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PHONE:
+27 (0)21 959 3733
FAX:
+27 (0)21 959 3732
EMAIL: info@plaas.org.za
POSTAL ADDRESS:
PLAAS, UWC
Private Bag X17
Bellville
7535
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About PLAAS
WHO WE ARE |
The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) is a leading research and teaching centre with an international reputation for high quality applied research and critical scholarship.
Our institute was founded in 1995 as a specialist unit in the School of Government, in the Economic and Management Sciences Faculty, at theUniversity of the Western Cape (UWC), Cape Town. Since then, PLAAS has developed a proven track record of undertaking high-quality research on land and agrarian reform, poverty, and natural resource management in South Africa and the southern African region.
Besides research and postgraduate teaching, PLAAS undertakes training, provides advisory, facilitation and evaluation services and is active in the field of national policy development. Through these activities, and by seeking to apply the tools of critical scholarship to questions of policy and practice, we seek to develop new knowledge and fresh approaches to the transformation of society in southern Africa. |
VISION AND MISSION |
PLAAS does research, policy engagement, teaching and training about the dynamics of chronic poverty and structural inequality in southern and South Africa, with a particular emphasis on the key role of restructuring and contesting land holding and agro-food systems in the subcontinent and beyond.
PLAAS’s mission emphasises the central importance of the agro-food system in creating and perpetuating poverty — and also in eradicating it. Historically, PLAAS’s work has concentrated heavily on issues of production in these systems, but the focus is increasingly broadening to consider the upstream and downstream aspects of agro-food commodity chains and systems. Key aspects of social policy affecting the dynamics of poverty and inequality in southern and South Africa are also being taken up into PLAAS’s work.
Within this broad field of investigation, our work focuses on the dynamics of marginalised livelihoods — particularly livelihoods which are vulnerable, structurally excluded or adversely incorporated. |
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![About PLAAS [1]](http://www.plaas.org.za/about-plaas/about-plaas-overview/about-plaas-overview-0/image1_3column "About PLAAS [1]")
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OVERVIEW
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PLAAS was founded in 1995 as a specialist unit in the School of Government at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cape Town. Since then, PLAAS has developed a proven track record of undertaking high-quality research on land and agrarian reform, poverty, and natural resource management in South Africa and the southern African region.
Besides research and postgraduate teaching, PLAAS undertakes training, provides advisory, facilitation and evaluation services and is active in the field of national policy development. Through these activities, and by seeking to apply the tools of critical scholarship to questions of policy and practice, we seek to develop new knowledge and fresh approaches to the transformation of society in southern Africa. |
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PLAAS REPORTS AND ANNUAL REPORTS |
 | Click here to view or download PLAAS Reports and Annual Reports |
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KEY FOCUS AREAS
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- Agriculture: Transforming agriculture in context of restructuring agri-food systems in South and Southern Africa, including the ways smallholder farmers are inserted in agri-food value chains (in ‘mainstream’ and non-corporate value chains); commercialisation of agricultural land in southern Africa and beyond; the pressures on large-scale and commercial agriculture; and challenges facing small and subsistence producers.
- Land and Tenure Reform: Analysing land use governance, land access and tenure systems, the politics and history of land reform in the region, PLAAS continues to monitor the implementation and politics of land reform and rural development in South Africa, especially with respect to gender and other power dynamics.
- Fisheries: Our work emphasises marginalised livelihoods in marine and coastal agro-food systems, including research on: marine and coastal resources policy in the sub-continent; the livelihoods of those who depend on coastal and inland fisheries; the role of small scale fisheries in agro-food systems; and the relationship between land- and marine/estuaries-based livelihood activities in coastal and inland communities.
- Ecosystem Services and Natural resource Management: Conceptually linked to PLAAS’s work on fisheries, our work on natural resource management, commons and ecosystem management highlights the human dimension of ecosystem management and actively pursues trans-disciplinary work relating to ecosystem services for poverty alleviation.
- Informal Self-employment: PLAAS’s interest in marginalised livelihoods extends to non-agrarian livelihoods in the informal sector, particularly as these are often crucial to the understanding of spatial issues and urban-rural links.
- Social Movements of the poor: From time to time, PLAAS’s work has considered the agency of poor and marginalised people not only economically, but politically. Past research was on the social movements of the poor and currently we are developing a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of citizen participation and the interface between citizens and government, e.g. in service delivery or developing local or national policy.
- Social Policy: PLAAS’s research is centrally concerned with a wide range of issues relevant to social policy — ranging from developing and implementing land reform and agricultural policy to labour law and social protection. In the future, PLAAS hopes to expand this area significantly to research tax and benefit micro-simulation and how these can work to counter (or exacerbate) social inequality.
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MAIN ACTIVITIES
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- support to national policy development
- advising, facilitating and evaluating.
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Labour in Large Scale Agriculture in Africa and Southeast Asia