Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)
Browse by
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
Recent Submissions
-
Without the blanket of the land: agrarian change and biopolitics in post–Apartheid South Africa
(Taylor & Francis, 2018)This paper connects Marxist approaches to the agrarian political economy of South Africa with post-Marshallian and Foucauldian analyses of distributional regimes and late capitalist governmentality. Looking at South Africa’s ... -
Social reproduction of ‘classes of labour’ in the rural areas of South Africa: contradictions and contestations
(Taylor & Francis, 2018)Marxist agrarian political economy has focused largely on the problematic of accumulation and its politics, but the dynamics of social reproduction in rural contexts remain somewhat undertheorised. These are explored through ... -
Emancipatory rural politics: confronting authoritarian populism
(Taylor & Francis, 2016)A new political moment is underway. Although there are significant differences in how this is constituted in different places, one manifestation of the new moment is the rise of distinct forms of authoritarian populism. ... -
Class dynamics in contract farming: the case of tobacco production in Mozambique
(Taylor & Francis, 2016)This paper examines the class relations emerging in a contract farming scheme in Mozambique. Debates in the literature about contract farming characterise this market arrangement as leading to farmers losing control over ... -
The rise of BRICS: implications for global agrarian transformation
(Taylor & Francis, 2016)This article introduces this collection, which focuses on the economic and political rise of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and its implications for global agrarian transformation. ... -
The impact of land property rights interventions on investment and agricultural productivity in developing countries: a systematic review
(Taylor & Francis, 2017)We conducted a systematic review on the effects of land tenure recognition interventions on agricultural productivity, income, investment and other relevant outcomes. We synthesise findings from 20 quantitative studies and ... -
[En]gendering the norms of customary inheritance in Botswana and South Africa
(Taylor & Francis, 2016)The article responds to the article by Weinberg in this issue. She traces the trajectory of court hearings concerning the contested inheritance of land in Botswana, which, after several prior judgements eventually resulted ... -
LEGEND state of the debate report 2016 - Strengthening land governance: Lessons from implementing the Voluntary Guidelines
(Legend, 2017)The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) are a globally agreed standard. Achieving this normative consensus in ... -
A Toolkit for Participatory Action Research
(International Development Research Centre (IDRC)-Canada, 2017)This Guide is drawn from experience in the action research project “Bottom-up accountability initiatives and largescale land acquisitions in Africa”. The project aimed to bring the international soft law instrument, the ... -
Creating learning and action space in South Africa’s post-apartheid land redistribution program
(SAGE Publications, 2017)This paper uses the case of South Africa’s latest land redistribution strategy known as the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy, to explore whether, and how, research can have direct and positive impacts on beneficiaries ... -
Land and agricultural commercialisation in Meru County, Kenya: evidence from three models
(Taylor & Francis, 2017)What are the relative pros and cons of different pathways of agricultural commercialisation in Africa? This paper examines aspects of three commercial farming cases, each of which represents one of the three most dominant ... -
Corporate power in the agro-food system and the consumer food environment in South Africa
(Taylor & Francis, 2017)This contribution maps the South African agro-food system with a focus on corporate ownership and power, inspired by value chain work applied to the food system as a whole. Corporations tend to dominate some nodes, for ... -
Tourism taxation, politics and territorialisation in Tanzania’s wildlife management
(Medknow Publications, 2017)Tourism activities occurring on communal lands such as Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) are increasing in Tanzania. This is the result of natural resources governance reforms aimed to empower communities to manage and ... -
Social differentiation and the politics of land: Sugar cane outgrowing in Kilombero, Tanzania
(Taylor & Francis, 2017)The privatisation of formerly state-owned sugar cane estates and mills in the late 1990s led to the reconfiguration of the ownership structure and production of the Tanzanian sugar industry. This included the decentralisation ... -
The political economy of sugar in Southern Africa – introduction
(Taylor & Francis, 2017)In this introductory paper we review historic and contemporary development of sugar cane production across the southern Africa. We argue that the region’s sugar industry provides a useful lens through which to understand ... -
Interrogating the logic of accumulation in the sugar sector in Southern Africa
(Taylor & Francis, 2017)Over the last 20 years sugar production in southern Africa has been characterised by both the geographic dispersal and the heightened concentration of (formerly) South African sugar capital. This paper argues that key ... -
Can smallholder avocado production reduce poverty and improve food security through internal markets? The case of Giheta, Burundi
(Taylor & Francis, 2018)The role of agriculture in rural development is widely documented in literature. Many analysts regard agriculture, specifically smallscale agriculture, as an effective instrument for poverty reduction and food security, ... -
Youth futures and a masculine development ethos in the regional story of Uttarakhand
(SAGE Publications, 2017)Research on the Uttarakhand region, which became a new state in 2000, has focused largely on agrarian livelihoods, religious rituals, development demands, ecological politics and the role of women in regional social ... -
Introduction: reconsidering the region in India: mobilities, actors and development politics
(SAGE Publications, 2017)In this introduction to a special issue on ‘Reconsidering the Region in India’, we aim to develop a synthetic and theoretically nuanced account of the multifarious ways in which the idea of region has been imbricated in ... -
Plantations, outgrowers and commercial farming in Africa: agricultural commercialisation and implications for agrarian change
(Taylor & Francis OA, 2017)Whether or not investments in African agriculture can generate quality employment at scale, avoid dispossessing local people of their land, promote diversified and sustainable livelihoods, and catalyse more vibrant local ...
RSS 1.0