Global Agrarian Studies Conference – Blog BlogFeaturedFeatured BlogNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

Global Agrarian Studies Conference – Blog

PLAAS makes a mark at the Global Agrarian Studies Conference In a recent gathering celebrating half a century of the Journal of Peasant Studies (JPS), scholars and activists converged in the heart of Beijing. UWC’s Institute of Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) was right there at the helm. The International Conference on Critical Agrarian Studies in the 21st Century,…
PLAAS
November 13, 2023
Rural Women and Climate Justice: A call to action in EMS Faculty BlogFeaturedFeatured BlogNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

Rural Women and Climate Justice: A call to action in EMS Faculty

Professor Ruth Hall and Professor Moenieba Isaacs, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) In a world gripped by the urgency of climate change, the voices of rural women often remain unheard. On August 23, 2023, we convened a public webinar hosted by our Economic and Management Sciences Faculty, bringing together a panel of experts to shed light on…
PLAAS
August 31, 2023
PLAAS PUBLIC LECTURE: How Many Women Actually Own Land? – women’s land rights in India and South Africa BlogFeatured Blog

PLAAS PUBLIC LECTURE: How Many Women Actually Own Land? – women’s land rights in India and South Africa

“Women’s land rights has become a key question in South Africa and globally, but how many women actually own the land,” is the question that Professor Bina Agarwal posed during a public lecture she delivered on June 13 2023. The renowned economist and academic, whose work marked a key moment in moving from women and development to gender and development,…
PLAAS
June 29, 2023
Ekurhuleni’s apartheid framework versus equitable access to land: Which will prevail? Blog

Ekurhuleni’s apartheid framework versus equitable access to land: Which will prevail?

By Nduduzo Majozi (PhD candidate and holds a SARChi Chair Scholarship at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape)The local government in Ekurhuleni has continued to repress residents in an effort to prevent them from exercising their right to access land. This right remains little more than a dream here, as in many…
Sam Salient
September 5, 2022
mining south africa
Mining, Capital and Dispossession in Post-Apartheid South Africa BlogFeatured Blog

Mining, Capital and Dispossession in Post-Apartheid South Africa

By Dr Phillan Zamchiya Central to David Harvey’s proposition in both his books – The New Imperialism and The Limits to Capital – is that accumulation by dispossession entails the expropriation of the means of production by capital through extra-economic means in the context of neo-liberal capitalism and globalisation. In my latest journal article available here, I challenge the casual application…
PLAAS
September 5, 2022
Land Reform: What we really should be talking about and why Blog

Land Reform: What we really should be talking about and why

We’re having the wrong discussions about land reform. So says Professor Andries du Toit, director of the Institute of Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape. “Public debate has been overly concerned with the redistribution of rural land for farming purposes and has almost entirely focused on the emotive issue of changing the constitution…
PLAAS
July 11, 2022
The land summit was a fiasco. It reflected the government’s commitment to land reform. BlogFeatured BlogLand Publication

The land summit was a fiasco. It reflected the government’s commitment to land reform.

By Constance Mogale and Katlego Ramantsima The Communal Land Administration and Tenure Reform Summit held in Boksburg, Gauteng at the weekend proved that the government is not fully committed to ensuring that land reform delivers on the aspirations of ordinary people. South Africa held its last national communal land tenure summit in 2014. Given the almost decade-long hiatus, there were…
PLAAS
June 4, 2022
south africa land
The government’s “consultation” on communal land tenure was just a tick-box exercise BlogFeatured BlogLand Publication

The government’s “consultation” on communal land tenure was just a tick-box exercise

By Katlego Ramantsima The government recently wrapped up its public consultations on land administration and land tenure reform in communal areas. Given how central the issue of land is to South Africans, and that decisions stemming from the process will affect the lives and livelihoods of millions across the country, it’s hard to overstate the importance of these discussions. Sadly,…
PLAAS
May 16, 2022
Masifundise Development Trust Field Researcher (6-month contract) BlogNews & Events

Masifundise Development Trust Field Researcher (6-month contract)

The Masifundise Development Trust (MDT) is collaborating with the Institute of Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to seek for a field researcher based in iSiManagaliso and Kosi Bay to document evidence for Small-scale fishers Tribunal in 2023. Start date 1 June 2022 This is a call for individuals to apply for…
PLAAS
May 5, 2022
south africa land
Equitable access to land for social justice in South Africa: a new approach to success in land reform. Blog

Equitable access to land for social justice in South Africa: a new approach to success in land reform.

By Farai Mtero In spite of progressive constitutional provisions and policy rhetoric in support of pro-poor land reform in South Africa, equitable access to land has remained elusive for the poor majority in both urban and rural areas. In an effort to address this problem, PLAAS launched a project on “Equitable access to land for social justice in South Africa”…
PLAAS
December 15, 2021