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SEMINAR: The green transition in Africa and beyond – a tale of extractivism, fossil capitalism, and green (neo)colonialism

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SEMINAR: Navigating the green energy dilemma: a case study of geothermal development in Kenya

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Apply: PhD scholarships: Digital Agrarian Futures project

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Call for applications 2026: New Thinking on Integrating Biodiversity and Social Justice short course

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PLAAS Seminar: Unravelling the water question News & Events

PLAAS Seminar: Unravelling the water question

Unravelling the water question: A perspective from rural South Africa Presenter: Dr Michela Marcatelli Postdoctoral Research Fellow Sociology of Land, Environment and Sustainable Development, Stellenbosch University Water access in South Africa remains extremely unequal, despite an ongoing redistributive water reform and the inclusion of free basic water for the poor among the social policies of the country. I argue therefore…
Esté Beerwinkel
September 25, 2019
PLAAS Seminar: The effect of hyperinflation in Zimbabwe News & EventsUncategorized

PLAAS Seminar: The effect of hyperinflation in Zimbabwe

The Effect of Hyperinflation on Asset Poverty, Asset Inequality and Child Health Inequality in Zimbabwe Presenter: Flora M.N. Kurasha, University of Cape Town Hyperinflation began in Zimbabwe in March 2007 and reached its peak in July 2008, with an annual inflation rate of 231 million percent and ended in 2009 after dollarisation. This study reveals hyperinflation’s effects on the well-being…
Esté Beerwinkel
September 16, 2019
Call for Applications: DAAD PLAAS NELGA Scholarship Applications 2020 News & Events

Call for Applications: DAAD PLAAS NELGA Scholarship Applications 2020

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in collaboration with the Institute for Poverty, Land & Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape (UWC), is offering in-country/in-region scholarships, within the Network of Excellence for Land Governance in Africa (NELGA). This forms part of the Strengthening Advisory Capacities for Land Governance in Africa (SLGA) programme funded by the German Federal Ministry…
PLAAS
September 13, 2019
Women and Work in the Informal Economy: Collectively challenges can be overcome News & EventsUncategorized

Women and Work in the Informal Economy: Collectively challenges can be overcome

Women predominate in many sectors of the informal economy; their lives, work, and struggles are often invisible to government and to the public at large. Last week, PLAAS and the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), hosted a public lecture and engagement event which gathered activists and academics to discuss these…
Esté Beerwinkel
September 4, 2019
PLAAS Seminar: Learning as change News & Events

PLAAS Seminar: Learning as change

Learning as change Presenter: Dr Luke Metelerkamp Environmental Learning Research Centre, Rhodes University In South and Southern Africa, more than half of the young people are ensnared in a complex and seemingly intractable unemployment crisis that is being driven, in part, by a transition toward a highly industrialised food system. As efforts to address this crisis, while simultaneously renewing efforts…
Esté Beerwinkel
August 29, 2019
Event: Women and Work in the Informal Economy News & EventsUncategorized

Event: Women and Work in the Informal Economy

Where are women currently positioned in the South African labour market? How has this changed over time? How does South Africa compare to regional and global trends? Is the fourth industrial revolution a threat or opportunity for women workers? Join this public lecture, presented by Caroline Skinner (Senior Researcher at the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape…
Esté Beerwinkel
August 27, 2019
PLAAS Seminar: The origins of the Ingonyama Trust News & EventsUncategorized

PLAAS Seminar: The origins of the Ingonyama Trust

The origins of the Ingonyama Trust Presenter: Hilary Lynd Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley How did 2,8 million hectares of land end up in a trust with the Zulu King as its sole trustee? After the April 1994 elections, the land administered by the other nine homelands came under the authority of the national government. Only KwaZulu…
Esté Beerwinkel
August 21, 2019
NELGA short course in ‘the political economy of land governance’ goes to West Africa News & EventsUncategorized

NELGA short course in ‘the political economy of land governance’ goes to West Africa

Across Africa, the majority of both rural and urban residents have insecure tenure rights, either in law or in practice. They face the legacy of land dispossession, colonial legal codes, contested customary tenure systems, and growing pressure on land in the face of commercial investments. Next week, land professionals from West Africa will meet in Accra, Ghana to get first…
Esté Beerwinkel
August 8, 2019
PLAAS Seminar: Fairtrade and young people News & Events

PLAAS Seminar: Fairtrade and young people

Fairtrade and young people   Presenter: Zachary Kiarie Fairtrade Africa, Head of Region, Southern Africa Network Fairtrade continues to lead among certification schemes in our work to tackle and eliminate child labour and increase the well-being of children and young people. Fairtrade’s approach puts farmers and communities at the centre, enabling them to take responsibility for increasing the well-being of…
Esté Beerwinkel
August 7, 2019
A recap of the JPS Annual Summer Writeshop in Critical Agrarian Studies in Beijing News & Events

A recap of the JPS Annual Summer Writeshop in Critical Agrarian Studies in Beijing

Words by Stha Yeni What are the structural barriers that hinder the growth of vibrant, well-networked Global South young researchers working in critical agrarian studies along scholar-activist tradition? Can a global network of Global South young researchers working in critical agrarian studies and along scholar-activist tradition contribute to overcoming such barriers? If so, how? These were the questions that guided…
Esté Beerwinkel
August 1, 2019