scholarly journals A RETURN OF CLASS STRUGGLE WITHOUT CLASS? MORAL ECONOMY AND POPULAR RESISTANCE IN BRASIL, SOUTH AFRICA AND PORTUGAL

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 469-493
Author(s):  
Ruy Braga
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
Protective Capacity ◽  
Popular Resistance ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
South Portugal

Abstract Since the emergence of the crisis of capitalist globalization in 2008, the deconstruction of the Fordist wage relationship and the rising unemployment in various countries have stimulated the growth of labour informality, distancing workers from labour protection, intensifying turnover and stimulating intermittent employment. Collective bargaining has become increasingly rare and decentralized, and jobs increasingly precarious and individualized, undermining the protective capacity of the ‘moral economy of the poor’ and transforming direct action - that is, popular action without the mediation of unions and traditional political parties - into perhaps the only credible alternative for ‘precarious workers’ to express their demands in a world marked by the commodification of labour, basic services and housing. A return to the era of the ‘class struggle without class’? This is the conjecture that this article sets out to evaluate, comparing the class experience of poor and precarious workers in three countries from the so-called Global South: Portugal, South Africa and Brasil.

scholarly journals The Moving Line Between State Benevolence and Control: Municipal Indigent Programmes in South Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Ruiters
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Moving Boundary ◽  
Municipal Services ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Government Documents ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
And Control ◽  
To Receive

‘Municipal indigents’ are a category of poor citizens who qualify to receive certain municipal services for free in South Africa. Having registered as municipal indigents, the poor not only gain access to free basic services but also embark upon a voyage into a bureaucratic underworld where policies are changed and eligibility criteria and sanctions are unevenly applied. Various preconditions and limits on services, as well as social surveillance of indigent households, has turned indigency programmes into a ‘regime’. The policy has swung from hard cost recovery (mass disconnections) during the period 1994–2000 to ‘free’ basic services and, more recently, to social-shaming and criminalisation. This paper provides a thematic account of recent municipal indigent processes in order to explore the ‘moving boundary’ between benevolence and control regarding this crucial citizen–state interface. Based on recent interviews with government officials, a review of relevant government documents, and describing the administrative complexities, the paper reveals aspects of what the poor confront in day-to-day experiences of the state. It is argued that there are lessons for all municipalities seeking a more sustainable and democratic path to citizenship rather than an ongoing low-level war with poor citizens.

scholarly journals Policy implementation considerations for basic services: A South African urban sanitation case

Water SA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (4 October) ◽  
Author(s):  
L Taing
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Basic Sanitation ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
Policymaking And Implementation ◽  
The Republic

The Republic of South Africa formulated numerous progressive laws, regulations and strategies from 1994 to 2008 to support the provision of free basic sanitation access to the poor by 2014. The State has yet to achieve this objective in urban areas – ostensibly due to the poor municipal execution of national policy. This paper challenges this viewpoint, as it ignores policy weaknesses and overlooks the influence of non-municipal actors in service delivery. An assessment of national policy and implementation in South Africa’s second largest city (Cape Town) indicated that irreconcilable differences between municipal officials, residents and advocates’ interpretations of broadly-framed national policy, as well as policy gaps specific to servicing informal settlements and providing shared sanitation, contributed to the municipality’s failure to achieve policy objectives. The actors’ differences and policy shortcomings necessitated municipal policy reformulation according to the ‘lived’ and ‘practical’ realities of servicing informal settlements. The findings suggest a disproportionate focus on turning national policy into practice – for this viewpoint misses how local actors’ perspectives and current practices can shape policy. Understanding, accepting and addressing the interplay between policymaking and implementation can contribute to more constructive means of effectively delivering sanitation in South Africa.

The Roma in Post-Communist Bulgaria: Growing Social Marginalization and State Policies

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Yorgos Christidis
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Hate Crime ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Social Marginalization ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
The Poor

This article analyzes the growing impoverishment and marginalization of the Roma in Bulgarian society and the evolution of Bulgaria’s post-1989 policies towards the Roma. It examines the results of the policies so far and the reasons behind the “poor performance” of the policies implemented. It is believed that Post-communist Bulgaria has successfully re-integrated the ethnic Turkish minority given both the assimilation campaign carried out against it in the 1980s and the tragic events that took place in ex-Yugoslavia in the 1990s. This Bulgaria’s successful “ethnic model”, however, has failed to include the Roma. The “Roma issue” has emerged as one of the most serious and intractable ones facing Bulgaria since 1990. A growing part of its population has been living in circumstances of poverty and marginalization that seem only to deteriorate as years go by. State policies that have been introduced since 1999 have failed at large to produce tangible results and to reverse the socio-economic marginalization of the Roma: discrimination, poverty, and social exclusion continue to be the norm. NGOs point out to the fact that many of the measures that have been announced have not been properly implemented, and that legislation existing to tackle discrimination, hate crime, and hate speech is not implemented. Bulgaria’s political parties are averse in dealing with the Roma issue. Policies addressing the socio-economic problems of the Roma, including hate speech and crime, do not enjoy popular support and are seen as politically damaging.

Smallpox Violence in Victorian Britain

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
The Poor ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
Adequate Care

In contrast to North America, far fewer incidents of individual or collective acts of cruelty and violence were inflicted against smallpox victims in Britain. But similar to North America’s lines of conflict, the English aggressors were the wealthy and their butts of cruelty, the smallpox impoverished. Instead of direct action, the English approach to closing smallpox hospitals and preventing the poor receiving adequate care rested on lawsuits and judicial injunctions, reaching as high as the House of Lords, which allowed the privileged in districts such as Hampstead and Fulham to shut their smallpox hospitals, prevent smallpox victims from entering their districts, and renege on their civic responsibilities.

scholarly journals Reported Behavioural Patterns of Electricity Use among Low-Income Households in Makhanda, South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7271
Author(s):  
Uzziah Mutumbi ◽  
Gladman Thondhlana ◽  
Sheunesu Ruwanza
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Electricity Use ◽  
Behavioural Patterns ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
Low Income Households

Households consume up to 20% of overall electricity consumption globally; hence, they are important role players in efforts towards promoting sustainable consumption. Research on electricity use behaviour is important for informing intervention strategies; however, relative to developed countries, research on this subject is lacking in developing countries where electricity access is limited. In South Africa, electricity use behaviour among poor neighbourhoods remains little studied and understood. This study was carried out among low-income households in Makhanda, South Africa, characterised by high poverty and unemployment rates, low education levels, and limited access to basic services. Using a self-reporting approach, electricity use behaviour of low-income households was assessed against a list of common household electricity use actions. A survey of 297 households was conducted. The findings show mixed results, with households reporting both good electricity use behaviour (e.g., cooling down hot food before refrigeration and using washing machines on full load) and wasteful actions (e.g., leaving appliances on standby). Our results show that electricity use behaviour was influenced by socio-psychological values including universalism, benevolence, hedonism, and power. Some of the reported electricity behavioural patterns are consistent with those previously reported among high-income households. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Social identification with the “Yellow Vests”: An exploratory study in France.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathilde Barbier ◽  
Grégory Lo Monaco ◽  
Sylvain Delouvée
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
Social Identification ◽  
Democratic Regime ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The People ◽  
Full Swing ◽  
New Social Order

The present study was carried out in December, 2018 and aimed at exploring the “Yellow Vests” movement when the revolts were in full swing. It involved 260 French participants (Mage = 42.9 years, SDage 14.6, Min = 18 to Max = 88). Results confirmed our hypotheses. The people who most identified with the “Yellow Vests” are those who perceive the system to be less fair and more illegitimate, and who express more dissatisfaction with the democratic regime and are generally more politically cynical. They feel more alienated and affirm that they would be more likely to resort to violence in order to introduce a new social order. They adhere more to conspiracy theories. Finally, we found greater identification of the “Yellow Vests” with extreme compared to moderate political parties. We discuss these results from the defence of the moral economy principle.

scholarly journals Urban social movements in South Africa today: Its meaning for theological education and the church

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan F. De Beer
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Theological Education ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
Gustavo Gutierrez ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

In the past decade, significant social movements emerged in South Africa, in response to specific urban challenges of injustice or exclusion. This article will interrogate the meaning of such urban social movements for theological education and the church. Departing from a firm conviction that such movements are irruptions of the poor, in the way described by Gustavo Gutierrez and others, and that movements of liberation residing with, or in a commitment to, the poor, should be the locus of our theological reflection, this article suggests that there is much to be gained from the praxis of urban social movements, in disrupting, informing and shaping the praxis of both theological education and the church. I will give special consideration to Ndifuna Ukwazi and the Reclaim the City campaign in Cape Town, the Social Justice Coalition in Cape Town, and Abahlali baseMjondolo based in Durban, considering these as some of the most important and exciting examples of liberatory praxes in South Africa today. I argue that theological education and educators, and a church committed to the Jesus who came ‘to liberate the oppressed’, ignore these irruptions of the Spirit at our own peril.

scholarly journals Dynamics of Health Among Adults in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Usengimana Shadrack Mutembereza
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Determinants Of Health ◽  
Health Inequality ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
National Income ◽  
Determinants Of Health ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Health Selection ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Poor

Abstract BackgroundThis paper estimates trend of health mobility in South Africa using National Income Dynamic Study (NIDS) and investigate whether the patterns of health mobility differs within socioeconomic groups created by income and gender. Health is measured by SRHS, which correlates with mortality and morbidity; thus, it is the best measure of health. MethodsUsing five waves of NIDS and various econometric models, this research estimates health mobility in the period between 2007 and 2017. This study will use transition matrix as descriptive analysis of health mobility and Conditional Maximum Likelihood Estimations to analyse health mobility, trend of health mobility and relationship between health mobility and health inequality within NIDS. ResultsThe study shows that, among poor males, health mobility neither follows a health selection or health constraint mobility trend; the high health mobility with ambiguous trends has not decreased health inequality. Among the poor females, a negative health mobility trend is observed; this research also found that health inequality has not creased. Among the non-poor males, it is found that health mobility follows a gradient constraint trend which has decreased health inequality. Among non-poor females, it is found that health mobility follows a health selection trend which has not decreased health inequality. The results suggest that policy makers should target both social determinants of health and health campaigns to deal with health inequality among the poor males. ConclusionsThe trend of health mobility among poor females suggest that policy makers should target the social determinants of health to combat health inequality. The trend of health mobility among the non-poor males suggests that health mobility will eliminate health inequality. Lastly, the trend of health mobility suggests that policymakers should target health campaigns to deal with health inequality.

scholarly journals Levinas, Social Vulnerability, and the Logic of South African Racism

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-101
Author(s):  
Robert Bernasconi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Poor Whites ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Poor White ◽  
The Way

The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas was at the forefront of the promotion of the idea of vulnerability in philosophy. For Levinas, my primary vulnerability concerns not my pain, but my pain at the other’s pain. Vulnerablity also has an ambiguous character in so far as it is not easily separated from my self-absorption in enjoyment. In this paper I show how Levinas’s account can illuminate the way that the idea of vulnerability sometimes operates within racist societies to maintain existing divisions. In particular I focus on the Carnegie Commission’s 1932 study The Poor White Problem in South Africa where concern for the vulnerability of poor whites concealed a tendency to naturalize the vulnerability of South African Blacks. Keywords: Carnegie commission, poor whites, racism, vulnerability, Emmanuel Levinas,South Africa

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