Biography:
Ruth
Hall holds a Masters degree in Development Studies from the University
of Oxford and an Honours degree in Political Studies from UCT. She is
currently registered for a doctoral degree in Politics at Oxford.
Before joining PLAAS, she was Senior Researcher at the Centre for Rural Legal Studies (CRLS), Stellenbosch, where she led research on farm workers’ wages and conditions of employment in South Africa as part of an investigation by the Department of Labour into minimum wages for farm workers. She has also done research on land reform policies and practices in South Africa and in India, focusing on gender equity.
Ruth joined PLAAS in 2002 to work on an evaluation of land and agrarian reform in South Africa. Since then she has led several national research and advocacy projects, published widely, advised government, established partnerships with civil society organisations, and taught on PLAAS’s postgraduate programme. Her major publications are Another Countryside? Policy Options for Land and Agrarian Reform in South Africa (2009) and, co-edited with Lungisile Ntsebeza, The Land Question in South Africa: The Challenge of Transformation and Redistribution (2007). Her recent projects have focused on Limpopo province, and addressed the tenure rights and livelihoods of farm dwellers, and the experiences of Zimbabwean migrants on commercial farms.
Before joining PLAAS, she was Senior Researcher at the Centre for Rural Legal Studies (CRLS), Stellenbosch, where she led research on farm workers’ wages and conditions of employment in South Africa as part of an investigation by the Department of Labour into minimum wages for farm workers. She has also done research on land reform policies and practices in South Africa and in India, focusing on gender equity.
Ruth joined PLAAS in 2002 to work on an evaluation of land and agrarian reform in South Africa. Since then she has led several national research and advocacy projects, published widely, advised government, established partnerships with civil society organisations, and taught on PLAAS’s postgraduate programme. Her major publications are Another Countryside? Policy Options for Land and Agrarian Reform in South Africa (2009) and, co-edited with Lungisile Ntsebeza, The Land Question in South Africa: The Challenge of Transformation and Redistribution (2007). Her recent projects have focused on Limpopo province, and addressed the tenure rights and livelihoods of farm dwellers, and the experiences of Zimbabwean migrants on commercial farms.
Ruth’s
current work focuses on the Southern Africa region, and deals with two
themes:
- pressures towards commercialisation of land uses and ‘land grabbing’, the impacts of these processes on rural communities, smallholder production, food security and rural politics, and policy options for ‘pro-poor agro-investment’; and
- the position of smallholder farmers and small-scale fishing communities within value-chains, the potential for them to move out of poverty through market participation, and options for ‘pro-poor value chain governance’.
Recent publications
include:
Hall, Ruth. 2010. “
Two Cycles of Land Policy in South Africa: Tracing the Contours” in
Ward Anseeuw and Chris Alden (eds) The Struggle over Land in Africa:
Conflicts, Politics and Change. Cape Town: Human Sciences Research
Council Press: pp 175-192.
Hall, Ruth (ed). 2009. Another
Countryside? Policy Options for Land and Agrarian Reform in South
Africa. Cape Town: Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian
Studies, University of the Western Cape. (including seven single or
co-authored chapters)
Hall, Ruth. 2009. “Land Restitution in
South Africa: Rights, Development and the Restrained State” in Alan
Jeeves and Greg Cuthbertson (eds). Fragile Freedom: South Africa’s
Democracy since 1994. Pretoria: University of South Africa Press:
pp 142-156.
Hall, Ruth. 2009. “Land reform in South
Africa: Successes, challenges and concrete proposals for the way
forward” in Land Reform in South Africa: Constructive Aims and
Positive Outcomes – Reflecting on Experiences on the Way to 2014.
Johannesburg: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung: pp 5-35.
Hall, Ruth.
2009. A
fresh start for rural development and agrarian reform? Policy
brief 29. Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS),
University of the Western Cape.
Hall, Ruth. 2008. “Rural Livelihoods and
Human Security: HIV/AIDS and Land Issues” in Angela Ndinga-Muvumba and
Robyn Pharoah (eds). HIV/AIDS and Society in South Africa.
Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press: pp
124-144.
Kepe, Thembela, Ruth Hall and Ben
Cousins. 2008. “Land” in Steven Robin and Nic Shepherd (eds). South
African Keywords. Cape Town: Jacana: pp
143-156.
Hall, Ruth. 2008. State, Market and
Community: The Potential and Limits of Participatory Land Reform
Planning in South Africa. Working paper, No 7. Institute for
Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western
Cape.
Rother, Hanna-Andrea, Ruth Hall and
Leslie London. 2008. “Pesticide Use Among Emerging Farmers in South
Africa: Contributing Factors and Stakeholder Perceptions” in
Development Southern Africa. October 2008. Vol 25(4), October 2008: pp
399-424.
Hall, Ruth. 2008. “Land reform and
poverty eradication: in search of solid ground” in Susan Brown (ed).
Transformation Audit 2007: Leadership and Legitimacy. Cape Town:
Institute for Justice and Reconciliation: pp 72-88.
Hall, Ruth. 2008. The Impact of Land
Restitution and Land Reform on Livelihoods. Cape Town:
Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape
(Research Report 32).
Hall, Ruth. 2007. “South Africa” in
Martin Adams and Robin Palmer (eds). Independent Review of Land
Issues in Southern and East Africa: Volume III. Electronic
publication. June 2007. Oxford: Oxfam: pp 33-41.
Hall, Ruth and Lungisile Ntsebeza. 2007.
“Introduction”
in Lungisile Ntsebeza and Ruth Hall (eds) The Land Question in South
Africa: The Challenge of Transformation and Redistribution. Cape
Town: HSRC Press, pp 1-24.
Hall, Ruth. 2007. “Transforming Rural
South Africa? Taking Stock of Land Reform” in Lungisile Ntsebeza
and Ruth Hall (eds) The Land Question in South Africa: The Challenge
of Transformation and Redistribution. Cape Town: HSRC Press,
87-106.
Moyo, Sam and Hall, Ruth. 2007.
“Conflict and Land Reform in Southern Africa: How Exceptional is South
Africa?” in Adekeye Adebajo, Adebayo Adedeji and Chris Landsberg (eds).
South Africa in Africa: The Post-Apartheid Era. Scottsville:
University of KwaZulu-Natal Press: pp 150-176.
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"