills Act 7 of 1953 in Light of the Moosa NO and Others v Harnaker and Others Judgment
(Electronic Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (EJIMEL), 2019-05-29)Muslims have been living in South Africa for over 300 years. These persons are required in terms of their religion to fol-low Islamic law. There has (to date) been no legislation enacted by the South African parliament ... -
The vampire squid: Value, crisis and the power of finance
(Wiley, 2019)Over the last five decades the power and global reach of financial institutions and finance capital to organize economic, social and political life has grown seemingly unchecked. This is manifested in the ability of ... -
Rural resource grabs or necessary inward investment? The politics of land and water in Africa
(International Institute for Environment and Development, 2015)What has happened since the furore broke over the corporate land rush in Africa? Field-based research has exposed new realities that challenge the linear suggestions of a ‘grab’. As the process unfolds and our understanding ...
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