The New Religious Political Right in Neo-Apartheid South Africa

This article argues that, in similar ways that scholars such as Kaye (1987) and Apple (1990) have respectively demonstrated how post 1970s America and Britain fused the neo-liberal discourse of free markets with the neo-conservative Christian discourse of moral rightness to found a New Right, we can apply this analytical model in post-apartheid/neo-apartheid South Africa. The aim of this analytical comparison is to support the broad claim that the article makes about the rise of the New Right in contemporary South Africa as directly related to the fusion of neo-Pentecostal Christianity with neoliberal economics in very salient ways. Using discourse analysis, the article demonstrates how the New Right in South Africa also draws from the language of crisis to justify a response that brings together the interlocking of race, religion, and neoliberalism. The paper’s main argument is that, a different type of New Right is emerging in current day South Africa, one that is not simply the purview of whitenationalism, but has main appeal also within the black middle-class.

Belonging in England today: Schools, race, class and policy

Drawing on theorized notions of belonging and understandings of citizenship which stress the everyday and affective, I consider aspects of the relationship between educational institutions and belonging through a discussion of two recent research projects. One explores the educational strategies of Black middle-class parents, and the second teachers’ responses to the recent requirement that they promote government-identified national values (the ‘fundamental British values’) in the classroom. I argue that both projects shed light on the differentiated experience of belonging and non-belonging in England today. I conclude by arguing for an understanding of the school as a shared public institution. This understanding highlights the potential of developing in all members of a school community, including parents, a sense of both belonging to the institution and being perceived by others as belonging, as well as a recognition of the legitimacy of claims to belong from ‘other’ students and families. Fostering such mutual recognition can be seen as a ‘quiet’, but potentially powerful, politics.

Black consumers perceptions towards luxury brands in South Africa

The paper determines the black consumers’ perceptions towards luxury brands in South Africa. The purchase of luxury brands has been on the rise locally and internationally. Global brands have been investing in SA by expanding to the region. The demand for luxury brands has also increased over the past decades. In SA, the middle-class group has also increased, particularly the black middle class which increased the market for luxury brands. To achieve the objectives of the study, a survey was conducted among black consumers in Thohoyandou, Venda, South Africa. Data were collected by two fieldworkers who intercepted shoppers visiting a regional mall in the area. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25. The descriptives, factor analysis, and ANOVA were analyzed to achieve the objectives of the study. The findings of the study reveal that black consumers are more influenced by the rarity and uniqueness of the brands followed by the financial and functional values of the brands. Black consumers’ perceptions towards luxury brands were found to differ across age and income groups but did not differ across gender and education levels. Organizations targeting black consumers must design brands that are rare and unique and ensure that brands deliver the financial and functional values desired by black consumers

Drivers of Middle-Class Consumers’ Green Appliance Attitude and Purchase Behavior: A Multi-Theory Application

Background: Some 80% of the South African (SA) middle class consumers use washing machines, electric cookers, fridges, freezers and other appliances. Considering the growing water and electricity shortages in SA, the government advocates the use of green appliances. However, the factors helping or hindering the positive attitudes, purchase and use of green appliances need examination. Focus of the article: This study focuses on the first and second steps of the community-based social marketing (CBSM) framework, whereby for behavioral change, behaviors, their drivers and barriers are to be examined before strategy formulation. Thus, this study first assessed SA black middle class consumers’ green appliances attitude, behavioral intention and actual behavior. It then integrated the Theory of Consumption Values (TCV), Diffusion of Innovations Theory (DOI), and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to examine the consumer-related and product-related factors helping or hindering the green appliances attitudes, behavioral intentions and actual behavior. Research Hypotheses: From the integration of the TCV, DOI and TPB, a conceptual model was developed that proposed that consumer-related factors (functional, conditional, epistemic, emotional and social values) and product-related factors (relative advantage, complexity, compatibility and observability) will influence green appliances attitude, which with perceived behavioral control will impact behavioral intention, proposed as a driver of actual behavior. Methods: Considering that the black middle-class are a fast growing and large (about 4.2 million South Africans) community of consumers, cross-sectional quantitative data was collected from 500 black middle class consumers through self-administered questionnaires. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling was used to test 14 hypotheses. Results: The respondents expressed positive attitudes toward green appliances ( M = 5.80 on a 7-point Likert scale and positive intention to buy green appliances ( M = 5.78). Most of the study participants have purchased one or more green appliances ( M = 6.09). The integrated model explained 84.5% of attitude toward green appliances. The significant drivers of attitude were functional, conditional, and epistemic values (consumer-related factors), and relative advantage, compatibility, and observability (product-related factors). The attitude, social value and perceived behavioral control explained 83.1% of behavioral intention, which with PBC explained 24.2% of actual behavior. Recommendations for practice: Considering that the third step of the CBSM framework is to develop strategies for behavioral change, the South-African government, environmental agencies and social marketers should seek ways to reward the large segment of black middle class consumers, so that their positive green appliances attitudes and behavioral intentions can further be converted to actual purchase. The consumer-related and product-related drivers of attitudes and purchase behaviors identified in this study should be used to position and promote green appliances using the middle class consumers as opinion leaders or endorsers. Limitations: The main limitation is the use of a survey which limits provision of deeper insights into drivers and barriers of green appliances attitudes and behaviors.

The Unmaking of the Black Blue-Collar Middle Class

In the decade after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, African Americans made historic gains in accessing employment opportunities in racially integrated workplaces in U.S. business firms and government agencies. In the previous working papers in this series, we have shown that in the 1960s and 1970s, Blacks without college degrees were gaining access to the American middle class by moving into well-paid unionized jobs in capital-intensive mass production industries. At that time, major U.S. companies paid these blue-collar workers middle-class wages, offered stable employment, and provided employees with health and retirement benefits. Of particular importance to Blacks was the opening up to them of unionized semiskilled operative and skilled craft jobs, for which in a number of industries, and particularly those in the automobile and electronic manufacturing sectors, there was strong demand. In addition, by the end of the 1970s, buoyed by affirmative action and the growth of public-service employment, Blacks were experiencing upward mobility through employment in government agencies at local, state, and federal levels as well as in civil-society organizations, largely funded by government, to operate social and community development programs aimed at urban areas where Blacks lived. By the end of the 1970s, there was an emergent blue-collar Black middle class in the United States. Most of these workers had no more than high-school educations but had sufficient earnings and benefits to provide their families with economic security, including realistic expectations that their children would have the opportunity to move up the economic ladder to join the ranks of the college-educated white-collar middle class. That is what had happened for whites in the post-World War II decades, and given the momentum provided by the dominant position of the United States in global manufacturing and the nation’s equal employment opportunity legislation, there was every reason to believe that Blacks would experience intergenerational upward mobility along a similar education-and-employment career path. That did not happen. Overall, the 1980s and 1990s were decades of economic growth in the United States. For the emerging blue-collar Black middle class, however, the experience was of job loss, economic insecurity, and downward mobility. As the twentieth century ended and the twenty-first century began, moreover, it became apparent that this downward spiral was not confined to Blacks. Whites with only high-school educations also saw their blue-collar employment opportunities disappear, accompanied by lower wages, fewer benefits, and less security for those who continued to find employment in these jobs. The distress experienced by white Americans with the decline of the blue-collar middle class follows the downward trajectory that has adversely affected the socioeconomic positions of the much more vulnerable blue-collar Black middle class from the early 1980s. In this paper, we document when, how, and why the unmaking of the blue-collar Black middle class occurred and intergenerational upward mobility of Blacks to the college-educated middle class was stifled. We focus on blue-collar layoffs and manufacturing-plant closings in an important sector for Black employment, the automobile industry from the early 1980s. We then document the adverse impact on Blacks that has occurred in government-sector employment in a financialized economy in which the dominant ideology is that concentration of income among the richest households promotes productive investment, with government spending only impeding that objective. Reduction of taxes primarily on the wealthy and the corporate sector, the ascendancy of political and economic beliefs that celebrate the efficiency and dynamism of “free market” business enterprise, and the denigration of the idea that government can solve social problems all combined to shrink government budgets, diminish regulatory enforcement, and scuttle initiatives that previously provided greater opportunity for African Americans in the government and civil-society sectors.

ESTAMOS DISTANCIADOS

A Black middle class has emerged in many Latin American countries. Yet given the fluidity of Black identity, it is unclear if socioeconomic gains will result in the consolidation of a Black middle-class group identity with a sense of political responsibility or purpose. In this article, we use qualitative interviews with twenty-two Black professionals in Cali, Colombia, plus a small convenience survey, to explore the following research questions: Does the intersection of being Black and middle class cohere into a group identity? If so, does it translate into a Black political consciousness? And if not, what are the obstacles? We find that while respondents individually identify with a Black middle-class label, they do not experience it as a group that feels symbolic bonds of attachment or acts in a coordinated or mutually cognizant manner. It is a category without shape or coherence. It is amorphous. There are four primary explanations for Black middle class amorphism: the absence of shared or positive markers of collective Black identity; a lack of organizational infrastructure; taboos against organizing along racial lines in the workplace; and a strong individualist ethos towards protecting opportunities and enhancing personal status. We situate our findings within the field of Black politics to discuss what might be lost or gained by this amorphism.