Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This case study of three rural villages in Matatiele district in the Eastern Cape, South Africa examines the extent to which the diversification of rural livelihoods and processes of social differentiation are interconnected. The study combines intensive and extensive research methods to explore livelihoods diversification and social differentiation in the villages of Litichareng, Mutsini and Thaba Chicha. The intensive research consisted of 36 life history interviews, a wealth ranking exercise and a focus group discussion. The extensive research consisted of a survey of 124 households. The study makes use of political economy concepts of class, power and inequality and argues that these concepts enhance the heuristic value of livelihoods approaches which have often been critiqued for under-theorising power and politics. In the contemporary capitalist world, particularly in the global ‘South’, livelihoods have increasingly become diversified as rural households combine agricultural and non-agricultural sources of income for both survival and accumulation purposes, often straddling the rural-urban divide. In the ‘ de-agrarianisation’ thesis, livelihood diversification has been interpreted as entailing a shift from agrarian livelihood systems to non-agrarian modes of existence in the context of increased urbanisation and industrialisation. These kinds of large-scale processes have been unfolding in rural Matatiele, but this study argues that rural households combine both agricultural and non-agricultural sources of income and emphasises the continued importance of agricultural sources of income in rural livelihood systems. De-agrarianisation is cyclical and not unilinear, as some components of farming have remained important and resilient (homestead garden cultivation and livestock production) while other have declined (dry-land cropping in large arable fields).These shifts in agriculture occur against the background of state-sponsored, large-scale agricultural development schemes introduced to commercialise agriculture and reverse de-agrarianisation and fragmentation of rural livelihoods, but which have largely failed to do so. The challenge for scholars is how to characterise rural households, small-scale farmers, or ‘peasants’ in the light of highly diversified livelihood systems and their straddling of the rural and urban divide. This study uses a political economy approach and defines rural households that engage in small-scale agriculture as petty commodity producers in capitalism, combining class places of capital and labour and subject to social differentiation. The study argues that the highly diversified livelihood systems characteristic of rural households reflect a ‘crisis of social reproduction’ as rural households struggle to survive and accumulate. In this study it is argued that rural households are part of growing ‘classes of labour’ within contemporary capitalism.

This thesis examined the evolution and transition of agrarian labour relations in the aftermath of Zimbabwe‘s radical land redistribution, which reconfigured the agrarian structure in terms of landholdings, production practices and labour markets from 2000. Despite the importance of agrarian labour as source of livelihood for the largely countryside based population, insufficient academic attention has been paid to its evolution following the land reforms. Specifically, the issues overlooked relate to the mobilisation, organisation and utilisation of wage and non-wage labour against background of the changed land ownership patterns, agrarian policies and macroeconomic conditions. Historical-structural approaches rooted in Marxist Political Economy informed the analysis of the new agrarian labour relations since in former Settler colonies such as Zimbabwe these were based on a historical context of specific land-labour utilisation relations created by land dispossession and discriminatory agrarian policies during the colonial and immediate independence period. Beyond this, gender issues, intrahousehold relations, kinship, citizenship and the agency of the workers were taken into account to understand the trajectory of labour relations. Detailed quantitative and qualitative empirical research in Goromonzi and Kwekwe districts, as well as from other sources demonstrated that a new agrarian labour regime had evolved to replace the predominant wage labour in former large-scale commercial farms. There has been a growth in the use of self-employed family farm labour alongside the differentiated use of wage labour in farming and other non-farm activities. Inequitable gender and generational tendencies were evident in the new agrarian labour regime. The new labour relations are marked by the exploitation of farm workers through wages that are below the cost of social reproduction, insecure forms of employment and poor working conditions, while their individual and collective worker agency is yet to reverse their poor socio-economic conditions. Various policy interventions to protect their land and labour rights are thus required. The study shed light on the conceptual understanding of agrarian labour relations in former Settler economies, including the role of land reforms in the development of employment, and how the peasantry with enlarged land access are reconstituted through repeasantisation and semi-proletarianisation processes. / Public Administration and Management / D. P. A.

This thesis examined the evolution and transition of agrarian labour relations in the aftermath of Zimbabwe‘s radical land redistribution, which reconfigured the agrarian structure in terms of landholdings, production practices and labour markets from 2000. Despite the importance of agrarian labour as source of livelihood for the largely countryside based population, insufficient academic attention has been paid to its evolution following the land reforms. Specifically to the mobilisation, organisation and utilisation of wage and non-wage labour against background of the changed land ownership patterns, agrarian policies and macro-economic conditions. Historical-structural approaches rooted in Marxist Political Economy informed the analysis of the new agrarian labour relations since in former Settler colonies such as Zimbabwe these were based were based on a historical context of specific land-labour utilisation relations created by land dispossession and discriminatory agrarian policies during the colonial and immediate independence period. Beyond this, gender issues, intra-household relations, kinship, citizenship and the agency of the workers were taken into account to understand the trajectory of labour relations. Detailed quantitative and qualitative empirical research in Goromonzi and Kwekwe districts, as well as from other sources demonstrated that a new agrarian labour regime had evolved to replace the predominant wage labour in former large-scale commercial farms. There has been a growth in the use of self-employed family farm labour alongside the differentiated use of wage labour in farming and other non-farm activities. Inequitable gender and generational tendencies were evident in the new agrarian labour regime. The new labour relations are marked by the exploitation of farm workers through wages that are below the cost of social reproduction, insecure forms of employment and poor working conditions. While their individual and collective worker agency is yet to reverse their poor socio-economic conditions. Various policy interventions to protect their land and labour rights are thus required. The study shed light on the the conceptual understanding of agrarian labour relations in former Settler economies, including the role of land reforms in the development of employment, and how the peasantry with enlarged land access are reconstituted through repeasantisation and semi-proletarianisation processes. / Public Administration and Management / D. P. A.