Social Movements In South Africa Research Articles

Contentious politics and contentious scholarship: challenges researching social movements in South Africa

ABSTRACTThis article explores challenges associated with conducting research on social movements in South Africa (and beyond). Scholarship and commentary on South African social movements is a contentious and contested field. This article reflects particularly on carrying out research relating to land and housing rights and on the relationships between scholars, activists and activist-scholars working in this area. There is a particular difficulty with regard to identifying and analysing the political biases present within various opposing accounts of the social movements taking action on land and housing issues and their relationships to other actors. The article argues that there are three main pitfalls which researchers should attempt to avoid. First there is the danger of taking the claims made by social movements and by their academic advocates at face value. The second pitfall, on the other hand, relates to the danger of dismissing the praxis of these social movements altogether. The third danger surrounds the risk of the debates and disagreements between academics and commentators overshadowing discussion of the issues upon which movements work. The article suggests that it is necessary to apply a critical lens to all knowledge produced about social movements taking action on land and housing issues in South Africa and, consequently, a number of questions remain unresolved when attempting to put together an accurate picture of the relationships between and praxis of groups and organisations working in this area.

Lessons in community-based resistance? South Africa’s Anti-Privatisation Forum

ABSTRACTGrassroots political organising came to dominate the political landscape in South Africa in the early 2000s. The main impetus for new forms of community-based protest was the rightward shift in the government’s economic policies and the related cut-backs to basic services, such as water and electricity, to township and other impoverished black communities. One of the country’s largest and leading social movements during this time was the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF). This article provides a rare insider’s look at the APF – its structures, strategies, politics, tactics and internal challenges. The article draws attention to the considerable success the organisation had both in terms of forcing the state to reform some of its policies in favour of the poor and also in terms of creating new spaces and opportunities for political engagement, although it concludes with a sobering reminder that many of the key factors required to support and sustain democratic and accountable community-based organisations were not present in the APF or other social movements in South Africa.

Transformative Adult Learning in New Social Movement – a Case Study from South Africa

Abstract New social movements in South Africa could play a prominent role in mobilizing the communities to reflect critically and address the repercussions of the neo-liberal agenda which manifests itself in perpetual exclusion of under-educated adults and provision of poor quality education. Few studies especially from the perspective of the activists leave a potential research area of a very interesting phenomenon of how people learn while struggling for social justice. Therefore this article based on a single multi-site case study on a social movement cohering around literacy issues in Gauteng, South Africa, aims at answering, what forms of learning and education the social movement encompassed, how did the group conscientization occur and what are the individual transformations. Semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion were held with 13 learnersactivists and 2 adult educators. By applying Mezirow’s individual transformation and Freirean group conscientization models the analysis of primary and secondary data, revealed that the engagement in the social movement challenged and changed learnersactivists’ understanding of educational status within their respective communities. This in turn led to transformative action addressing the problems identified. On the individual level, some learners-activists became more tolerant and willing to cooperate with those of different political ideologies, able to tap into community resources. Finally, the potential of social movements as adult learning environments are outlined.

Privilege, solidarity and social justice struggles in South Africa: A view from Grahamstown

The last decade has seen a significant increase in the number and prominence of social movements in South Africa. Many of these movements are supported by relatively privileged individuals who are not themselves victims of the injustices the movements oppose. In this paper, I draw out some of the possibilities and limitations of the role of privileged individuals in supporting social movements struggling for social justice, looking particularly at the role of students in supporting such movements. The paper is based on research on the relationship between one such movement, the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM), and a student organisation, the Students for Social Justice (SSJ), both of which are based in Grahamstown, South Africa. While acknowledging that privileged supporters of such movements can play a constructive role in social justice struggles, I use the experiences of the UPM and SSJ to explore some of the tensions that are likely to emerge and that need to be addressed when the relatively privileged participate in popular struggles. In particular, I discuss the likely difficulties privileged supporters will experience in bridging social divides and in contributing meaningfully to the theorisation of popular struggles.

Invoking Lefebvre's ‘right to the city’ in South Africa today: A response to Walsh

In South Africa, the shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo in Durban invokes a Lefebvrian notion of the right to the city while embarking on rights-based action as one of several approaches it employs. In a recent City article, Shannon Walsh frames the use of the right to the city by social movements in South Africa as having liberalizing and neutralizing effects, and as subverting the social antagonisms inherent in capitalism. This paper responds to this assertion with reference to Abahlali baseMjondolo, the movement that in South Africa is most vocal and reflected in referring to a right to the city in its urban struggles. The paper explains Abahlali baseMjondolo's philosophy as well as the context in which it invokes a right to the city. Drawing on scholars who have explored Lefebvre's use of liberal notions (humanism and rights), the relevance of his right to the city in the context of urban neoliberalism and the purposes of invoking the right to the city, the paper aims to present positions that may strengthen the discourse on the right to the city in South Africa and similar contexts of urban extremes across the globe.

Is Another Pedagogical World Possible? Teaching Globalization to My Fellow Prisoners

I spent many years before my incarcerations as a popular educator for left-wing trade unions and social movements in South Africa. I took my role as a critical pedagogue of the Freirian stripe quite seriously. However, after five years of working as a twenty cent an hour teacher’s aide in various federal and California state correctional facilities I’d lowered my pedagogical horizons to helping people pass their GED math test. 1 I had rigorously studied the mock exams, designed a plethora of practice tests, and tirelessly drilled the motivated and the not so motivated on the wonders of simultaneous linear equations and the Pythagorean theorem. While in free life my workshop plans overflowed with learner activity and critiques of neoliberalism, the watchful eye of prison authorities and my own paranoias had reduced my creativity pragmatic questions: applying the formulas for areas and volumes to construction jobs or relating probability to the crap games that regularly dotted the yard. Then opportunity came knocking in the strangest of places: the ultra-repressive, racially-charged yards of High Desert State Prison. Through a convergence of coincidence, luck and my own initiative, I found the space to dialog about the vagaries and interpretations of globalization and political economy, momentarily transforming our militarily structured classroom into a space of selfactivity and dialog.

Protest, performance and politics: the use of ‘nano-media’ in social movement activism in South Africa

Considering the lack of coverage in the mass media of certain kinds of social movement activity, many movements make use of smaller scale, independent media to publicise their struggles. From the vantage point of social movements in South Africa, this paper addresses what Mojca Pajnik and John Downing call ‘nano-media’. Based on interviews with social movement activists and observation of social movement activities, the paper considers demonstrations, dress, slogans, murals, songs, radio, dance, poetry and political theatre as forms of nano-media used by community-based movements in the process of mobilisation and claim-making. In its focus on performance, the paper borrows from Goffman's dramaturgical approach and highlights the importance of backstage interaction for social movements. Finally, the paper shows the significance of ‘hidden transcripts’ and offers some insights into the framing process within social movements in South Africa.

Exploring mobile phone practices in social movements in South Africa – the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

Mobile phones have developed explosively in Africa, with South Africa having one of the highest mobile phone penetrations in Sub-Saharan Africa. Mobile phones have introduced a set of new communicative and cultural practices. Innovative pricing models in Africa, such as ‘pay-as-you go’ and ‘please call me’ have helped to make mobile phones a part of the lives of many who are otherwise disconnected. Social justice movements in South Africa, often marginalized by mainstream communication systems, are increasingly using mobile phones to coordinate actions, mobilize and create networks despite the fact that most of these movements have their origins among deprived communities. This article analyses how the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign appropriates mobile phones and the impact of this appropriation on its roles and collective identities. In addition, the article examines how the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign has (re)appropriated and re-shaped the mobile phone to amplify traditional methods of mobilization; leading to the creation of what Henry Jenkins (2006) has called ‘convergence culture’. Drawing on social construction of technology and domestication theories, the article argues that mobile phones have not replaced traditional ways of mobilization, but have amplified them. In this regard, the use of both traditional mobilization tools and mobile phones strengthen mobilization activities and give new meaning to the mobile phone.

Preventing the gendered reproduction of citizenship: the role of social movements in South Africa

Social movements have an important role to play in shaping our understanding of the entitlements and human rights related to citizenship. Feminist movements, in particular, actively challenge and reshape gendered perceptions of citizenship generated by the state. The present article focuses on the ‘One in Nine Campaign’, which advocates for, among many things, legal changes in relation to gender-based violence in South Africa. Research into the Campaign reveals the utility in legal mobilisation as a strategy for feminist organising, and opens great potential for changing the way states see the law in relation to gender and women's rights. This, however, also raises fundamental questions about different understandings of citizenship and citizenship rights.

Education for Change: Student Placements in Campaigning Organisations and Social Movements in South Africa

The past few years have seen renewed interest in the radical social work tradition both in Britain and internationally in response to the highly negative impact of neo-liberal policies on people’s lives and on the profession itself. While these perspectives are now beginning to be included within social work academic curricula, less consideration has been given within the international literature as to how they might also inform practice placements and field education. This paper outlines the findings of a small piece of qualitative research that explored the experience of one South African social work programme of placing a small group of students within campaigning organisations and social movements concerned with addressing structural issues. Based on interviews with the students, their practice teachers and agency representatives, the research addressed the extent to which students were able to draw on their teaching to make sense of these agencies and their role within them, as well as the particular challenges to which these placements gave rise. The paper concludes by suggesting that, while students undertaking such placements may require additional support and teaching in

Decentring Poverty, Reworking Government: Movements and States in the Government of Poverty

We consider how social movements in South Africa and Peru rework poverty as a domain of policy intervention. National 'mappings' of social movements reveal that 'poverty' is rarely central to movement framings challenges they address. This contrasts with government’s justification of policy in terms of impacts on 'poverty'. Movements thus seek to change the government of poverty discourses as well as the government of poverty reduction interventions. They do this through direct action, negotiation and co-production. Movements' main challenge is to make such challenges without becoming themselves subject to, or even the subjects of, these same practices of government.

The Development decade?: economic and social change in South Africa, 1994-2004

Development debates in a global context: Beyond neo-liberalism? development debates in historical and comparative perspective development theories, knowledge production and emancipatory practice macroeconomic balance and microeconomic reform: Reflections on South Africa's first wave of economic reforms macroeconomic reforms and employment: What possibilities for South Africa? operationalising South Africa's move from macro-economic stability to micro-economic reform sequencing micro and macro reforms for pro-poor growth: Forward looking reflections on the South African experience. Distributive issues in post-apartheid South Africa: Constructing the social policy agenda - conceptual debates around poverty and inequality policy dilemmas around direct state transfers to the poor. Industrial upgrading and innovation: The Noledge of Numbers - SandT, RandD, and innovation indicators in South Africa the role of government in facilitating clusters. Municipal governance and development: Pro-poor local economic development in post-apartheid South Africa - the Johannesburg fashion district local economic development - utopia and reality in South Africa the example of Durban KZN. Labour, work and the informal economy: Labour supply and demand constraints on employment creation - a microeconomic analysis definitions, data and the informal economy in South Africa: a critical analysis population, health and development - people's views on how families cope with illnesses and deaths in South Africa condom use within marriage and cohabiting partnerships - perspectives of couples framing the HIV epidemic in South Africa - A sociological perspective economic and development issues around HIV/AIDS social movements and democratic transition - social movements in South Africa - promoting crisis or creating stability? democracy and social movements in South Africa political work - mobilisation and negotiation in the shadows of Durban's refineries. Traditional authority and development challenges - rural development, traditional authorities and democracy in South Africa.

Globalization, marginalization and contemporary social movements in South Africa

Globalization, marginalization and contemporary social movements in South Africa

Progressive academic economists & the Challenge of development in South Africa's decade of liberation

This article examines the relationship between progressive academic economists and anti‐apartheid social movements in the period that has come to be known as South Africa's decade of liberation, roughly the mid‐1980s to the mid‐1990s. It does so through a critical examination of the interaction of progressive economists with social movements in South Africa since 1985, an interaction which occurred in the main via policy research networks and think‐tanks. The article also explores the major trends in the relationship between progressive economists and social movements over the decade of liberation and attempts to provide some tentative answers to the controversial question of why many of South Africa's progressive economists underwent a sea change in their economic thinking by the mid‐1990s. The argument is that South African academics and intellectuals (like those elsewhere) are far from independent; they are the creatures and creations of their time. Their positions depend upon their shifting circumstances and the demands placed on them. Ultimately, the explanation for the change in economics thinking rests on the politics of the transition itself, although other factors may contribute to explaining why the shift was so extreme and so pervasive.

Urban social movements in South Africa in a ‘globalising’ era

In spite of the dizzying speed of change and increased complexity in the wake of political, economic and cultural shifts at a global level, it is clear that urban social movements are potentially pivotal actors in forging a progressive political agenda. In South Africa the dimensions of these new challenges are presenting themselves with increasing clarity, especially against the backdrop of the unfolding political transition. In the first part of this paper I pointed to some of the dimensions which are inscribed in the sign globalisation, with special attention to the significance it presents for urbanities — the space and place where urban social movements engrave their struggles. One of the central aspects of the argument has been that these movements are increasingly ineffectual in impacting on local politics, especially in so far as they fail to strategically adapt and re-focus their energies to engage the new challenges which are unfolding in urban spaces traversed by global processes.