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

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What South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruling on the Tafelberg property means for equitable access to land and spatial justice

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New Publication: Bridging divides against erratic democratic trajectories

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PLAAS stands in solidarity with African citizens

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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
PLAAS hosts a Regional Policy Dialogue on the Formalisation of Customary Land Rights and Implications for Women’s Land Tenure Security and Livelihoods in Southern Africa News & EventsNews & Events Featured

PLAAS hosts a Regional Policy Dialogue on the Formalisation of Customary Land Rights and Implications for Women’s Land Tenure Security and Livelihoods in Southern Africa

JOHANNESBURG, 29 March 2023. The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) hosted the Southern African Regional Land Policy Dialogue to disseminate the findings of its multi-country research project on the privatisation of customary land and implications for women’s land tenure security and livelihoods.  The event in Johannesburg, South Africa, was attended by members of parliament, government officials, traditional…
PLAAS
April 17, 2023
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: Critical Agrarian Studies in the 21st Century FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: Critical Agrarian Studies in the 21st Century

10 October 2023 – 12 October 2023 College of Humanities and Development Studies, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China To mark the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Peasant Studies (JPS), JPS together with the College of Humanities and Development Studies at China Agricultural University (COHD-CAU), the Collective of Agrarian Scholar-Activists from the South (CASAS) and the Transnational Institute (TNI) are…
PLAAS
April 6, 2023
south africa rural land
ACADEMIC SEMINAR: Understanding South African Deagrarianisation FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

ACADEMIC SEMINAR: Understanding South African Deagrarianisation

29 March 2023 – 13:00 - 14:00 CAT Understanding South African Deagrarianisation: Analysing Smallholders’ Voices About The Abandonment Of Field Cultivation Through A Political-Historical Lens Academic Seminar In this talk, Prof. Klara Fischer will present findings from ethnographic field work in a group of villages outside Flagstaff in the Eastern Cape where she has worked since 2008. She draws on…
PLAAS
March 29, 2023
WEBINAR: Cross-border labour geographies in the South African periphery FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

WEBINAR: Cross-border labour geographies in the South African periphery

TUESDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2023 from 13:00 – 14:30 SAST/CAT PLAAS invites you to a webinar titled ‘Cross-border labour geographies in the South African periphery' Abstract The beitbridge-pondrift borderscape in South Africa boasts one of the biggest commercial agriculture estate, private nature reserves, and a diamond mine. The materiality of the sectors such as: bushveld and wildlife in the case of…
PLAAS
February 21, 2023
PLAAS Hosts a National Policy Dialogue on Women’s Land Tenure Security in South Africa FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

PLAAS Hosts a National Policy Dialogue on Women’s Land Tenure Security in South Africa

POLOKWANE, 10 February 2023. The Institute for Poverty, Land, and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) continues to disseminate findings from its research on the privatization of customary land and its implications for women’s land tenure security and livelihoods in Southern Africa.  After hosting three successful National Policy Dialogue sessions in Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe, PLAAS last week brought the conversation on customary…
PLAAS
February 17, 2023
PODCAST Ep. 10: Sustainable rural livelihoods – an approach, not a theory Agrarian PoliticsFeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

PODCAST Ep. 10: Sustainable rural livelihoods – an approach, not a theory

What is the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Approach (SRLA) and what is it good for - and what not? In this episode we are joined by Ian Scoones in conversation about this approach which he has been centrally involved in elaborating. Unlike political economy, the SRLA is not, and cannot provide, a theoretical framework, in that it does not contain any overarching analysis of social…
PLAAS
February 14, 2023
PLAAS Hosts a National Policy Dialogue on Women’s Land Rights in Mozambique FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

PLAAS Hosts a National Policy Dialogue on Women’s Land Rights in Mozambique

MAPUTO, 31 January 2022. The Institute for Poverty, Land, and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) continues to disseminate findings from its research on the privatisation of customary land and its implications for women's land tenure security and livelihoods in Southern Africa.   Civil society, government representatives, academics and community members gathered in Maputo, Mozambique, on 31 January this year for a key discussion…
PLAAS
February 8, 2023
smart food system
Online Public Lecture: A Smart Food System or More ‘Misconfigured Innovations’? FeaturedNews & EventsNews & Events Featured

Online Public Lecture: A Smart Food System or More ‘Misconfigured Innovations’?

Event: Online Public Lecture Date: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 Time: 5:00-6:30pm CET, 6:00-7:30pm CAT Dr. Alistair Fraser, Maynooth University, Ireland Dreamlike visions of an intelligent, automated food system are widespread today. A vast eco-system of start-ups, along with numerous academic research teams, draws on and informs data reserves held by corporate giants while generating these so-called ‘innovations’ – and all…
PLAAS
January 18, 2023