Sophie Plagerson
Biographic Data
| ID | 349969 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sophie Plagerson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sophie |
| FAMILY NAME | Plagerson |
| SIGNATURE | PLAGERSON S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Johannesburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8018-2080 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 56 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Agency and shock-responsive social protection: Informal traders and the Social Relief of Distress grant in South Africa
Across many countries, the design of social protection for informal workers – particularly in response to shocks – is often shaped by assumptions about their limited agency. This article examines how the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of South Africa’s Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant influenced the agency of informal traders. The SRD was the country’s first cash transfer made available to able-bodied, working-age adults. Drawing on …
A critical review of the state-of-the-art on social policy, conflict and peace in the Middle East and North Africa region: Why social policy matters for peace and why it is also not enough
Negative, militarized definitions of peace based on the absence of violent conflict fail to acknowledge the links between the absence of positive peace and grievances, discrimination, unfairness and inequality, as well as the breath of governmental and non-governmental sectors and actors involved in building resilient, sustainable, positive peace. This article emphasises the central role social policy can build in fostering positive peace in the …
Handbook on Social Protection and Social Development in the Global South
Mainstreaming poverty, inequality and social exclusion: A systematic assessment of public policy in South Africa
Many developing countries experience high levels of poverty and inequality. The South African Constitution and the National Development Plan 2030 establish poverty, inequality and social exclusion as central to national policy mandates. This article reports the findings of a systematic assessment of the extent to which these mandates have been grafted into the laws, policy and strategy documents across public policy sectors. The study reviews bot…
Social protection and state‐citizen relations: A review of the literature
It is frequently assumed that social protection can play a key role in positively transforming state‐citizen relations in the global South. We examine the evidence with a focus on recipients and non‐recipients, both citizens and non‐citizens. Based on a systematic literature review, we identify three levels of analysis: activity, perceptions and expectations. A common thread through these levels is the bifurcated and hierarchical nature of relati…
Introduction to special issue: States, citizens and social protection in Africa
While social protection provision in Africa has primarily focused on the reduction of food insecurity and income poverty, it has the potential to transform the relationship between citizens and states. The articles in this special issue provide insights into the theoretical, normative, and empirical assessment of the transformative consequences of social protection programmes across parts of East, West and Southern Africa. The articles reveal tha…
Livelihood activities and well-being outcomes of cash transfer beneficiaries in Soweto, South Africa
Despite a growing body of research on the benefits of cash transfers in reducing poverty, limited knowledge exists of beneficiaries' usage of social assistance to pursue livelihood activities in urban areas. This qualitative narrative enquiry provides empirical evidence that when cash transfers are combined with a wide range of livelihood activities, then material and psychosocial as well as personal, household, and business outcomes are improved…
Assets, cash transfers and urban livelihoods in South Africa
How access to cash transfers (CTs) contributes to assets and livelihoods is not well understood in development contexts. This qualitative study draws on the sustainable livelihoods approach and describes how beneficiaries acquire, mobilise and convert a diversity of assets into livelihood strategies amidst high levels of unemployment and poverty. We find that receipt of CTs had a catalytic effect enabling the pursuit of livelihoods, facilitating …
How cash transfers enable agency through livelihoods in South Africa
Welfare regimes in the global South: Does the capability approach provide an alternative perspective
Standard definitions and classifications are inadequate to explain current welfare regimes, particularly in the global South. This article explores whether the capability approach can provide an alternative lens for welfare regime analysis. The development of welfare regime theory, and the primary dimensions of analysis are reviewed. The capability approach is critically applied to assumptions underlying comparative welfare regime research, in pa…
Social Security and Gender Justice in South Africa: Policy Gaps and Opportunities
If gender is neglected in the design and implementation of mainstream social welfare models, unequal social and economic outcomes for men and women tend to be reproduced. This paper contributes to debates about how social protection can contribute to promoting gender equality by considering the gendered redistributive and transformative effects of three types of social security instruments in South Africa: social assistance, unemployment insuranc…
Social policy in South Africa: Navigating the route to social development
The principles and practice of social protection
Can social protection address both poverty and inequality in principle and practice
The recent expansion of social protection in the Global South has focused on practice (the how) and not on principles (the why). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) endorse social protection as a means of addressing both poverty and inequality. In this article, which contributes to the Special Issue on ‘ The principles and practice of social protection’, we focus on the principles that (often implicitly) underlie four types of social protect…
Integrating mental health and social development in theory and practice
In many low and middle income countries, attention to mental illness remains compartmentalized and consigned as a matter for specialist policy. Despite great advances in global mental health, mental health policy and practice dovetail only to a limited degree with social development efforts. They often lag behind broader approaches to health and development. This gap ignores the small but growing evidence that social development unavoidably impac…
Social Protection: Rethinking Rights and Duties
Cash Transfers and Citizenship: Evidence from South Africa
Theoretical research has assumed a role for cash transfers in forging a state-citizen contract, yet evidence is scarce regarding whether social protection promotes citizenship among claimants in practice. The article explores the implications of cash transfers for notions of citizenship in the narratives of transfer recipients in Johannesburg, South Africa. Cash transfers created a space for state-citizen exchange, helping topersonalise views of …
Poverty and mental disorders: Breaking the cycle in low-income and middle-income countries
Dignity and Stigma among South African Female Cash Transfer Recipients
This study analyses impacts of social discourses on the outcomes of social policy, through the narratives of female cash transfer recipients in Soweto, South Africa. Their understandings of poverty and welfare are related in complex and dynamic ways. Cash transfers are revealed as a tool of survival which helps to alleviate stigma associated with poverty. While recipients acknowledge that negative mainstream discourses on grant receipt are unjust…
Does money matter for mental health? Evidence from the Child Support Grants in Johannesburg, South Africa
Globally, the poor are consistently at greater risk of suffering from depression and anxiety. Yet in resource-poor countries, mental health remains a neglected topic. This interdisciplinary study explored the potential for a poverty alleviation programme to contribute to breaking the vicious cycle between poverty and common mental disorders (CMD). Quantitatively, beneficiaries of a cash-transfer programme were found to have a lower risk of CMD. Q…
Overcoming fieldwork challenges in urban health research in developing countries: A research note
With rapid growth in the global urban population over the next two decades, health will increasingly have an urban bias. The picture of public health is particularly complex in African cities, where rates of urbanisation, poverty and inequity are high. This paper identifies the main data collection problems encountered within a panel study in low‐income areas of Johannesburg, with special emphasis on sampling, access and partnerships. The paper w…
Poverty and mental illness: Fact or fiction? A commentary on Das, Do, Friedman, McKenzie & Scott (65:3, 2007, 467–480)
Global Trade and Mental Health
The consequences of the unprecedented growth of global trade on development and population health are significantly influenced by global trade policies that have delivered millions from poverty, but have constrained the ability of governments to regulate their economies and protect health. While the effects of global trade policy on health have been documented, mental health considerations have been very limited. This analysis explores the impact…
Attacking social exclusion: Combining rehabilitative and preventive approaches to leprosy in Bangladesh
Based on primary research on the applicability of social exclusion frameworks to the experiences of people with leprosy in Bangladesh, this article compares two means of intervention: health education of society, and socio-economic rehabilitation of individual patients. These interventions commonly remain distinct, but it is concluded that only by integrating the two approaches can deep-seated prejudices be removed, facilitating early detection a…
Social Protection: Rethinking Rights and Duties
Social policy in South Africa: Navigating the route to social development
Dignity and Stigma among South African Female Cash Transfer Recipients
This study analyses impacts of social discourses on the outcomes of social policy, through the narratives of female cash transfer recipients in Soweto, South Africa. Their understandings of poverty and welfare are related in complex and dynamic ways. Cash transfers are revealed as a tool of survival which helps to alleviate stigma associated with poverty. While recipients acknowledge that negative mainstream discourses on grant receipt are unjust…
How cash transfers enable agency through livelihoods in South Africa
Global Trade and Mental Health
The consequences of the unprecedented growth of global trade on development and population health are significantly influenced by global trade policies that have delivered millions from poverty, but have constrained the ability of governments to regulate their economies and protect health. While the effects of global trade policy on health have been documented, mental health considerations have been very limited. This analysis explores the impact…
Social Security and Gender Justice in South Africa: Policy Gaps and Opportunities
If gender is neglected in the design and implementation of mainstream social welfare models, unequal social and economic outcomes for men and women tend to be reproduced. This paper contributes to debates about how social protection can contribute to promoting gender equality by considering the gendered redistributive and transformative effects of three types of social security instruments in South Africa: social assistance, unemployment insuranc…
Integrating mental health and social development in theory and practice
In many low and middle income countries, attention to mental illness remains compartmentalized and consigned as a matter for specialist policy. Despite great advances in global mental health, mental health policy and practice dovetail only to a limited degree with social development efforts. They often lag behind broader approaches to health and development. This gap ignores the small but growing evidence that social development unavoidably impac…
Overcoming fieldwork challenges in urban health research in developing countries: A research note
With rapid growth in the global urban population over the next two decades, health will increasingly have an urban bias. The picture of public health is particularly complex in African cities, where rates of urbanisation, poverty and inequity are high. This paper identifies the main data collection problems encountered within a panel study in low‐income areas of Johannesburg, with special emphasis on sampling, access and partnerships. The paper w…
Welfare regimes in the global South: Does the capability approach provide an alternative perspective
Standard definitions and classifications are inadequate to explain current welfare regimes, particularly in the global South. This article explores whether the capability approach can provide an alternative lens for welfare regime analysis. The development of welfare regime theory, and the primary dimensions of analysis are reviewed. The capability approach is critically applied to assumptions underlying comparative welfare regime research, in pa…
Livelihood activities and well-being outcomes of cash transfer beneficiaries in Soweto, South Africa
Despite a growing body of research on the benefits of cash transfers in reducing poverty, limited knowledge exists of beneficiaries' usage of social assistance to pursue livelihood activities in urban areas. This qualitative narrative enquiry provides empirical evidence that when cash transfers are combined with a wide range of livelihood activities, then material and psychosocial as well as personal, household, and business outcomes are improved…
The principles and practice of social protection
Attacking social exclusion: Combining rehabilitative and preventive approaches to leprosy in Bangladesh
Based on primary research on the applicability of social exclusion frameworks to the experiences of people with leprosy in Bangladesh, this article compares two means of intervention: health education of society, and socio-economic rehabilitation of individual patients. These interventions commonly remain distinct, but it is concluded that only by integrating the two approaches can deep-seated prejudices be removed, facilitating early detection a…
Poverty and mental illness: Fact or fiction? A commentary on Das, Do, Friedman, McKenzie & Scott (65:3, 2007, 467–480)
Global Trade and Mental Health
The consequences of the unprecedented growth of global trade on development and population health are significantly influenced by global trade policies that have delivered millions from poverty, but have constrained the ability of governments to regulate their economies and protect health. While the effects of global trade policy on health have been documented, mental health considerations have been very limited. This analysis explores the impact…
Overcoming fieldwork challenges in urban health research in developing countries: A research note
With rapid growth in the global urban population over the next two decades, health will increasingly have an urban bias. The picture of public health is particularly complex in African cities, where rates of urbanisation, poverty and inequity are high. This paper identifies the main data collection problems encountered within a panel study in low‐income areas of Johannesburg, with special emphasis on sampling, access and partnerships. The paper w…
Does money matter for mental health? Evidence from the Child Support Grants in Johannesburg, South Africa
Globally, the poor are consistently at greater risk of suffering from depression and anxiety. Yet in resource-poor countries, mental health remains a neglected topic. This interdisciplinary study explored the potential for a poverty alleviation programme to contribute to breaking the vicious cycle between poverty and common mental disorders (CMD). Quantitatively, beneficiaries of a cash-transfer programme were found to have a lower risk of CMD. Q…
Poverty and mental disorders: Breaking the cycle in low-income and middle-income countries
Dignity and Stigma among South African Female Cash Transfer Recipients
This study analyses impacts of social discourses on the outcomes of social policy, through the narratives of female cash transfer recipients in Soweto, South Africa. Their understandings of poverty and welfare are related in complex and dynamic ways. Cash transfers are revealed as a tool of survival which helps to alleviate stigma associated with poverty. While recipients acknowledge that negative mainstream discourses on grant receipt are unjust…
Cash Transfers and Citizenship: Evidence from South Africa
Theoretical research has assumed a role for cash transfers in forging a state-citizen contract, yet evidence is scarce regarding whether social protection promotes citizenship among claimants in practice. The article explores the implications of cash transfers for notions of citizenship in the narratives of transfer recipients in Johannesburg, South Africa. Cash transfers created a space for state-citizen exchange, helping topersonalise views of …
Social Protection: Rethinking Rights and Duties
Integrating mental health and social development in theory and practice
In many low and middle income countries, attention to mental illness remains compartmentalized and consigned as a matter for specialist policy. Despite great advances in global mental health, mental health policy and practice dovetail only to a limited degree with social development efforts. They often lag behind broader approaches to health and development. This gap ignores the small but growing evidence that social development unavoidably impac…
The principles and practice of social protection
Can social protection address both poverty and inequality in principle and practice
The recent expansion of social protection in the Global South has focused on practice (the how) and not on principles (the why). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) endorse social protection as a means of addressing both poverty and inequality. In this article, which contributes to the Special Issue on ‘ The principles and practice of social protection’, we focus on the principles that (often implicitly) underlie four types of social protect…
Social policy in South Africa: Navigating the route to social development
Welfare regimes in the global South: Does the capability approach provide an alternative perspective
Standard definitions and classifications are inadequate to explain current welfare regimes, particularly in the global South. This article explores whether the capability approach can provide an alternative lens for welfare regime analysis. The development of welfare regime theory, and the primary dimensions of analysis are reviewed. The capability approach is critically applied to assumptions underlying comparative welfare regime research, in pa…
Social Security and Gender Justice in South Africa: Policy Gaps and Opportunities
If gender is neglected in the design and implementation of mainstream social welfare models, unequal social and economic outcomes for men and women tend to be reproduced. This paper contributes to debates about how social protection can contribute to promoting gender equality by considering the gendered redistributive and transformative effects of three types of social security instruments in South Africa: social assistance, unemployment insuranc…
How cash transfers enable agency through livelihoods in South Africa
Assets, cash transfers and urban livelihoods in South Africa
How access to cash transfers (CTs) contributes to assets and livelihoods is not well understood in development contexts. This qualitative study draws on the sustainable livelihoods approach and describes how beneficiaries acquire, mobilise and convert a diversity of assets into livelihood strategies amidst high levels of unemployment and poverty. We find that receipt of CTs had a catalytic effect enabling the pursuit of livelihoods, facilitating …
Livelihood activities and well-being outcomes of cash transfer beneficiaries in Soweto, South Africa
Despite a growing body of research on the benefits of cash transfers in reducing poverty, limited knowledge exists of beneficiaries' usage of social assistance to pursue livelihood activities in urban areas. This qualitative narrative enquiry provides empirical evidence that when cash transfers are combined with a wide range of livelihood activities, then material and psychosocial as well as personal, household, and business outcomes are improved…
Handbook on Social Protection and Social Development in the Global South
Mainstreaming poverty, inequality and social exclusion: A systematic assessment of public policy in South Africa
Many developing countries experience high levels of poverty and inequality. The South African Constitution and the National Development Plan 2030 establish poverty, inequality and social exclusion as central to national policy mandates. This article reports the findings of a systematic assessment of the extent to which these mandates have been grafted into the laws, policy and strategy documents across public policy sectors. The study reviews bot…
Social protection and state‐citizen relations: A review of the literature
It is frequently assumed that social protection can play a key role in positively transforming state‐citizen relations in the global South. We examine the evidence with a focus on recipients and non‐recipients, both citizens and non‐citizens. Based on a systematic literature review, we identify three levels of analysis: activity, perceptions and expectations. A common thread through these levels is the bifurcated and hierarchical nature of relati…
Introduction to special issue: States, citizens and social protection in Africa
While social protection provision in Africa has primarily focused on the reduction of food insecurity and income poverty, it has the potential to transform the relationship between citizens and states. The articles in this special issue provide insights into the theoretical, normative, and empirical assessment of the transformative consequences of social protection programmes across parts of East, West and Southern Africa. The articles reveal tha…
A critical review of the state-of-the-art on social policy, conflict and peace in the Middle East and North Africa region: Why social policy matters for peace and why it is also not enough
Negative, militarized definitions of peace based on the absence of violent conflict fail to acknowledge the links between the absence of positive peace and grievances, discrimination, unfairness and inequality, as well as the breath of governmental and non-governmental sectors and actors involved in building resilient, sustainable, positive peace. This article emphasises the central role social policy can build in fostering positive peace in the …
Agency and shock-responsive social protection: Informal traders and the Social Relief of Distress grant in South Africa
Across many countries, the design of social protection for informal workers – particularly in response to shocks – is often shaped by assumptions about their limited agency. This article examines how the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of South Africa’s Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant influenced the agency of informal traders. The SRD was the country’s first cash transfer made available to able-bodied, working-age adults. Drawing on …
Economics (18 works) · Economic growth (16 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (15 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Political science (14 works) · Law (11 works) · Development economics (10 works) · Poverty (10 works) · Social protection (9 works) · Geography (7 works)