Abstract
This chapter unravels the role of ethnography as an aspect of political practice in the context of shack dweller struggles in postapartheid South Africa. Using both macro and micro optics, it is possible to examine globalization under late capitalism and its specific conditions and variations manifest in a South African shack settlement in Crossmoor, Chatsworth, with a discussion of how an ethnography-in-motion has been used as a pedagogical and political methodology. I follow Gillian Hart (2002) in hoping to “clarify the slippages, openings, and possibilities for emancipatory social change in this era of neo-liberal capitalisms, as well as the limits and constraints operating at different levels” (p. 45).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Agamben, G. (2005). The state of exception. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Anti-Privatisation Forum [APF]. (2007). Comrade Nkosingiphile Mvalo Mhlope—Community activist in Alexandra assasinated on Saturday night by unidentified assailants. Press Release, September 4, 2007. Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee.
Bond, P. (2000). Elite transition: From apartheid to neoliberalism in South Africa. London: Pluto Press.
Bond, P. (2001). Against global apartheid: South Africa meets the World Bank, IMF and International Finance. Landsdowne: University of Cape Town Press.
Bond, P. (2004). Talk left, walk right: South Africa’s frustrated global reforms. Scottsville, SA: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
Bond, P. (2006). Looting Africa: The economics of exploitation. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
Bond, P., & Desai, A. (2006). Explaining uneven and combined development in South Africa. In B. Dunn, & H. Radice (Eds.), Permanent revolution: Results and prospects 100 years on (pp. 230–244). London: Pluto Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1990). The logic of practice. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Butler, A. (2007, November 12). Staring at South Africa’s sad human face. Business Day.
Choudry, A. (2004). Institutional ethnography, political activist ethnography and “anti-globalization” movements. Unpublished paper.
Desai, A. (2002). We are the poors: Community Struggles in Post-Apartheid South Africa. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Desai, A. (2006). Vans, autos, kombis and the drivers of social movements. Paper presented at the Harold Wolpe Memorial lecture, Centre for Civil Society, International Convention Centre, July 28, 2006.
Ferguson, J. (2006). Global shadows: Africa in the neoliberal world order. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Hart, G. (2002). Disabling globalization: Places of power in post-apartheid South Africa. Pietermaritzburg, SA: University of Natal Press.
Harvey, D. (2006). Spaces of global capitalism: Towards a theory of uneven geographical development. London & New York: Verso.
Holloway, J. (2007). What is revolution? A million bee stings, a million dignities. Retrieved from http://www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=503
Huchzermeyer, M. (2004). Unlawful occupation: Informal settlements and urban policy in South Africa and Brazil. Trenton: Africa World Press.
Hunter, M. (2005). Informal settlements as spaces of health inequality: The changing economic and spatial roots of the AIDS pandemic, from apartheid to neoliberalism. Centre for Civil Society Research Report, 44, 143–166. Durban, SA: Centre for Civil Society.
KwaZulu-Natal Department of Housing [KZN]. (2006). KwaZulu-Natal elimination and prevention of re-emergence of slums bill.
Marais, H. (2001). South Africa: Limits to change: The political economy of the transition. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press.
Medical Research Council. (2006). MRC Research Report 2006. Tyberg, SA: MRC.
Millar, K. (2007). The Informal economy: Condition and critique of advanced capitalism. Paper presented at Centre for Civil Society seminar, Durban, South Africa, August 2007.
Navarro, V. (2006). Worldwide class struggle: Neoliberalism as a class practice. Monthly Review, 58(4). Retrieved from http://www.monthlyreview.org/0906navarro.php
Ntshalintshali, B. (2006, November 15). Slaves to poverty. Sowetan.
O’Manique, C. (2004). Neoliberalism and AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa: Globalization’s pandemic. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Smith, C. (2002, August 30). Guerrilla technicians challenge the privatization of South Africa’s public resources. These Times: Independent News and Views. Retrieved from http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/26/22/feature3.shtml
Statistics South Africa. (2006). Mortality and causes of death in South Africa, 2005. Pretoria: Republic of South Africa.
South African Department of Health. (2006). The South African department of health study, 2006. Pretoria: Republic of South Africa.
South African National AIDS Council [SANAC]. (2006). National strategic plan 2007–2011. Pretoria: Republic of South Africa.
South African Shack Dwellers Organization [SASDO]. (2007). SASDO constitution. Durban, South Africa.
Shukaitis, S., & Graeber, D. (Eds.). (2006). Constituent imagination: Militant investigations/collective theorizing. Oakland, CA: AK Press.
United Nations Population Fund [UNFPA]. (2005). UNFPA in South Africa. Retrieved from http://www.unfpa.org/hiv/gyp/profiles/southafrica.htm
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS [UNAIDS]. (2007). Country situation analysis: South Africa. New York: UNAIDS.
Walsh, S. (2008). Uncomfortable collaborations: Contesting constructions of the poor in South Africa. Review of African Political Economy, 35(2), 255–279.
Wolpe, H. (1972). Capitalism and cheap labour power in South Africa: From segregation to apartheid. Economy and Society, 1, 425–456.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2009 Dip Kapoor and Steven Jordan
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Walsh, S. (2009). Ethnography-in-Motion: Neoliberalism and the Shack Dwellers Movement in South Africa. In: Kapoor, D., Jordan, S. (eds) Education, Participatory Action Research, and Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230100640_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230100640_13
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-37883-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-10064-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)