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Land Reform in South Africa
Author(s) -
COUSINS BEN
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of agrarian change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.63
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1471-0366
pISSN - 1471-0358
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-0366.2009.00218.x
Subject(s) - citizenship , agrarian reform , livelihood , property rights , land reform , politics , land tenure , ethnography , political economy , sovereignty , agrarian society , agrarian system , identity (music) , political science , land law , sociology , agriculture , geography , law , anthropology , physics , archaeology , acoustics
An insightful study of the complexities of land reform in South Africa is reviewed, and its key arguments assessed. The study astutely combines ethnographic and historical detail from in‐depth case studies in Mpumalanga Province with critical analysis of land reform policies, and locates these within larger theoretical debates on property rights, citizenship and identity. The author argues that a profound and unresolved tension exists within South Africa's land reform programme between broad and inclusive conceptions of ‘rights’ that are linked to notions of restored citizenship and sovereignty, and a conception of ‘property’ as individualized ownership of land, implying a much narrower conception of citizenship. The study also focuses on the roles of a variety of mediators and ‘brokers’ in land reform. Despite its many strengths, the study is not entirely convincing, partly because some key policy debates are mischaracterized. Its treatment of questions of agricultural production, rural livelihoods and the political economy of agrarian change is somewhat disappointing.