Author: Nicoli Nattrass
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192578472
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 229
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Book Description
W. Arthur Lewis, the founding father of development economics, proposed a dualist model of economic development in which 'surplus' (predominantly under-employed) labour shifted from lower to higher productivity work. In practice, historically, this meant that labour was initially drawn out of subsistence agriculture into low-wage, labour-intensive manufacturing, including in clothing production, before shifting into higher-wage work. This development strategy has become unfashionable. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) worries that low-wage, labour-intensive industry promises little more than an impoverishing 'race to the bottom'. Inclusive Dualism: Labour-intensive Development, Decent Work, and Surplus Labour in Southern Africa argues that decent work fundamentalism, that is the promotion of higher wages and labour productivity at the cost of lower-wage job destruction, is a utopian vision with potentially dystopic consequences for countries with high open unemployment, many of which are in Southern Africa. Using the South African clothing industry as a case study Inclusive Dualism argues that decent work fundamentalism ignores the inherently differentiated character of industry resulting in the unnecessary destruction of labour-intensive jobs and the bifurcation of society into highly-paid, high-productivity insiders and low-paid or unemployed outsiders. It demonstrates the broader relevance of the South Africa case, examining the growth in surplus labour across Africa. It shows that low- and high-productivity firms can co-exist, and challenges the notion that a race to the bottom is inevitable. Inclusive Dualism instead favours multi-pronged development strategies that prioritise labour-intensive job creation as well as facilitating productivity growth elsewhere without destroying jobs.
Author: Anthony Black
Publisher: Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd
ISBN: 1775820076
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 397
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Book Description
South Africa’s high rate of unemployment (26.4%) makes it a complete outlier compared with other middle-income countries. Indeed, the unemployment rate rises to 36% if discouraged workers are taken into account. It underpins extreme poverty and inequality and is a major contributor to social dislocation. If it were not for increased social payments, poverty would have continued to increase since the advent of democracy in 1994. Unemployment also represents a huge cost to growth. This book focuses on the growth path of the economy. The starting point is that while more rapid economic expansion is an important objective, at any given level of growth, the economy as a whole needs to become more labour-absorbing. The central question posed is how to bring about changes in the economic structure and pattern of development, which would lead to the attainment of this objective. The authors argue that employment needs to be much more centrally positioned within the economic and social policy arena. They emphasise innovative approaches within a broader focus on the growth path, and employment-intensive growth. And they posit that the negative impact of previous ‘distortions’ requires much more than a levelling of the playing field via market-based reforms. Apart from presenting an alternative growth path which could start to shift the economy in new directions, the book tackles themes which have received only limited attention, such as wage subsidies, youth unemployment and employment growth in rural areas.
Author: Uwe Becker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134647107
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276
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Book Description
In the past ten to twenty years the global political economy picture has dramatically changed with the emergence of the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and, notably, China (BRICs) as big players and competitors of the advanced economies in the West and Eastern Asia. The book comparatively analyses institutional change in the BRICs. This book examines the BRICs by analysing their institutional development, their main continuities and changes, and their differences. It provides a comparative analysis of the political economies of the BRICs, but also considers South Africa and Turkey. The contributors provide a systematic comparison of the state-economy and the capital-labour relationships and explore whether they liberalized or followed a specific trajectory. The book also addresses debates on the varieties of capitalism and explores whether the emerging economies fit into the dichotomous construction of liberal and coordinated capitalism or whether they require a more differentiated typological approach. Moving away from rigid conceptions and the static classification of political economies as either liberal or coordinated and presenting a more open approach, The BRICs and Emerging Economies in Comparative Perspective will be vital reading for students and scholars of comparative political economy, international relations, capitalism, the BRICs, emerging markets and the role of the state in the economy.
Author: Jeremy Seekings
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137452692
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 315
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Book Description
Seekings and Nattrass explain why poverty persisted in South Africa after the transition to democracy in 1994. The book examines how public policies both mitigated and reproduced poverty, and explains how and why these policies were adopted. The analysis offers lessons for the study of poverty elsewhere in the world.
Author: Uchenna R. Efobi
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319788434
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 456
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Book Description
This edited volume provides a critical evaluation of financing options for sustainable development in Africa. While sustainability has long been the watchword for development programs, and while many African countries have taken initiatives to develop integrated frameworks that tackle developmental challenges—including poverty, education, and health—financing has remained a challenge. In this book, an expert team of chapter authors examines new financing options while also exploring how traditional financing means, such as foreign aid and foreign direct investment, can be more effective for sustainability. The authors discuss how African nations can build adequate structures and productive capacity to create a platform that can meet present economic, social, and environmental needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Practical case studies and scientific evidence give this book a unique approach that is both qualitative and quantitative. This book will be of interest to students, practitioners, and scholars of development studies, public policy and African economics.
Author: Franck Billé
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824876016
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289
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Book Description
For an open-access edition, visit the Yellow Perils page on Manifold. https://manifold.uhpress.hawaii.edu/projects/yellow-perils China’s meteoric rise and ever expanding economic and cultural footprint have been accompanied by widespread global disquiet. Whether admiring or alarmist, media discourse and representations of China often tap into the myths and prejudices that emerged through specific historical encounters. These deeply embedded anxieties have shown great resilience, as in recent media treatments of SARS and the H5N1 virus, which echoed past beliefs connecting China and disease. Popular perceptions of Asia, too, continue to be framed by entrenched racial stereotypes: its people are unfathomable, exploitative, cunning, or excessively hardworking. This interdisciplinary collection of original essays offers a broad view of the mechanics that underlie Yellow Peril discourse by looking at its cultural deployment and repercussions worldwide. Building on the richly detailed historical studies already published in the context of the United States and Europe, contributors to Yellow Perils confront the phenomenon in Italy, Australia, South Africa, Nigeria, Mongolia, Hong Kong, and China itself. With chapters based on archival material and interviews, the collection supplements and often challenges superficial journalistic accounts and top-down studies by economists and political scientists. Yellow Peril narratives, contributors find, constitute cultural vectors of multiple kinds of anxieties, spanning the cultural, racial, political, and economic. Indeed, the emergence of the term “Yellow Peril” in such disparate contexts cannot be assumed to be singular, to refer to the same fears, or to revolve around the same stereotypes. The discourse, even when used in reference to a single country like China, is therefore inherently fractured and multiple. The term “Yellow Peril” may feel unpalatable and dated today, but the ethnographic, geographic, and historical breadth of this collection—experiences of Chinese migration and diaspora, historical reflections on the discourse of the Yellow Peril in China, and contemporary analyses of the global reverberations of China’s economic rise—offers a unique overview of the ways in which anti-Chinese narratives continue to play out in today’s world. This timely and provocative book will appeal to Chinese and Asian Studies scholars, but will also be highly relevant to historians and anthropologists working on diasporic communities and on ethnic formations both within and beyond Asia. Contributors: Christos Lynteris David Walker Kevin Carrico Magnus Fiskesjö Romain Dittgen Ross Anthony Xiaojian Zhao Yu Qiu
Author: H. A. F. Barker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Clothing trade
Languages : en
Pages : 674
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Book Description
Author: Julie Bonzon
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000953319
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 255
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Book Description
This study presents the history of the Market Photo Workshop (MPW) in Johannesburg and works produced by its new generation of photography students. Founded in 1989 by internationally renowned documentary photographer David Goldblatt, the MPW has reflected upon South African political struggles and sociocultural changes since its creation. Its foundation parallels a moment in time when photography was considered a ‘truth telling’ genre and an essential source of documents deployed against the apartheid regime. This book reflects on the evolution of the MPW in the post-apartheid era and explores how its new generation of students engages the photographic tradition of this institution and the revolutionary times that accompanied its creation to question their present moment. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual studies, photography, African studies, cultural studies and post-colonial studies.
Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 9264049649
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 327
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Book Description
This report provides a platform for the development of a forward-looking, cross-cutting regional development strategy in Cape Town, South Africa and proposes new "second generation" governance reforms to consolidate previous achievements and respond to emerging obstacles.
Author: Arkebe Oqubay
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192646583
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1120
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Book Description
While sharing some characteristics with other middle-income countries, South Africa is a country with a unique economic history and distinctive economic features. It is a regional economic powerhouse that plays a significant role, not only in southern Africa and in the continent, but also as a member of BRICS. However, there has been a lack of structural transformation and weak economic growth, and South Africa faces the profound triple challenges of poverty, inequality, and unemployment. Any meaningful debate about economic policies to address these challenges needs to be informed by a deep understanding of historical developments, robust empirical evidence, and rigorous analysis of South Africa's complex economic landscape. This volume seeks to provide a wide-ranging set of original, detailed, and state-of-the-art analytical perspectives that contribute to scientific knowledge as well as to well-informed and productive discourse on the South African economy. While concentrating on the more recent economic issues facing South Africa, the handbook also provides historical and political context. It offers an in-depth examination of strategic issues in the country's key economic sectors, and brings together diverse analytical perspectives.
