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Pervasive, but not politicised: Everyday violence, local rule and party popularity in a Cape Town township
(Institute for Security Studies (ISS), 2016)
Through examining violence in the township of Imizamo Yethu in Cape Town, we show that leadership in this
community is not based on violence, despite its pervasiveness in the settlement. Further, rule by local leaders
and ...
Further from the people – bipartisan ‘nationalisation’ thwarting the electoral system
(SUN Press, 2012)
This chapter argues that local government elections offer a unique opportunity in South Africa’s political system for voters to practice forms of democracy that are more local, plural and accountable in character than at ...
Xenophobia, criminality and violent entrepreneurship: violence against Somali shopkeepers in Delft South, Cape Town, South Africa
(Taylor & Francis; Unisa Press, 2012)
Violence against Somali shopkeepers is often cited as evidence of xenophobic attitudes and violence
in South Africa. However, as argued in this article, it is not necessarily the case that such violence
is driven by ...
Mediation and the contradictions of representing the urban poor in South Africa: The case of SANCO leaders in Imizamo Yethu in Cape Town, South Africa.
(Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2014)
The formal system of local governance in South Africa has the ‘ward’ as its lowest and smallest electoral level — a spatial unit consisting of between 5,000 and 15,000 voters. The ward is equivalent to the ‘constituency’ ...
Party politics, the poor and the city: Reflections from the South African case
(Elsevier, 2012)
Local democracy and ‘spaces’ of citizenship and participation
are at the core of much contemporary research focusing on cities
(Barnett and Low, 2004). This is the case both for researchers interested
in issues of urban ...
Deconstructing ‘the foreign’: The limits of citizenship for explaining price competition in the Spaza sector in South Africa
(Taylor & Francis, 2016)
An important component of the informal economy in South Africa,
the Spaza sector is portrayed as dominated by foreign nationals who
outcompete South African shopkeepers on price. Indeed, this
business competition from ...
Introduction: The Crucial Role of Mediators in Relations between States and Citizens
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)
This book sets out to answer a deceptively simple question: how do citizens and state engage in the global south? The answer is not simple; it is indeed complex and multifaceted, but we argue that much of the time this ...
The limits of participatory democracy and the rise of the informal politics of mediated representation in South Africa
(Taylor & Francis, 2016)
In general, South Africans view the formal participatory institutions
of their state as ineffective mechanisms for the realization of their
demands. Conversely, the reach of formalized civil society is
limited in terms ...
‘How participatory institutions deepen democracy through broadening representation: the case of participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil’
(Berghahn, 2014-06)
Abstract: At the same time as democracy has ‘triumphed’ in most of the world, it leaves many unsatisfied at the disjuncture between the democratic ideal and its practical expression. Participatory practices and institutions, ...
Expert advocacy for the marginalised: how and why democratic mediation matters to deepening democracy in the global South
(Institute of Development Studies, 2011)
Summary: The paper argues that the practice of democratic mediation is an increasingly
common, yet under-researched, component of engagements between citizens
and public authorities across the globe. While the actors who ...