Our research covers diverse areas, ranging from land and tenure reform, land investment and agro-food restructuring, fisheries and ecosystem management, to social protection and informal self employment. In all this work, our key focus is on the causes and dynamics of inequality and structural poverty, on the economic and social agency of poor...
Welcome to PLAAS
PLAAS does research, policy engagement, teaching and training about the dynamics of chronic poverty and structural inequality in Southern Africa, with a particular emphasis on the key role of restructuring and contesting land holding and agro-food systems in the subcontinent and beyond. Our focus is on the analysis of marginalised livelihoods in Southern Africa, especially of subsistence and smallholder farmers and farm workers, of coastal and inland artisanal fisheries and fishing communities; and of informal self employment in rural and urban areas.
Research Areas
Latest Publication
Foreign land deals in Tanzania: An update and a critical view on the challenges of data (re)production
In the absence of an easily available source of reliable up-to-date data on foreign land deals in Tanzania, many reports have been published that attempt to provide an overview of these deals....
Upcoming Events
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: Green Economy in the South
The momentum gathering behind the idea and practice of the Green Economy is coinciding with financial instability and continued economic woe in the North, but generally happier economic...
News
Prof Ben Cousins wins Elinor Ostrom Award
As announced by the awarding committee on 16 May 2013, Prof Ben Cousins has won the Elinor Ostrom Award on Collective Governance of the Commons. The award was created to acknowledge and promote...