Ongoing Projects

Local labor struggles in global value chains: Control and agency of smallholders and farm workers in tobacco and cotton in Zimbabwe

Dr. Freedom Mazwi of the University of Zambia will join our junior research group as a TWAS-DFG Visiting Fellow for a three-month research stay from September to November 2025. In collaboration with Dr. Caroline Hambloch, Dr. Mazwi is developing a journal article on contract farming Zimbabwe’s tobacco and cotton sectors. The research will utilize a multi-scalar framework to explore how contract farming arrangements shape labor control and labor agency. It will focus on the interconnections of capital and labor agency across different scales, and how these interconnections shape the capacity of smallholders and workers to negotiate better conditions, assert their interests, and improve their outcomes within these sectors. The visit will also identify future areas of collaboration between Dr. Mazwi, the junior research group, and scholars from affiliated universities. This seeks to contribute to bridging the knowledge divide between Global North and Global South scholarship.