Vorsters and Clarks
Alternative models of European farmer in the Tuli Block of Botswana
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7861763 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Isaac Ncube Mazonde (University of Botswana, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1991 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 443-471 |
| Publication date | 1991-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03057079108708287 |
| OpenAlex | W2124518014 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 4 |
The social history of family firms, founded by white settlers in southern Africa, has been almost totally ignored in the literature on the state, capitalism and enterprise in developing countries. It has been a subversive neglect, within the region and more widely, undermining planned development no less than sociological knowledge and theoretical explanation. In part, that is because it is the settler firms or rather, stereotyped images of them which are often uncritically taken to be paragons of successful entrepreneurship. Conventional wisdom has it, for example, that settler ranching provided the best models for culTent and future development. In Botswana, in Zimbabwe and no doubt in many other parts of post-colonial Africa, what has to be considered is a series of basic questions, the answers to which call for case studies, in depth, of the settler firms. A central problem is the viability of enterprise, when it becomes depenident upon the state. State support is developing countries is notoriously fickle; when it fails, as it often does, it leaves dependent enterprises in disarray. How do settler family firms avoid such dependence or become captive to it? What kinds of organisational structures do the different types of settler family firm develop, and why? My focus is on two extremes among European farmers in the Tuli Block, eastern Botswana. Each case I present is a micro-history of processes of change in a family firm of a distinctive type. These processes occur over at least three generations. They culminate in the emergence of an extreme type, the paternalist entrepreneur, on the one hand, the technocrat in the other. The outcome depends upon the interface between each firm and its social environment, or lifeworld. There is, accordingly, an evolution of distinct types of organisation of family labour within
Biology · Capitalism · Colonialism · Developing country · Economic growth · Economics · Entrepreneurship · Neglect · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Sociology · State (computer science · White (mutation · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Land Rights and Reforms · Law
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.09 |
| Citation span | 1993 - 2014 (22) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |