The Hand on the Tiller: the Politics of State and Class in South Africa

1993 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael MacDonald ◽  
Wilmot James
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Dominant Classes ◽  
The 1960S

Marxist scholarship on South Africa's political economy was born as a meta-theoretical critique of liberalism in the 1960s and matured into a rich tradition of its own by the 1980s. As Marxists became more focused empirically and conceptually, they presented compelling evidence for their key analytical claims and generally bettered their liberal rivals—as they saw and portrayed them—in the debate over the complicity of capitalist development in the officially mandated racism of South Africa. Whereas liberals either ignored, minimised, or denied an association, Marxists argued that capitalism and its dominant classes systematically promoted and actively underwrote apartheid in particular, and white domination in general.

South African Historical Writing to the End of the Apartheid Era

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Saunders
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
White Males ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S

While many of those who have written about South Africa have included reference to past events, it was only from the early 19th century that attempts were made to present a coherent picture of South Africa’s past. From the early 20th century professional historians, for long all white males, began to present their interpretations of the way in which the country known from 1910 as the Union of South Africa had evolved over time. In the Afrikaans-speaking universities there emerged an often nationalist historiography, while the major English-speaking historians presented a more inclusive but still often Eurocentric and mainly political view of the South African past. From the 1960s a conscious attempt was made to decolonize South African historiography by looking at the history of all the country’s peoples, but the historical profession remained almost exclusively white and the few black works of history were largely ignored. Many of those who were most influential in taking South African historical writing in new directions were South Africans who had left the country and settled abroad. In the 1970s and 1980s, a golden age of South African historical writing, shaped in part by the influence of neo-Marxist approaches from the United Kingdom and the United States, many new topics were explored, including the relationship between race and class and between capitalist development and apartheid. By emphasizing resistance to racial segregation in the past, South African historical writing assisted the process leading to the end of apartheid. By the time that happened, South African historical writing had become very nuanced and varied, but only to some extent integrated into the historiography of other parts of the African continent.

scholarly journals Migrant Labour during the Pandemic: A Political Economy Perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 001946622110212
Author(s):  
Deepak K. Mishra
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Migrant Labour ◽  
Cheap Labour ◽  
The One

This article aims to analyse the plight of the migrant workers in India during the Covid 19 pandemic from a political economy perspective. While taking note of the disruptions and uncertainties during the drastic lockdown that was announced suddenly, it is argued that the vulnerabilities of the migrant labour force are deeply embedded in the long-term changes in the political economy of development in India. These changes, on the one hand, have resulted in the gradual weakening of state support to the working classes, and on the other, have resulted in the normalisation of ‘cheap labour’ as a legitimate objective of neoliberal capitalist development. Locating the conditions of the migrant working class on the specificities of the manifold restructuring of the Indian economy under neoliberal globalisation, the study attempts to emphasise the structural dimensions of the current crisis faced by the migrant labourers. JEL Codes: J46, J61, O15, O17, P16

scholarly journals Planning out abjection? The role of the planning profession in post-apartheid South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 147309522110124
Author(s):  
Phil Jones ◽  
Lauren Andres ◽  
Stuart Denoon-Stevens ◽  
Lorena Melgaco Silva Marques
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Planning Profession ◽  
Established Order

For Kristeva (1982) the abject not only caused visceral disgust but posed a threat to the established order of society. The abject is a product of particular times and places but limited attention has been given to understanding the process of transitioning away from abject status. We address this gap here through an examination of the planning profession in post-apartheid South Africa. The paper examines how the abject is fluid and resilient, evolving to fit a changing planning system and broader political economy where a discourse of abjection by race has been replaced by a focus on poverty.

Marx and the mirage of change: Notes from South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 194277862110478
Author(s):  
Sagie Narsiah
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Historical Periods ◽  
Spatial Content

There is little doubt that the understanding of the dynamics of capitalism has been enriched by Geography. Moreover, geographers utilizing Marxist/Marxian lenses have provided valuable insights into the spatial content of the system. Over the past two decades or so, geographers in no small way have contributed to the demystification of capitalism/capitalist development in its neoliberal incarnation – change as mirage. Furthermore, poverty, inequality, unemployment and related social ills are directly linked to the system. Indeed, they are produced by the system. In this paper, the geographical evolution of the capitalist system in South Africa is examined. Critical thinkers, among them Marxists, influenced the theorization of the relationship(s) between capitalism, apartheid, class and race. In this paper, I focus on the spatial aspects, which in my view have been neglected. I reflect on various historical periods – the apartheid era and the post-apartheid era, in particular. What is apparent is that neoliberalism in South Africa has entered a phase which I label “accumulation by corrupt means”. The class basis of this strategy is examined. Critical (Marxist) geographers are shaped by the direct experiences of material conditions. I describe my experiences in this regard.

Contract Archeology in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ndukuyakhe Ndlovu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Research Funding ◽  
Legal Requirements ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Potential Damage ◽  
Legislative Changes ◽  
The 1960S

The roots of contract archeology were laid even before the development of a legislative framework that prescribed the processes to be followed. Contract archeology was being seen by the museums and universities as the best avenue to the subsidizing of archeological research. The increased research funding of the 1960s and 1970s was on the decline in the 1980s. Universities, therefore, were at a disadvantage and needed to explore other avenues of funding. Legislative changes over the years, which made it mandatory for developers to fund impact assessments to mitigate potential damage of valuable heritage resources from their proposed activities, have led to a significant proliferation of private archeological companies. These have been established to provide developers with the expertise they need to satisfy these legal requirements. The approach used in South Africa is that the developer must pay to assess the nature of the likely impact of their proposed activity. Government entities are then tasked with the responsibility of reviewing studies undertaken by specialists subcontracted by developers. The subdiscipline of archeology has grown significantly in South Africa, specifically enabled by legislative changes over the years requiring that predevelopment assessments of heritage sites be undertaken prior to approvals being made. However, archeology has continued to be defined as racially unrepresentative of the South African demography. In addition, the management of heritage resources through the use of contract archeology has been characterized by a variety of administrative challenges.

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