The Nation, its populations and their re-calibration
South African affirmative action in a neoliberal age
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4814219 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Z Erasmus (0000-0003-1528-0992, University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 99-115 |
| Publication date | 2015-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cultural Dynamics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0921-3740 • E-ISSN: 1461-7048 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0921374014564647 |
| OpenAlex | W2333105056 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 21 |
Studies of affirmative action in South Africa generally pay attention to its successes and failures in particular sectors of the economy and at various levels of the social division of labour. This article situates the outcomes of affirmative action at the nexus of a series of contradictory processes: (a) increased wealth concentration among a few South Africans concurrent with growing local struggles among the poor about social exclusion from basic rights; (b) occlusions produced by neoliberal globalisation, narrow African nationalism and injunctions to forget about 'race' and (c) the logics of debt inherent in neoliberalism, affirmative action and worn nationalism. This examination of the convergence of affirmative action with intensified neoliberal macroeconomic policies at South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy shows that affirmative action in post-1994 South Africa is about the state's re-calibration of 'populations of privilege' and 'populations of need'. These adjustments have meant a re-articulation of 'race', class, nation and meanings of liberation that sparks contestations of affirmative action from both its beneficiaries and its 'victims'. When situated within this global and local matrix, these reconfigurations of power, domination and exclusion reveal post-colonial iterations of both the 'ethnographic state' and the well-worn statecraft of divide and rule
Affirmative action · Democracy · Development economics · Economics · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Gender Studies · Law · Legal Issues in South Africa · South African History and Culture
The Wretched of the Earth
The Threat of Race
Marikana
Changing Concepts of Articulation
Architects of poverty
Struggles Around the Commodification of Daily Life in South Africa
Neoliberalism and Resistance in South Africa
South Africa’s Resource Curses and Growing Social Resistance
The Uses of Neoliberalism
Affirmative action(ing)s and postneoliberal movement in South America and Ecuador
Towards a Critique of Globalcentrism
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,44 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2020 (4) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |