Working Papers: Recent submissions
Now showing items 41-60 of 80
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Alternative food networks and food insecurity in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016-06)Food security remains a persistent global challenge. Inequality means that food insecurity is disproportionately experienced. Despite positive shifts in the state of food security at a global scale, recent reports from ... -
Food environments, health and nutrition in South Africa: Mapping the research and policy terrain
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016-06)The aim of this paper was to review existing research and policies related to food environments so as to identify research gaps towards a research agenda for the new Centre of Excellence in Food Security. Food environments ... -
Systematic review of the literature on ‘informal economy’ and ‘food security’: South Africa, 2009-2014
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016-07)Despite the importance of the informal food economy in fulfilling the daily and weekly food needs of a large proportion of South Africa’s low-income population, it appears little research exists on the exact nature of ... -
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 ... -
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. ... -
Deflating the fallacy of food deserts: Local food geographies in Orange Farm and inner city Johannesburg
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016-08)The availability and accessibility of food is constrained by the environments where people live, work and purchase goods, and the pathways which they use to traverse these. This recognition has given rise to innovative ... -
Understanding South African food and agricultural policy: Implications for agri-food value chains, regulation, and formal and informal livelihoods
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016-08)In order to create credibility and sustainability between policies, to avoid political confusion and to reassure “investor confidence”, a clear agri-food policy package needs to be in place. To achieve this, policy ... -
The rise and decline of smallscale sugarcane production in South Africa: A historical perspective
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2013-12)South Africa’s sugar industry has long been distinguished by its large number of small-scale sugarcane growers (SSGs) farming on ‘communal’ land and its peculiar, privately administered regulatory structure. In recent ... -
Dynamics of decline in small-scale sugarcane production in South Africa: Evidence from two ‘rural’ wards in the Umfolozi region
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2014-05)Using evidence from two rural wards in the Umfolozi region, this paper critically investigates the dynamics and constraints of small-scale sugarcane production under conditions of decline. The rapid decline in small-scale ... -
The state and land legislation in Botswana
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2014-10)This paper aims to understand the political and legal dynamics involved in aspects of local government in Botswana as exemplified by legislative enactments. Mawhood (1985) suggests that such structures are charged with ... -
Changes in South Africa’s global agricultural trade regime, 1996–2013
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2014-10)This paper presents an examination of the major trends in South African international trade in agricultural products between the years 1996 and 2013. The analysis covers three broad areas: (1) the changing weight of key ... -
Commercialisation, deagrarianisation and the accumulation/reproduction dynamic: Massive maize production schemes in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2012-12)The post-apartheid era has seen the South African government trying to reverse ‘deagrarianisation’ in the former homelands by introducing ‘modern’ farming techniques and agribusiness principles. This paper situates the ... -
The changing nature of large-scale commercial farming & implications for agrarian reform: Evidence from Limpopo, Western Cape and Northern Cape
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2012-12)The privileged position of white commercial farmers in South Africa came to an end by the early 1990s, when political and policy changes removed the certainty provided by controlled marketing, protective tariffs and weak ... -
Social reproduction, accumulation and class differentiation: Small-scale sugarcane growers in Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2012-12)This paper argues that the rise and decline of small-scale sugarcane grower (SSG) production in KwaZulu-Natal must be historically located within a changing structural relationship with miller-processors, in turn conditioned ... -
The disjunctures of land and agricultural reform in South Africa: Implications for the agri-food system
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2013-08)Land reform was introduced in South Africa in the 1990s to redress the injustices of colonialism and apartheid. But compromises in the transition to democracy saw a trade-off between political participation on one side ... -
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 ... -
The trouble with poverty: Reflections on South Africa’s post-apartheid anti-poverty consensus
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2012-09)This paper considers the state of poverty discourse in South Africa since 1994: the ideological frameworks, narratives and assumptions that have shaped the construction of poverty as an object of academic knowledge, ... -
More to life than economics and livelihoods: The politics of social protection and social development in post-apartheid South Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2009-03)In the past fifteen years the South African government has consistently tried to address chronic and structural poverty, using a variety of policy and programmatic interventions with uneven success. But, as the latest ... -
The occupational dimensions of poverty and disability
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2009-03)This paper is based on ongoing research into the form, performance and meaning of all the things that particularly vulnerable people do every day i.e. their occupations. Occupations are the building blocks for livelihood. ... -
Contested paradigms of ‘viability’ in redistributive land reform: perspectives from southern Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2009-06)‘Viability’ is a key term in debates about land reform in southern African and beyond, and is used in relation to both individual projects and programmes. ‘Viability’ connotes ‘successful’ and ‘sustainable’ - but what is ...