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Seminar: Decolonising tourism development at Victoria Falls: a new evolutionary economic geography perspective with Dr Mfundo Mlilo

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Colloquium – Solidarity then and now: African and Norwegian perspectives on scholarly collaboration and social justice amid geopolitical change

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New report launch: Urban conservation from the perspective of justice in Cape Town

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University of Cartagena International Academic Conference ‘Land, Life and Society Conference’ February 2026

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ACADEMIC SEMINAR – Transforming Mexican Coffee Policies: A Closer Look at President López Obrador’s Impact FeaturedFeatured BlogNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

ACADEMIC SEMINAR – Transforming Mexican Coffee Policies: A Closer Look at President López Obrador’s Impact

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s tenure as president of Mexico has marked a significant departure from past administrations, including in the context of the coffee industry. This was the topic of an academic seminar delivered on 22 August 2023 by Claudia Oviedo Rodriguez, a Ph.D. student at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Hosted by the Institute of Poverty, Land and…
PLAAS
August 25, 2023
PLAAS ACADEMIC SEMINAR – The Promised transformation: Mexican coffee policies during the administration of President Lopez Obrador FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

PLAAS ACADEMIC SEMINAR – The Promised transformation: Mexican coffee policies during the administration of President Lopez Obrador

Abstract This thesis analyses Mexican coffee policies during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). It builds on approaches of state theories, agrarian political economy, and global value chain studies, and contributes to debates regarding the role of the state in small farmers’ livelihoods. The thesis is based on a case study analysing the implementation of rural policies…
PLAAS
August 11, 2023
PLAAS ACADEMIC SEMINAR – The Land and its People: The South African ‘Land Question’ and the Post-Apartheid Political Order FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events FeaturedUncategorized

PLAAS ACADEMIC SEMINAR – The Land and its People: The South African ‘Land Question’ and the Post-Apartheid Political Order

Abstract Professor Andries du Toit will examine the disjuncture between the discourses of policy deliberation and contentious politics in debates about ‘the land question’ in South Africa. He will argue that the South African land debate as it unfolds in the public realm is best understood as a displaced discourse indirectly addressing the terms of political belonging and the nature…
PLAAS
July 26, 2023
IASC Keynote: Taking Back the Commons: Decommodification, Deconcentration and Democratisation FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

IASC Keynote: Taking Back the Commons: Decommodification, Deconcentration and Democratisation

Taking Back the Commons: Decommodification, Deconcentration, and Democratisation Ruth Hall and Moenieba Isaacs Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape South AfricaAbstract The battle is on for Africa’s commons, but not all is lost. Beyond the onslaught of corporate, elite and state-backed land and resource grabbing that is rampant across the continent, this talk…
PLAAS
June 29, 2023
Digital tech in African agriculture FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

Digital tech in African agriculture

The digital revolution in global agriculture has begun and this includes digital tech in African agriculture. We now see the use of a variety of digital tools on the continent, such as drones, precision farming machinery, digital decision-making support tools, digital labor management tools or online food and agricultural input marketplaces. Even though the digital revolution is still at an…
PLAAS
June 7, 2023
PLAAS PUBLIC LECTURE – Obstacles to women’s land rights and ways forward: Insights from India and beyond FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

PLAAS PUBLIC LECTURE – Obstacles to women’s land rights and ways forward: Insights from India and beyond

Tuesday, 13 June 2023, 13h00 - 14h30 CAT Please join us for a public lecture by Professor Bina Agarwal from the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester in the United Kingdom who will be talking about ‘Obstacles to women’s land rights and ways forward: Insights from India and beyond’. Abstract Globally, for many decades (sometimes even a century) rural women…
PLAAS
June 1, 2023
PLAAS Concludes Pan-African Online Course on the Political Economy of Land Governance FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

PLAAS Concludes Pan-African Online Course on the Political Economy of Land Governance

CAPE TOWN, 05 May 2023. The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) last week concluded another pan-African programme on the political economy of land governance, with 71 participants from 21 countries.   This short course is hosted by PLAAS at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in collaboration with the African Land Policy Centre (ALPC), and is an…
PLAAS
May 8, 2023
PLAAS ACADEMIC SEMINAR – Algorithmic Plant Justice: Vegetal Beings, Gendered Relations, and the Governing of Precision Agriculture FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

PLAAS ACADEMIC SEMINAR – Algorithmic Plant Justice: Vegetal Beings, Gendered Relations, and the Governing of Precision Agriculture

Tuesday, 9 May 2023, 13h00 - 14h00 Please join us for an academic seminar by Associate Professor Laura Foster from Indiana University, Bloomington, USA who will be talking about ‘Algorithmic Plant Justice: Vegetal Beings, Gendered Relations, and the Governing of Precision Agriculture’. Abstract Precision agriculture or smart farming refers to the use of automated decision-making systems devoted to improving the…
PLAAS
May 4, 2023
PLAAS Academic Seminar – The Violence of Conservation in Africa: seeking non-violent alternatives News & EventsNews & Events Featured

PLAAS Academic Seminar – The Violence of Conservation in Africa: seeking non-violent alternatives

The presentation based on a recent book, The Violence of Conservation in Africa with Maano Ramutsindela and Tafadzwa Mushonga (2022), will focus on African states and their behaviours towards African people in conservation spaces within the global environmental agendas of powerful states and conservation organizations. It critiques conservation as an ideology referencing African landscapes without people leading to conservation violence…
PLAAS
April 21, 2023