Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences

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The faculty has a strong focus in applied research and has a number of specialised research units including the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), the Entrepreneurship Development Unit (EDU), the Institute for Social Development (ISD), the African Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (ACCEDE) and the EMS Student Support and Research Unit (ESSRU).

Sub-communities within this community

African Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (ACCEDE)
Economics
Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)
Political Studies
School of Business and Finance

Recent Submissions

Community response: decline of the Chambo in Lake Malawi's Southeast arm

Hara, Mafaniso (Springer, 2011)

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Abstract:

Small-scale fisheries are a major source of food and employment around the world. Yet, many small-scale fishers work in conditions that are neither safe nor secure. Millions of them are poor, and often they are socially and politically marginalized. Macro-economic and institutional mechanisms are essential to address these poverty and vulnerability problems; however, interventions at the local community level are also necessary. This requires deep understanding of what poverty means to the fishers, their families and communities; how they cope with it; and the challenges they face to increase resilience and improve their lives. This book provides a global perspective, situating small-scale fisheries within the broad academic discourse on poverty, fisheries management and development. In-depth case studies from fifteen countries in Latin America, Europe, South and Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, demonstrate the enormously complex ecological, economic, social, cultural and political contexts of this sector. Conclusions for policy-making, formulated as a joint statement by the authors, argue that fisheries development, poverty alleviation, and resource management must be integrated within a comprehensive governance approach that also looks beyond fisheries.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10566/850

Files in this item: 1

Povfish, Chapter 12.pdf (343.9Kb)

Acts, imagined landscapes: reflections on the discourses of land reform in South Africa after 1994

du Toit, Andries (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)

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Abstract:

This paper discusses the discourses by which land reform policies in South Africa have been justified and criticized. Critical thought is needed about the underlying assumptions and frameworks informing policy and critique. While key aspects of populist, ‘Left’ and liberal ideologies helped mobilize support for land reform after 1994, they framed questions of equitable transformation and justice in ways that obscured the terrain of struggle rather than revealing it. The broad consensus on the legitimacy of land reform in the initial decade after 1994 was underpinned by narratives about redress and reconciliation that privileged reparative justice above distributive equity. It tended to obscure the complex trade-offs and impacts involved in implementation. Coherent policy-making was further undermined by simplistic oppositions between ’market’ and ‘rights-based’ approaches that often led to ill-targeted policies. Land and agrarian reform needs to be liberated from this symbolic burden. It should be informed by an understanding of the nature of inequality in South Africa and the contribution that agrarian change can make to reducing it.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10566/845

Files in this item: 0

Money and sociality in South Africa's informal economy

Neves, David; Du Toit, Andries (Cambridge University Press, 2012)

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Abstract:

This article examines the interplay of agency, culture and context in order to consider the social embeddedness of money and trade at the margins of South Africa’s economy. Focusing on small-scale, survivalist informal enterprise operators, it draws on socio-cultural analysis to explore the social dynamics involved in generating and managing wealth. After describing the informal sector in South Africa, the article elucidates the relationship between money and economic informality. First, diverse objectives, typically irreducible to the maximization of profit, animate those in the informal sector and challenge meta-narratives of a ‘great transformation’ towards socially disembedded and depersonalized economic relationships. Second, regimes of economic governance, both state-led and informal, shape the terrain on which informal economic activity occurs in complex and constitutive ways. Third, local idioms and practices of trading, managing money and negotiating social claims similarly configure economic activities. Fourth, and finally, encroaching and often inexorable processes of formalization differentially influence those in the informal sector. The analysis draws on these findings to recapitulate both the ubiquity and centrality of the sociality at the heart of economy, and to examine the particular forms they take in South Africa’s informal economy.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10566/834

Files in this item: 1

NevesInformalEconomy2012.pdf (129.6Kb)

Reshaping women’s land rights on communal rangeland

Kleinbooi, Karin (National Inquiry Services Centre (NISC) (Pty) Ltd, 2013)

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Abstract:

This paper aims to contribute to the debates on communal rangelands and analyses the gendered dimension of land rights and land access in the rural areas of Namaqualand. The actual gender relations within rural communities and the emergence of strategies that are being pursued in communal land processes are obscured and often ignored in policies about communal rangelands, which over-emphasise ‘the ecological and economic impact’ and the balancing of these dimensions. As active, primary users, women play a central role in livelihoods supported by communal rangelands yet their access to land is mediated through their relationships with men, effectively circumventing women’s land autonomy. A wider debate is necessary to advance the largely superficial policy considerations of women’s position in relation to communal rangelands land and their social exclusion on the basis of traditional control of land, forms of access and claiming of use rights. The paper discusses the complexity of land rights under communal land tenure and argues that, despite traditional and policy barriers, women in traditional systems of male-dominated land rights have had some success in accessing communal rangelands. Greater policy impetus is necessary to leverage equitable and independent land access for women amid debates about management of communal rangelands.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10566/772

Files in this item: 0

Assessing pre-election political space in the 2011 local government elections

Africa, Cherrel; Lynch, Gerry (Unisa Press, 2012)

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Abstract:

The administration of elections in South Africa, including the 2011 local government elections(hereafter the 2011 elections), has widely been hailed as a resounding success. Yet competitive elections, an essential component of any democratic system, require more than smooth running administrative systems. Competitive elections require competitive campaigns and an environment where voters can vote and express their opinions without fear of retribution. In this article, we conduct a systematic assessment of pre-election space in the 2011 elections. We present a unique coding scheme developed by the Election Monitoring Network (EMN) to grade individual instances of electionrelated intolerance and intimidation. The coding scheme provides a framework to quantitatively assess a given campaign and election. We also present data on instances of pre-election intimidation and violence gathered by the EMN from 3 March until 13 May. The data reveal that whilst the vast majority of South Africans can vote and express their opinions without fear of retribution, there are underlying tensions which remain a cause for concern. When viewed in conjunction with the Afrobarometer survey data (2008) on perceptions of political space in South Africa, it becomes clear that pre-election campaign space is fragile and not given, and will therefore need to be nurtured in future elections.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10566/758

Files in this item: 1

AfricaPoliticalSpace2012.pdf (1.584Mb)

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