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Ben Cousins
- DST/NRF Chair in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies
Email:
bcousins@uwc.ac.za
Biography:
| I hold a DPhil in applied social science from the University of Zimbabwe (1997), and a BA in Sociology and Geography from the University of South Africa (1982). I was in exile for 19 years, worked in agricultural training and extension in Swaziland (1976-1983) and Zimbabwe (1983-1986), and carried out research on communal grazing, livestock production and rural class formation in Zimbabwe (1986-1991). I lectured in Anthropology at the University of the Western Cape between 1991 and 1995, and held a chair in Development Management at the University of the Western Cape from 1998 to 2009. I founded and directed PLAAS) from its inception in 1995 until September 2009.I was a Distinguished Visiting Professor in International Development Studies at St Mary’s University in Canada in 2008. I am currently rated by South Africa’s National Research Foundation as a researcher who enjoys considerable international recognition for the high quality and impact of his recent research outputs. I have published widely in both academic and non-academic formats, and have edited or co-edited 5 books. |  |
| My research over the past decade has focused on the key themes of production, property and power, and their interconnections in the context of land and agrarian reform in Southern Africa. This research is strategic and use-oriented, in this instance by policy-makers and civil society groups concerned to reduce poverty and inequality through redistributing assets, securing rights and democratizing decision-making in rural areas. My research is interdisciplinary in character, drawing on theories, concepts and insights from anthropology, sociology, development studies, political studies, history, economics, law and environmental studies. The main body of scholarship that informs my work and to which I contribute is the political economy of agrarian change, but I also draw heavily on the anthropology of law and land tenure. My work focuses on three key issues: the politics and economics of land and agrarian reform, and in particular on the role of small scale agricultural producers within such reforms; on the legal recognition or formalization of customary land rights; and on the changing nature of rural social organization and system. | |
| Since my return to South Africa in the early 1990s I have worked closely with government departments, NGOs and engaged scholars in the formulation of new land policies, but have also provided critiques of government policies and advocated alternative policies. I publish regularly in the popular media and am often called upon to comment on land and rural development policies in the press and on radio and television, both locally and internationally. The scope of my research extends beyond South Africa to Africa more broadly, with a particular focus on Southern Africa. | |
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Recent publications
include:
Cousins, Ben, 2007. “Agrarian reform and the
two economies: transforming South Africa’s countryside”, in: Lungisile
Ntsebeza and Ruth Hall (eds), The Land Question in South Africa: the
Challenge of Transformation and Redistribution, Pretoria: Human
Sciences Research Council Press.
Cousins, Ben, 2007. “More than socially
embedded: the distinctive character of ‘communal tenure’ regimes in
South Africa and its implications for land policy”,
Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol 7, No.
3: 281-315.
Claassens, Aninka and Ben Cousins, (eds).
2008. Land, power and custom: Controversies generated by South
Africa’s Communal Land Rights Act. Cape Town: UCT Press and
Columbus: Ohio University Press.
Cousins, Ben, 2008. “Characterising
‘communal’ tenure: nested systems and flexible boundaries”, in: Aninka
Claassens and BenCousins (eds). Land, Power and Custom:
Controversies generated by South Africa’s Communal Land Rights
Act. Cape Town: UCT Press and Athens: Ohio University Press.
Cousins, Ben, 2009. “Review Essay. Land
Reform in South Africa”. Journal of Agrarian Change 9
(3): 421-31.
Cousins, Ben, 2009. “Capitalism obscured: the
limits of law and rights-based approaches to poverty reduction and
development”. Journal of Peasant Studies 36 (4): 893-908.
Sjaastad, Espen and Ben Cousins, 2009.
“Formalisation of land rights in the South: An overview”. Land Use
Policy 26 (1): 1-9.
Cousins, Ben and Ian Scoones, 2010.
“Contested paradigms of ‘viability’ in redistributive land reform:
perspectives from southern Africa”. Journal of Peasant Studies
37 (1): 31-66.
Cousins, Ben 2010. “The politics of communal tenure reform: A South African case study”, in: Ward Anseeuw and Chris Alden (eds), The Struggle over Land in Africa. Conflicts, Politics and Change. Cape Town: HSRC Press (55-70). Cousins, Ben, 2010. “What is a smallholder? Class-analytic perspectives on small-scale farming and agrarian reform in South Africa”. Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 24pp (Working Paper 16). DOWNLOAD CURRICULUM VITAE OF PROF. BEN COUSINS |
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20–22 SEPTEMBER 2010 — NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON STRUCTURAL POVERTY IN SOUTH AFRICA "Overcoming inequality and structural poverty in South Africa: Towards inclusive growth and development"