The materiality of precarity: Gender, race and energy infrastructure in urban South Africa

Analysis of precarity has offered a critique of labour market experiences and politically induced conditions of work, housing, migration, or essential services. This paper develops an infrastructural politics of precarity by analysing energy as a critical sphere of social and ecological reproduction. We employ precarity to understand how gendered and racialised vulnerability to energy deprivation is induced through political processes. In turn, analysis of energy illustrates socio-material processes of precarity, produced and contested through infrastructure. Our argument is developed through scalar analysis of energy precarity in urban South Africa, a country that complicates a North-South framing of debates on both precarity and energy. We demonstrate how energy precarity can be reproduced or destabilised through: social and material relations of housing, tenure, labour and infrastructure; the formation of gendered and racialized energy subjects; and resistance and everyday practices. We conclude that analysis of infrastructure provides insights on how precarity is contested as a shared condition and on the prospect of systemic change through struggles over distribution and production.

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Unequal Interdependency: Chinese Petty Entrepreneurs and Zimbabwean Migrant Labourers

Studies in Social Justice ◽

10.26522/ssj.v2020i14.1872 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 (14) ◽

pp. 146-165

Author(s):

Ying-Ying Tiffany Liu

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Labour Market ◽

Cultural Politics ◽

Migrant Workers ◽

Employment Relation ◽

Economic Strategy ◽

Chinese Migrants ◽

Urban South ◽

Migrant Economy ◽

Local Languages

Exploring the cultural politics of diasporic entrepreneurs and migrant labourers through an examination of Chinese restaurants in Johannesburg, this article presents what I call the “intra-migrant economy” amid everyday racialized insecurities in urban South Africa. I use the term “intra-migrant economy” to refer to the employment of one group of migrants (Zimbabwean migrant workers) by another group of migrants (Chinese petty capitalists) as an economic strategy outside the mainstream labour market. These two groups of migrants work in the same industry, live in the same city, and have established a sort of unequal employment relation that can be hierarchical and interdependentat once. Chinese migrants are socially marginalized but not economically underprivileged, which stands in contrast to Zimbabwean migrants, who remain economically underprivileged even though they speak local languages. Their different socioeconomic positions in South Africa are profoundly influenced by their nationality and racialization. Thisanalysis of their interdependency focuses on the economic and political structures that shaped the underlying conditions that brought Chinese and Zimbabwean migrants to work together in South Africa.

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Epistemic Ruptures in South African Standpoint Knowledge-Making: Academic Feminism and the #FeesMustFall Movement

Gender Questions ◽

10.25159/2412-8457/2920 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Desiree Lewis ◽

Cheryl Margaret Hendricks

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

South African ◽

Political Thought ◽

Economic Restructuring ◽

Student Protests ◽

Political Processes ◽

Academic Feminism ◽

The Many ◽

Radical Knowledge ◽

Intellectual Activism

Alongside the many structural and political processes generated by the #FeesMustFall student protests between 2015 and 2016 were narratives and discourses about revitalising the transformation of universities throughout South Africa. It was the very notion of “transformation,” diluted by neo-liberal macro-economic restructuring from the late 1990s, that students jettisoned as they increasingly embraced the importance of “decolonisation.” By exploring some of the key debates and interventions driven by the #FeesMustFall movement, we consider how earlier trajectories of feminist knowledge-making resonate with these. The article also reflects on how aspects of intellectual activism within the student protests can deepen and push back the frontiers of contemporary South African academic feminism. In so doing, it explores how radical knowledge-making at, and about, universities, has contributed to radical political thought in South Africa.

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Exploring gender digital divide and its effect on women's labour market outcomes in South Africa

African Journal of Gender, Society and Development (formerly Journal of Gender, Information and Development in Africa) ◽

10.31920/2634-3622/2020/v9n4a4 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 85-108

Author(s):

Kehinde Oluwaseun Omotoso ◽

Jimi Adesina ◽

Ololade G. Adewole

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Labour Market ◽

Married Women ◽

Internet Usage ◽

Market Participation ◽

Market Outcomes ◽

Broadband Internet ◽

Variable Approach ◽

Labour Market Participation ◽

Labour Market Outcomes

Technology plays a significant role in bridging gender gap in labour market outcomes. This paper investigates gender differential in broadband Internet usage and its effects on women‘s labour market participation. Employing an instrumental variable approach, findings suggest that exogenously determined high-speed broadband internet usage leads to increases of about 14.1 and 10.6 percentage points in labour market participation for single women and married women with some level of education, respectively. Moreover, further analyses suggest that married women are generally less likely to use the Internet to search for job opportunities and this could partly explains their low labour market participation rate. The findings suggest that more policy effort is required to bridge gender differentials in digital technologies and employment opportunities in South Africa.

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A Priori and a Posteriori Dietary Patterns among Pregnant Women in Johannesburg, South Africa: The NuPED Study

Nutrients ◽

10.3390/nu13020565 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 565

Author(s):

Cornelia Conradie ◽

Jeannine Baumgartner ◽

Linda Malan ◽

Elizabeth A. Symington ◽

Marike Cockeran ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Pregnant Women ◽

Dietary Patterns ◽

Dietary Pattern ◽

A Priori ◽

Dietary Quality ◽

A Posteriori ◽

Urban South ◽

Quality Diet ◽

Nutrient Patterns

Dietary pattern analyses allow assessment of the diet as a whole. Limited studies include both a priori and a posteriori dietary pattern analyses. This study aimed to explore the diet of pregnant women in urban South Africa through both a priori and a posteriori dietary pattern analyses and associated maternal and household factors. Dietary data were collected during early pregnancy using a quantified food frequency questionnaire from 250 pregnant women enrolled in the Nutrition During Pregnancy and Early Development (NuPED) cohort. A priori dietary patterns were determined using the Diet Quality Index-International (DQI-I), and a posteriori nutrient patterns using exploratory factor analysis. Based on the DQI-I, the study population followed a borderline low-quality diet. Three a posteriori nutrient patterns were identified: Pattern 1 “plant protein, iron, thiamine, and folic acid”; pattern 2 “animal protein, copper, vitamin A, and vitamin B12”; pattern 3 “fatty acids and sodium”. Pattern 1 was associated with higher dietary quality (p < 0.001), lower maternal educational level (p = 0.03) and socioeconomic status (p < 0.001). Pattern 3 was significantly associated with lower dietary quality. The low dietary quality among pregnant women residing in urban South Africa should be addressed to ensure optimal maternal and offspring health outcomes.

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‘South Africa On-call’: Information Technology and Labour Market Restructuring in South African Call Centres

Regional Studies ◽

10.1080/00343400600928293 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 40 (9) ◽

pp. 1025-1040 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Chris Benner

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Information Technology ◽

Labour Market ◽

South African ◽

Call Centres ◽

Market Restructuring

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Stuips, spuits and prophet ropes: The treatment of abantu childhood illnesses in urban South Africa

Social Science & Medicine ◽

10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.10.027 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 68 (2) ◽

pp. 343-351 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Natalie Friend-du Preez ◽

Noël Cameron ◽

Paula Griffiths

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Childhood Illnesses ◽

Urban South

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Equity in the use of antiretroviral treatment in the public health care system in urban South Africa

Health Policy ◽

10.1016/j.healthpol.2010.10.016 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 99 (3) ◽

pp. 261-266 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Susan Cleary ◽

Sheetal Silal ◽

Stephen Birch ◽

Henri Carrara ◽

Victoria Pillay-van Wyk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

South Africa ◽

Health Care ◽

Health Care System ◽

Antiretroviral Treatment ◽

Public Health Care ◽

Public Health Care System ◽

The Public ◽

Urban South ◽

Care System

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Can an Unexpected Loosening in the Labour Market Reforms Reduce the Growth of Income Inequality in South Africa?

Inequality, Output-Inflation Trade-Off and Economic Policy Uncertainty ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-19803-9_15 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 241-251

Author(s):

Eliphas Ndou ◽

Thabo Mokoena

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Income Inequality ◽

Labour Market ◽

Market Reforms ◽

Labour Market Reforms

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Knowledge management according to organisational size: A South African perspective

SA Journal of Information Management ◽

10.4102/sajim.v15i1.526 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Cornelius Kruger ◽

Roy D. Johnson

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Knowledge Management ◽

South African ◽

Middle Management ◽

Senior Management ◽

Urban South ◽

Embedded Knowledge ◽

Personal Approach ◽

African Perspective ◽

Insight Into

Background:To date, few studies have focused on how embedded Knowledge Management (KM) is found in the roots of an organisation. Specifically, not much is known whether employees and managers hold similar perceptions regarding KM or if organisational size plays a role in the establishment of KM maturity.Objective: The objective of this article was to determine what role organisational size plays in the establishment of KM maturity and how different managerial levels viewed their organisations KM maturity.Method: The authors gained insight into KM maturity in different industry groupings over a five-year period from a large urban South African University engaged in numerous collaboration programmes with industry. In total, 434 employees were interviewed over three grouping levels (operational, middle and senior management).Results: The findings support arguments that irrespective of organisational size, knowledge orientated issues are applicable to all organisations. However, with significant differences in scores recorded over all maturity sections in South Africa, the findings indicated that different sized organisations address knowledge-orientated issues differently.Conclusion: Findings challenge the argument that the manner in which knowledge-orientated issues are addressed differ only slightly depending on organisational size. Smaller-sized organisations prefer a more personal approach, whilst larger-sized organisations prefer knowledge transfer via technology. Irrespective of organisational size, commitment holds the key to KM success. Commitment shown by middle management regarding KM is a differentiator.

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