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) [105]
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Policy Submissions [10]
Recent Submissions
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The use and effectiveness of social grants in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2009)This research examines the effectiveness of social grants in South Africa, and how recipients use their grants. As a form of social protection, social grants not only ameliorate poverty and provide a safety net, they ... -
Women's land rights in Africa: Scorecard 2019
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2019)This Scorecard is for: MEASURING how committed governments are to women’s land rights in each country. COMPARING how women are confronting their governments about land rights. LEARNING how women are tackling their ... -
How can we promote a range of livelihood opportunities through land redistribution?
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2019)This position paper sketches an approach to improving land redistribution in South Africa in which the broad aim is to use redistribution to create a range of livelihood opportunities, in meaningful numbers, in proportion ... -
Principles and practice for successful farmland redistribution in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2019)The current debate on land reform in South Africa is unnecessarily polarised between those who believe that the market has failed to deliver, and those who believe that the bureaucracy has failed to deliver. Instead, we ... -
Rural land redistribution in South Africa: Contrasting visions and models
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2019)There is widespread agreement that land reform in South Africa is in deep trouble. However, there are very different perspectives on what should be done to address the failure to meaningfully redistribute land and resolve ... -
Mining, capital and dispossession in Limpopo, South Africa
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2019)This Working Paper explains the processes by which land, water and other natural resources were seized, and their previous users dispossessed, for the purposes of capital accumulation by Ivanplats platinum mining company ... -
Labour regulation and the economy: The case of the food value chain
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2016)Contrary to a popular narrative which seeks to attribute the country’s economic ills to labour legislation, this paper argues that the role of law in relation to the economy is constitutive, and that labour can also not ... -
Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill 2013
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2013)This document represents a response from researchers at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies to the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill as published on 19 October 2013. It is a statement by the ... -
The mining-conservation nexus: Rio Tinto, development ‘gifts’ and contested compensation in Madagascar
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011)This paper traces a genealogy of land access and legitimisation strategies culminating in the recent convergence of multinational mining and conservation in southeast Madagascar. Drawing on empirical research carried out ... -
Dynamics of social differentiation after land reform among former labour tenants in Besters, KwaZulu-Natal
(2012)• Locate land reform in SA in changes in 1970s which ended “state activism in capitalism” and started the “moment of ‘globalization” • Global restructuring of capital has been accompanied by the “fragmentation” of classes ... -
Towards support for development of guidelines for voluntary guidelines for small-scale fisheries: Malawi process
(2015)• Malawi used as case to support development of the guidelines • One of a number of cases worldwide -
The implications of the mobility of South African capital for rural youth in Africa: The case of Zambian sugar
(2015) Developing young people as independent farmers and producers, capable to establish land-based livelihood at their own and on their own terms, seems to be the most desirable option to ensure the rural futures of rural ... -
Property and accessing rights in public dams
(2017)South Africa has great potential for development and enhancement of inland fisheries through use of storage dams and lakes This potential remains largely under/unutilised Inland fisheries could promote rural livelihoods ... -
Recommendations for revisions to inland fishery access rights and property rights regimes
(2011)• Deliverable Aims: • Evaluate and analyse existing property rights and access rights currently governing inland fisheries in South Africa • Recommend reforms or changes to the existing property rights regimes and access ... -
The social dynamics of rural poverty in the Eastern Cape
(2017)Overview • Structural poverty & its causes • Understanding impoverished livelihoods : i. Social grants ii. Informal economic activity • Social dynamics • ‘Informal social protection’ • The downside of ‘social capital’ -
Beyond the 'problem' narrative: Towards an agenda for improved policy and practice in land reform
(2013)The ‘problem’ narrative •Land reform is too slow: it must be speeded up and better ways found of acquiring land at reasonable cost •Land reform beneficiaries are not productive enough: they must be ‘disciplined’ or land ... -
Livelihoods & social differentiation in ‘post-agrarian’ South Africa
(2017)• Legacy: Settler colonialism & migrant labour • Industrialization & proletarianisation • Dichotomous agrarian landscape • Rural poverty, esp. former homelands • Longstanding deagrarianisation -
Social protests and water service delivery in South Africa
(2013-09-13)• To identify the key drivers of water-related social protests, roles of organization and mobilization and dynamics of perceived deprivation. -
Class formation across borders: migrant workers in international borderlands
(2014)• Agricultural boom in tobacco: introduced commercially in 1994 (+699% 2000-2009) • Labour intensive, use of HH labour and migrant wage labour (Seasonal L and sharecroppers, atypical) • 130.000 small scale producers. 1:3 ... -
Retribalisation in post-apartheid South Africa: new “traditional” laws & their impacts on rural women
(2011)• The rise of traditional leaders – in political, economic, governmental, judicial & legislative terms – amounts to a modern, post-apartheid retribalisation of the countryside • Deleterious effect on rights • Roots of ...
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