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Farms, farmworkers and new forms of livelihoods in southern Africa
Author(s) -
Pilossof Rory
Publication year - 2018
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/joac.12261
Subject(s) - livelihood , precarity , agency (philosophy) , impermanence , politics , welfare , wage labour , economic growth , political science , sociology , agriculture , gender studies , geography , social science , economics , archaeology , law , buddhism
This review essay looks at three recent books on farms, farm labour, and rural livelihoods in southern Africa. The books— Farm labor struggles in Zimbabwe: The ground of politics , by Blair Rutherford; Ordered estates: Welfare, power and maternalism on Zimbabwe's (once white) Highveld , by Andrew M. C. Hartnack; and Zimbabwe's migrants and South Africa's border farms: The roots of impermanence , by Maxim Bolt—offer a range of insights into labour politics and management, new forms of livelihoods on farms and former farms, and how those living on farms interact with informal economies. Usefully, the books cover events over the past two decades, as well as providing regional insights into important contemporary issues. While the books converge in a number of ways, this essay will focus on two key themes: (i) how they address issues of farm management and labour control; and (ii) they ways in which they explore farmworker agency in times of change and in areas of informality and precarity.