Social justice, care and developmental welfare in South Africa
A Capabilities Perspective
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3645664 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hassim (0000-0002-5816-1291, University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author), Shireen Hassim |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 104-118 |
| Publication date | 2008-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Dynamics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0253-3952 • E-ISSN: 1940-7874 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02533950802278448 |
| OpenAlex | W1972211396 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 11 |
One of the paradoxes of the democratic project in South Africa is that the combination of political empowerment, organised constituencies of poor people and increasing social sector spending has made minimal impact on increasing equality. Despite an overall macroeconomic framework that emphasises fiscal restraint, social welfare spending has increased in the past 14 years, and dramatically so since 2003. Almost one in four South Africans receives some or other form of grant, and the majority of recipients are women. Indeed, South Africa is regularly described as the developing world’s largest and most generous welfare state. I address the extent to which gender inequalities are reduced through public sector spending, asking the question: what is the optimal relationship between social policy and the intrinsic democratic goals of equality, social justice and citizenship? Drawing on Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach, the article argues that a focus on social sector spending alone is inadequate to address questions of social justice. Instead, I draw attention to the normative assumptions, discursive environment and institutional context in which social policy is elaborated and implemented. I argue that, in a context in which there is relatively poor infrastructural capacity in the state to ensure that service delivery takes place in fair, consistent and egalitarian ways, households and communities act as shock absorbers of state failures and women’s gendered burdens increase, despite formal commitments to gender equality. While women appear to have gained from political empowerment, women politicians did not effectively leverage their position in the state to promote pro‐poor policies or to build coalitions to challenge the watering down of early commitments to reducing gender inequalities
Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Empowerment · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social policy · Social Welfare · Sociology · Welfare · Welfare state · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Gender Politics and Representation · Human Rights and Development · Law
Setbacks and Partial Victories
Seeking the Right to Food
In the Balance
Masculinity and Transition
It buys food but does it change gender relations? Child Support Grants in Soweto, South Africa
A gendered perspective of vulnerability to multiple stressors, including climate change, in the rural Eastern Cape, South Africa
The Cambridge Handbook of the Capability Approach
“I get hungry all the time”
“I can do anything”
Education for Change
Proposing a Social Justice Approach to Diaconia for a South African Context
Annual Ruth First Memorial Lecture, University of the Witwatersrand
Disempowering new Democracies and the Persistence of Poverty
The mutability of distributive justice attitudes in South Africa
Development as Freedom
Women's Capabilities and Social Justice
Sen's Capability Approach and Gender Inequality
The state, civil society and social policy
Conceptualising motherhood in twentieth century South Africa
Piety in the Sky? Gender Policy and Land Reform in South Africa
| Citations per year | 0.75 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2010 - 2026 (17) |
| Highly cited | No |