This is the first collection of its kind. It presents a critical political economy of the agrarian question in post-apartheid South Africa, informed by the results of research undertaken since the transition from apartheid started in 1990. The articles, by well-known South African, British and American scholars, cover a variety of topical theoretical, empirical and policy issues, firmly rooted in an historical perspective.

Based on an in-depth analysis of several contrasting agricultural regions, this book aims to assess South Africa's ongoing agrarian reform and the country's agrarian dynamics. Without fundamentally questioning the highly specialized, fossil energy and synthetic input dependent, oligopolistic entrepreneurial agricultural production model, which is presently structuring the sector and is guiding the reforms, a more equitable redistribution of resources and value-addition will by no means be possible. This book examines and contributes to the structural questions that underpin the current stagnation of South Africa's agrarian reform. Presenting fresh approaches in analysing agrarian issues and tools to assess farming systems and agricultural development, this incisive study will be an important resource to policy makers, academics and those with an interest in agrarian reform.

Publisher description

Land Reform Revisited engages with contemporary debates on land reform and agrarian transformation in South Africa. The volume offers insights into post-apartheid transformation dynamics through the lens of agency and state making. The chapters written by emerging scholars are based on extensive qualitative research and their analysis highlights the ways in which people negotiate and contest land reform realities and politics. By focusing on the diverse meanings of land and competing interpretations of what constitutes success and failure in land reform Brandt and Mkodzongi insist on looking beyond the productivity discourses guiding research and policy making in the field towards an informed view from below. Contributors are: Kezia Batisai, Femke Brandt, Sarah Bruchhausen, Nerhene Davis, Elene Cloete, Tariro Kamuti, Tarminder Kaur, Grasian Mkodzongi, Camalita Naicker, Fani Ncapayi, Mnqobi Ngubane, and Chizuko Sato.