Browsing Working Papers by Title
Now showing items 28-47 of 80
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Foodways of the poor in South Africa: How value-chain consolidation, poverty & cultures of consumption feed each other
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016)South African food systems are in a dynamic process of transition due to changes in food value chain regimes which have major impacts on the poor. However, these transitions are also shaped by demandside drivers emerging ... -
Foreign investments and livelihoods in northern Zambia
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2018-12)This study employs a wider livelihoods approach to challenge some insular neo-classical economic narratives on the nature, process and impact of large-scale land acquisitions on smallholder farmers living on Africa’s ... -
Future-making and scalar politics in a resource frontier: Energy projects in northern Kenya
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2022-01-28)This contribution explores conflicts in the context of energy-related investments and infrastructure projects in Kenya’s arid and semiarid north. Over the past decade or so this historically marginalised region has turned ... -
Gendered dimensions of land and rural livelihoods: The case of new settler farmer displacement at Nuanetsi Ranch, Mwenezi District, Zimbabwe
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2012)Nuanetsi Ranch had been invaded by villagers from different parts of Mwenezi, Chiredzi and Chivi communal areas since 2000. In February 2010, the government announced that the settlers had to be removed and resettled in ... -
Going nowhere fast? Changed working conditions on Western Cape fruit and wine farms: A state of knowledge review
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016-09)This state of the knowledge review sets out to identify the main research themes and findings in the literature on labour relations and conditions on Western Cape fruit farms over the past ... -
Household livelihoods and increasing foreign investment pressure in Ethiopia’s natural forests
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011)Foreign investment in Ethiopia’s forestry sector is currently limited, but agricultural investments that affect forests — largely through forest clearing — are commonplace. We describe the nature of forest investments ... -
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 ... -
The impact of poverty and inequality on the dignity of lone mothers in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2014)In Part 1 of this themed working paper, an account is provided of low income lone mothers’ portrayals of dignity in relation to their lives. A key objective of the project was to explore what ‘dignity’ means to low income ... -
In search of South Africa’s ‘second economy’: Chronic poverty, economic marginalisation and adverse incorporation in Mt Frere and Khayelitsha
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2007-11)Since 2003, South African policy discourse about persistent poverty has been dominated by the notion that poor people stay poor because they are trapped in a ‘second economy’, disconnected from the mainstream ‘First- World ... -
The informal sector’s role in food security: A missing link in policy debates?
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016-09)This paper aims to review what is currently known about the role played by the informal sector in general and informal retailers in particular, in the accessibility of food in South Africa. The review seeks to identify ... -
Informal social protection in post-apartheid migrant networks: Vulnerability, social networks and reciprocal exchange in the Eastern and Western Cape, South Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2009-01)This paper considers the dynamics of informal social protection in the context of chronic poverty and vulnerability in post-apartheid migrant networks. It argues that in poor and marginalised households in South Africa, ... -
Job creation in agriculture, forestry and fisheries in South Africa: An analysis of employment trends, opportunities and constraints in forestry and wood products industries
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2018-04)This report is one of five studies of opportunities and constraints related to employment creation in rural South Africa, with a view towards informing policy. South African forestry and wood products industries are well ... -
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 ... -
The Land and Its People: the land question and the South African political order
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2023-03)This paper examines the disjuncture between the discourses of policy deliberation and contentious politics in debates about ‘the land question’ in South Africa. It argues that the South African land debate as it unfolds ... -
'Land belongs to the community’: Demystifying the ‘global land grab’ in Southern Sudan
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011)Sudan is among the global ‘hotspots’ for large-scale land acquisitions. Although most of this investment activity was thought to be focused in the Northern part of the country, recent research indicates that a surprising ... -
Local food geographies: The nature and extent of food insecurity in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016-08)Food insecurity is a challenge for most countries in the Global South. South Africa is no exception - a significant proportion of its population still remains in poverty and is therefore vulnerable to food insecurity. ... -
Lusaka’s local food geographies: A gendered reading of everyday food insecurity in Mtendere, Lusaka
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016-08)Little is known about how individual abilities and food security determinants - at the scale of everyday life - connect to formal and informal value chains, and broader urban structural systems in which daily processes ... -
Making sense of 'evidence': Notes on the discursive politics of research and pro-poor policy making
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2012-09)This paper explores some of the assumptions underlying ‘evidence based’ approaches to poverty reduction impact assessment. It argues that the discourse of Evidence-Based Policy (EBP) offers poor guidance to those who ... -
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 ... -
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 ...