Edward Webster
Biographic Data
| ID | 181392 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Edward Webster |
| GIVEN NAMES | Edward |
| FAMILY NAME | Webster |
| SIGNATURE | WEBSTER E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Witwatersrand |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2540-3052 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 149 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1964 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Workers’ power and platform capitalism
Burawoy in Africa
In this tribute, we take a different approach and explore the influence of Southern Africa on Burawoy's sociology. The influence of Southern Africa on Burawoy began early in his career when he himself was just learning what it meant to be a sociologist and continued to influence him in different ways throughout his life. In an interview with Eddie Webster in Johannesburg, 21 October 2023, Burawoy observed: 'My experiences in Southern Africa decis…
Varieties of platform unionism
Nearly three decades ago, Manuel Castells declared the atomising effects of the new technologies of the ‘information age’ to presage the ‘end of labour’. There is little doubt that the labour movement worldwide is no longer the social force it was in the twentieth century. Much of the debate on the future of work and consequences for worker organisation, moreover, has focused on defensive struggles against the introduction of new technologies in …
Building the car while driving it
The global decline in union representation offers a grim picture of the future of labour. Nevertheless, the proliferation of platform worker protest and organisation is a reminder that today’s precarious workers may well become tomorrow’s unionised working class. Most platform worker organisations in the Global South have emerged outside of the trade union movement. However, there has been a growing trend towards hybridisation as unions shift the…
Contesting Digital Technology through New Forms of Transnational Activism
While the tech giants are using privatisation to present themselves as providers of solutions to global problems, digitalisation is creating new forms of transnational activism. Global unions are emerging as players in this contest, helping to build counter power at both the local and global level. Through a comparison of the use of digital technology in two case studies in Africa involving two different global unions the article demonstrates how…
Introduction to Special Issue
Public sociology and worker education
In this essay, we discuss the role of South African social sciences in trade union education. South African academia has a long history of engagement with the world around it, in what Michael Burawoy calls ‘public sociology.’ During the anti-apartheid struggle, universities were one of the central sites of struggle – where progressive academics and students formed a formidable alliance with communities, labour and the underground liberation movem…
The return of the labour process
From its beginnings, the sociology of work in South Africa has been preoccupied with three enduring themes: skill/deskilling, racism in the workplace, and Fordism/racial Fordism. With the advent of democracy in the 1990s there was a shift away from studying the labour process. We argue in this article that there has been a return to taking seriously the ways new forms of work in this postcolonial context pose new questions to the global study of …
Upgrading in Automotive Global Production Networks
The introduction of the concept of social upgrading was a welcome development in the study of Global Production Networks ( gpn s). We argue that although social upgrading is primarily a result of labour agency rather than automatically trickling down from economic upgrading, without economic upgrading social upgrading will not be sustainable. We show how it was through the use of their structural power, the development of associational power thro…
Beyond traditional trade unionism
Insufficient attention has been given to how workers organizations are challenging precarious work through new hybrid forms of organizing in the Global South. In this article we examine three examples where workers innovate and experiment with new forms of worker organization in three African cities. These include a traditional union reaching out to precarious workers in Cape Town, hybrid forms of worker organizations in Kampala, and workers in t…
The Role of the ILO during and after Apartheid
The International Labour Organization (ILO) at times played an important role in challenging race discrimination in the workplace, both as apartheid legislation intensified and in the new democratic South Africa. The controversy around forced labor, and the participation of independent African countries in the ILO, ultimately led to the withdrawal of South Africa. Subsequently, ILO Conventions and the 1964 Declaration influenced the government to…
Competing traditions
The article provides a socio-historical account of worker education rooted in the African working class, and more specifically in the three competing strands within this tradition – the communist strand, the “workerist” strand and the “professional” strand – each linked to contesting definitions of workers’ education. It details the rich history of the first two strands, with their different origins in distinctive generational moments, and then m…
Building a regional solidarity network of transnational activists
Drawing on a network of transnational activists, this paper argues that a new type of regional network internationalism has emerged in Sub-Saharan Africa. Initiated by the Global Labour University (GLU), through a short two-month residential course called Engage, it has been able over the last seven years to develop the skills for a new type of union organiser, one who understands the global context, but is rooted in their local community. This n…
Ten Years of the Global Labour Journal
The article examines the origins of the Global Labour Journal (GLJ) and its goal of broadening labour studies. It shows how, over the past decade, the GLJ has recorded and analysed the forms of action and organisation that fall outside the traditional focus of labour studies. Through a range of careful case studies, the Journal has made an important contribution to the growing field of global labour studies. The two topics that have been the focu…
Inequality Studies from the Global South
Politics, Policy, and Inequality in South Africa Under Covid-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated inequalities in South Africa. The question posed in this article is whether the pandemic and its associated responses offer the opportunity for a more egalitarian society in South Africa, or a more intensively unequal society. The future is contested. On the one hand, there is the consolidation of labor displacement, a growth in unemployment, and a deepening of inequality. On the other, there …
Poverty and inequality in South Africa
South Africa is a paradox; on the one hand, it is one of the most unequal countries in the world. Half of all South Africans continue to live in poverty, economic growth has stagnated and inflation remains high, while the unemployment rate continues to climb towards 30%. On the other hand, it has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, with a bill of rights that foregrounds expanded socioeconomic rights. We provide an overview of …
Trade unions and the Polanyian countermovement
Karl He described this as the 'double movement' whereby ever wider extensions of free market principles generated countermovements to protect society. (Polanyi, 2001, 138-139)
New dawn or end of labour
The question raised in this article is whether the key role played under apartheid by labour in the transition to democracy can be revived in the struggle against the persistent and deepening inequality of the post-apartheid period. We argue that the transition to a neoliberal state in the post-apartheid period has fragmented workers and weakened their capacity to build sustainable workplace organization. However, in spite of this, we identify th…
The Power Resources Approach
Culture and working life
This lecture was given at the Celebrating Ari Sitas: the World of Work and the Power of Poetics, Global Studies Programme (GSP) conference, September 4 & 5 2017, at the Centre for African Studies Gallery, University of Cape Town
The Unresolved National Question in South Africa
The re-emergence of debates on the decolonisation of knowledge has revived interest in the National Question, which began over a century ago and remains unresolved. Tensions that were suppressed and hidden in the past are now being openly debated. Despite this, the goal of one united nation living prosperously under a constitutional democracy remains elusive. This edited volume examines the way in which various strands of left thought have addres…
The China Price
The focus of this paper is the character and role of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) in securing and sustaining a cheap labour regime within China. This labour regime is shaping the character of neoliberal regimes across the globe with dire consequences for societies everywhere. We argue that the international labour movement has the potential to create a movement against this regime, a movement defined by the international labou…
Informalization and decent work
This article identifies a growing number of workers falling outside the regulatory net of both the state and the trade union movement in South Africa on the basis of an examination of working conditions among private security guards and survivalist enterprises in the clothing sector. Traditional unions have had limited success in organizing these sectors because of the composition of the workforce as well as the nature of their work. New forms of…
Working as a Security Guard
The private security industry has grown rapidly over the past two decades generating a widespread debate on how it can best be regulated and professionalised. Drawing on a survey of 1 205 security guards and twenty-five in-depth interviews we examine the neglected question of working conditions in the industry. The industry is characterised by insecure employment, low wages, long working hours with very few having access to social benefits. Above…
Toward a Class Compromise in South Africa's 'Double Transition
Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: Forging the links between historical research and the policy process, 18-19 September 1999
Sociology in South Africa
Burawoy provides a useful analytical history of South African sociology by suggesting a movement during the apartheid period through the four sectors of his matrix, in anti-clockwise direction from policy sociology to professional, critical and public sociology (Burawoy, 2004). His suggestion that in the post-apartheid era sociology has been forced to shift from a reflexive engagement with publics and a critical engagement with societal goals to …
Eroding the Core
Drawing on two case studies of the growth of casualisation and subcontracting in South Africa, this paper shows how 'flexiwork' is being introduced at the same time as South Africa's first democratically elected government is trying to extend basic core rights and standards to large sectors of the workforce that have in the past been excluded from the core labour regulation regime. This shift by employers towards 'flexiwork', in combination with …
Between marginalisation & revitalisation? the state of trade unionism in South Africa
This article provides an overview of the structure and organisation of the contemporary trade union movement in South Africa. It identifies seven broad trends in the labour market and their impact on the labour movement. It then examines the variety of initiatives by unions to tackle the problems generated by these trends. The article suggests that these initiatives are largely ad hoc and uncoordinated. It concludes that there is a need to go bey…
Making a Living, Earning a Living
This article examines the changing nature of work and employment in Southern Africa in the wake of liberalization, drawing on six case studies across the manufacturing, retail, and self-employed sectors. Liberalization has intensified competition, leading to the evolution of three different “worlds of work” in which some workers benefit from global integration, some survive in employment, but under worse conditions, and others are retrenched and …
Beyond traditional trade unionism
Insufficient attention has been given to how workers organizations are challenging precarious work through new hybrid forms of organizing in the Global South. In this article we examine three examples where workers innovate and experiment with new forms of worker organization in three African cities. These include a traditional union reaching out to precarious workers in Cape Town, hybrid forms of worker organizations in Kampala, and workers in t…
Cast in a racial mould
Recasting Labor Studies in the Twenty-First Century
Work Restructuring in Post-Apartheid South Africa
South Africa's triple transition-toward political democracy, economic liberalization, and racial equity-has generated a variety of responses at workplace level. Rather than a uniform response, a hybrid mix of managerial strategies is emerging that reveals both continuities and discontinuities with past practices. We argue that the challenge facing the South African workplace is to balance the contradictory demands of efficiency, employee rights, …
Culture and working life
This lecture was given at the Celebrating Ari Sitas: the World of Work and the Power of Poetics, Global Studies Programme (GSP) conference, September 4 & 5 2017, at the Centre for African Studies Gallery, University of Cape Town
Informalization and decent work
This article identifies a growing number of workers falling outside the regulatory net of both the state and the trade union movement in South Africa on the basis of an examination of working conditions among private security guards and survivalist enterprises in the clothing sector. Traditional unions have had limited success in organizing these sectors because of the composition of the workforce as well as the nature of their work. New forms of…
Global labour studies
Bieler makes this assessment of Grounding Globalization (GG): the book ‘constitutes a significant \n contribution to our understanding of neo-liberal globalization, its impact on workers and the \n possible ways of resisting’. Our rejoinder to the four interventions reflects on these three core \n issues to advance debate on the unfolding crises of neo-liberalism and the prospects this might \n herald for effective resistance. In so doing we iden…
The politics of economic reform
(1998). The politics of economic reform: Trade unions and democratization in South Africa. Journal of Contemporary African Studies: Vol. 16, South Africa in Transition, pp. 39-64
International Homogenization or the Persistence of National Practices
This paper is the first systematic attempt to provide an overview of industrial relations practices at firm level in Mozambique. Through a nationwide survey of firms, the paper assesses the extent to which specific sets of practices are associated with particular regions, and/or sectors, and explores the relationship between IR practice and national institutional realities. The survey revealed that informalism and autocratic managerialism charact…
Workers’ power and platform capitalism
Burawoy in Africa
In this tribute, we take a different approach and explore the influence of Southern Africa on Burawoy's sociology. The influence of Southern Africa on Burawoy began early in his career when he himself was just learning what it meant to be a sociologist and continued to influence him in different ways throughout his life. In an interview with Eddie Webster in Johannesburg, 21 October 2023, Burawoy observed: 'My experiences in Southern Africa decis…
Politics, Policy, and Inequality in South Africa Under Covid-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated inequalities in South Africa. The question posed in this article is whether the pandemic and its associated responses offer the opportunity for a more egalitarian society in South Africa, or a more intensively unequal society. The future is contested. On the one hand, there is the consolidation of labor displacement, a growth in unemployment, and a deepening of inequality. On the other, there …
New dawn or end of labour
The question raised in this article is whether the key role played under apartheid by labour in the transition to democracy can be revived in the struggle against the persistent and deepening inequality of the post-apartheid period. We argue that the transition to a neoliberal state in the post-apartheid period has fragmented workers and weakened their capacity to build sustainable workplace organization. However, in spite of this, we identify th…
The sociology of transformation and the transformation of sociology in Southern Africa
(1998). The sociology of transformation and the transformation of sociology in Southern Africa. Social Dynamics: Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 117-129
Who is a psychologist
Cast in a racial mould
The politics of economic reform
(1998). The politics of economic reform: Trade unions and democratization in South Africa. Journal of Contemporary African Studies: Vol. 16, South Africa in Transition, pp. 39-64
The sociology of transformation and the transformation of sociology in Southern Africa
(1998). The sociology of transformation and the transformation of sociology in Southern Africa. Social Dynamics: Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 117-129
Eroding the Core
Drawing on two case studies of the growth of casualisation and subcontracting in South Africa, this paper shows how 'flexiwork' is being introduced at the same time as South Africa's first democratically elected government is trying to extend basic core rights and standards to large sectors of the workforce that have in the past been excluded from the core labour regulation regime. This shift by employers towards 'flexiwork', in combination with …
Toward a Class Compromise in South Africa's 'Double Transition
Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: Forging the links between historical research and the policy process, 18-19 September 1999
Work Restructuring in Post-Apartheid South Africa
South Africa's triple transition-toward political democracy, economic liberalization, and racial equity-has generated a variety of responses at workplace level. Rather than a uniform response, a hybrid mix of managerial strategies is emerging that reveals both continuities and discontinuities with past practices. We argue that the challenge facing the South African workplace is to balance the contradictory demands of efficiency, employee rights, …
Sociological dilemmas in a local context
The theme of this year's meeting of the powerful 13,000 member strong American Sociological Association (ASA) was ‘public sociologies’. The term public sociology was invented in the United States to criticise and counter mounting professionalisation. In many countries of today the term public sociology is not necessary as sociology is presumed to be public. In order to illustrate this point the ASA invited representatives from different regions o…
Between marginalisation & revitalisation? the state of trade unionism in South Africa
This article provides an overview of the structure and organisation of the contemporary trade union movement in South Africa. It identifies seven broad trends in the labour market and their impact on the labour movement. It then examines the variety of initiatives by unions to tackle the problems generated by these trends. The article suggests that these initiatives are largely ad hoc and uncoordinated. It concludes that there is a need to go bey…
Sociology in South Africa
Burawoy provides a useful analytical history of South African sociology by suggesting a movement during the apartheid period through the four sectors of his matrix, in anti-clockwise direction from policy sociology to professional, critical and public sociology (Burawoy, 2004). His suggestion that in the post-apartheid era sociology has been forced to shift from a reflexive engagement with publics and a critical engagement with societal goals to …
Making a Living, Earning a Living
This article examines the changing nature of work and employment in Southern Africa in the wake of liberalization, drawing on six case studies across the manufacturing, retail, and self-employed sectors. Liberalization has intensified competition, leading to the evolution of three different “worlds of work” in which some workers benefit from global integration, some survive in employment, but under worse conditions, and others are retrenched and …
International Homogenization or the Persistence of National Practices
This paper is the first systematic attempt to provide an overview of industrial relations practices at firm level in Mozambique. Through a nationwide survey of firms, the paper assesses the extent to which specific sets of practices are associated with particular regions, and/or sectors, and explores the relationship between IR practice and national institutional realities. The survey revealed that informalism and autocratic managerialism charact…
Labor History Symposium
PAUL D. MORENO Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 2005 ISBN: 080713094X With this book, Paul Moreno has made a significant and contentious contribution to the literature on labor and ra
Grounding Globalization
Preface: A Journey of Discovery. List of Abbreviations. 1. The Polanyi Problem and the Problem with Polanyi. Part One: Markets Against Society. 2. Manufacturing Matters. 3. The Return of Market Despotism. 4. Citizenship Matters. Part Two: Society Against Markets. 5. Strong Winds in Ezakheni. 6. Escaping Social Death in Changwon. 7. Squeezing Orange. Part Three: Society Governing the Market? 8. History Matters. 9. Grounding Labour Internationalism…
Sociologist unbound
We are gathered here today to celebrate the work of Jacklyn Cock. It is a time to rejoice publicly at a working life of exceptional creativity. This is a happy event. I have used the verb unbound in the title of this introduction to the working life of Jackie as hers is a career that has not been tied down by conventional notions of what role a middle class white women sociologist ought to play. Instead she has crossed the boundaries of race, of …
Recasting Labor Studies in the Twenty-First Century
Work in post-apartheid south africa
Global labour studies
Bieler makes this assessment of Grounding Globalization (GG): the book ‘constitutes a significant \n contribution to our understanding of neo-liberal globalization, its impact on workers and the \n possible ways of resisting’. Our rejoinder to the four interventions reflects on these three core \n issues to advance debate on the unfolding crises of neo-liberalism and the prospects this might \n herald for effective resistance. In so doing we iden…
Working as a Security Guard
The private security industry has grown rapidly over the past two decades generating a widespread debate on how it can best be regulated and professionalised. Drawing on a survey of 1 205 security guards and twenty-five in-depth interviews we examine the neglected question of working conditions in the industry. The industry is characterised by insecure employment, low wages, long working hours with very few having access to social benefits. Above…
Zambia, Mining, and Neoliberalism
The China Price
The focus of this paper is the character and role of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) in securing and sustaining a cheap labour regime within China. This labour regime is shaping the character of neoliberal regimes across the globe with dire consequences for societies everywhere. We argue that the international labour movement has the potential to create a movement against this regime, a movement defined by the international labou…
Informalization and decent work
This article identifies a growing number of workers falling outside the regulatory net of both the state and the trade union movement in South Africa on the basis of an examination of working conditions among private security guards and survivalist enterprises in the clothing sector. Traditional unions have had limited success in organizing these sectors because of the composition of the workforce as well as the nature of their work. New forms of…
The Unresolved National Question in South Africa
The re-emergence of debates on the decolonisation of knowledge has revived interest in the National Question, which began over a century ago and remains unresolved. Tensions that were suppressed and hidden in the past are now being openly debated. Despite this, the goal of one united nation living prosperously under a constitutional democracy remains elusive. This edited volume examines the way in which various strands of left thought have addres…
The Power Resources Approach
Culture and working life
This lecture was given at the Celebrating Ari Sitas: the World of Work and the Power of Poetics, Global Studies Programme (GSP) conference, September 4 & 5 2017, at the Centre for African Studies Gallery, University of Cape Town
Political science (34 works) · Economics (26 works) · Labor Movements and Unions (26 works) · Sociology (26 works) · Law (22 works) · Politics (18 works) · Political economy (16 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (13 works) · Economic growth (10 works) · Labour economics (10 works)