The micro-politics of paternalism

The discourses of management and resistance on South African fruit and wine farms

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4603767
AutoresAndries Du Toit (0000-0001-5845-0774, Stellenbosch University, autor correspondente)
Ano1993
Volume19
Fascículo2
Páginas314-336
Data de publicação1993-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03057079308708362
OpenAlexW2020337675
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas65
Referências citadas19

An analysis of the discourse of wine‐farm workers and owners in the Western Cape shows how paternalist discourse marginalises and excludes workers’ voices —but it also shows how workers can challenge the employers’ power. Traditional paternalism is distinguished by an ‘organic’ conception of the farm as a family, with the farmer occupying, a central position of unchallengeable authority. Today, however, a movement for rural reform is bringing about radical changes informing practice. These changes make authority less centralised and more impersonal. They ultimately bring about a greater degree of worker participation in middle management structures. But they also bring about a vast proliferation of internal contradictions and dislocations within management practice: reform can often exacerbate tensions on the farm. These internal crises offer an opportunity for farm worker unions to get a foothold on the farms, and to build institutions that recognise workers’ independent right to speak. These unions, however, should be seen as only the one step towards the growth of a more differentiated rural civil society

Economic growth · Economics · Paternalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Cooperative Studies and Economics · Gender Studies · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Law