Cookies?
Library Header Image
LSE Research Online LSE Library Services

The legacies of apartheid and implications of economic liberalisation: a post-apartheid township

Mosoetsa, Sarah (2004) The legacies of apartheid and implications of economic liberalisation: a post-apartheid township. Crisis States Research Centre working papers series 1 (49). Crisis States Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

[img]
Preview
PDF
Download (915kB) | Preview

Abstract

This paper is concerned with organisational responses of residents in one low-income urban community located in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal. The area concerned is Mpumalanga Township near Durban, and it is an area that has had a difficult history of political violence. This has meant that, despite a coterminous history of trade union militancy and high levels of community mobilisation, social networks have been severely fractured. Firstly, this paper explores the tenuous process of rebuilding community level trust and collective action in the wake of political transition. A process of democratic consolidation has been made more difficult by economic recession and workplace restructuring. The general lack of trust in politicians and popular representatives in the contemporary period has meant that people are retreating into families and kinship networks, a response reinforced by poverty. In contrast to previous modes of trade union organisation in the area, problems of poverty and efforts towards enhancing livelihood opportunities are treated as private issues. Thus poverty and suspicion undermine community engagement and limit collective action responses to widespread problems. Secondly, the family is seen as a site of stability, but this is only realisable if the institution is supported by government policy. State transfers, such as pensions and child maintenance grants, are critical to relieving the enormous pressures and demands made upon the household. The argument advanced here is that it is on the stability of families, and particularly of older women within them, that the production of future citizens rests. However, due to the enormous burden placed on family networks and unequal power relations within households, the stability of family networks is seriously undermined. A crisis of reproduction surfaces as incidence of alcohol and drug abuse and domestic violence become common features of most households. Thirdly, the crisis of representation has informed the emergence of alternative forms of community organisation. The link between household survival and urban services has also given rise to popular responses so that engagement with metropolitan government becomes another site of emerging citizenship. Finally, the consolidation of democracy is emerging out of conflict as citizens demand accountability from politicians. It is argued that this constitutes a potential faultline in the process of democratic consolidation.

Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
Official URL: http://www.crisisstates.com/Publications/publicati...
Additional Information: © 2004 Sarah Mosoetsa
Divisions: International Development
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
J Political Science > JC Political theory
Date Deposited: 10 Jun 2010 10:14
Last Modified: 15 Sep 2023 22:58
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/28211

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics