Christianity and Political Engagement in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This paper focuses specifically on the impact of the Christian churches on the social, cultural and political contexts of South Africa. It considers the political role of the mainline Christian churches and their ecumenical bodies during the apartheid era. In post-apartheid South Africa, the social and political context has changed and the Christian churches relate to this new context in varied ways. The rapid growth and proliferation of Christian churches under forces of globalization to some extent undermines social cohesion and development. The traditional practice of the public gathering, or imbizo, is particularly threatened. This article therefore seeks to address the question of whether Christian institutions in a rapidly globalizing Africa are an asset or liability for promoting identity and belonging, social cohesion, and the development of social capital.     

Recruitment Procedures in the Construction of Labour Market Relations The Ethnic Divide in Sweden

In seeking to better understand the processes involved in the structuring of regional labour markets, an interview study has been conducted which focuses on recruitment procedures in private firms and public sector organizations in the Stockholm region, Sweden. The analysis discusses some of the effects of recruitment procedures used by the investigated firms and organizations, especially in terms of how new employees are selected and how these procedures may in turn act to hinder the entrance of ‘others’ into employment. The conclusions are discussed in relation to the situation in Sweden with particular consideration of the ethnic structure of the workforce and the high unemployment rates among groups of the immigrant population. Further, it is argued that such recruitment procedures as evidenced in the interview study are related to wider socio‐economic change, the particular characteristics of workplaces and their spatial context.     

From Compounded to Fragmented Labour: Mineworkers and the Demise of Compounds in South Africa

Abstract: At the core of colonial and apartheid social engineering was a spatial strategy based on institutions and infrastructure linking together rural homesteads and villages, and mining centers and towns. In the case of the mining industry, single‐sex compounds were set up as the foundation of the infrastructure of control over black labor. In this paper we examine how various forms of control operated. We locate our contribution within the labor geography literature. We argue that it was not only state institutions and major corporations that shaped landscapes of control. In this regard we highlight the centrality of workers’ agency, specifically the way in which the National Union of Mineworkers captured the compounds and subverted the logic of employer control. However, the union's successes as well as the advent of democracy have resulted in profound changes, thus presenting the union with new challenges.     

The Political Economy of Class Compromise: Trade Unions,Capital–Labour Relations and Development in North East Brazil1

Abstract: This article investigates how capital–labour relations (encompassing processes of class formation, representation, struggle and compromise) impact on emerging regions’ developmental trajectories. It does so because much of development studies portray labour simply as an input (human capital) subordinate to more fundamental processes such as capital investment and accumulation. The paper draws on and extends insights gained from the “new working class studies” and global commodity chains literatures in order to examine evolving capital–labour relations—from relatively militant struggles to class compromise—in an emerging sector of North East Brazilian export horticulture. It identifies sources of workers’ structural and associational power and uses these to explain significant gains achieved by the region's rural trade union during the formation of the export horticulture sector. It then asks, why, despite continuing structural power, the region's trade union has entered into a class compromise with the leading employers via (a) reducing its militancy and its strategy of striking against employers to win concessions, and (b) shifting its objectives in terms of concessions sought. It speculates on the impacts of these changing class relations on the region's developmental trajectory.     

The Movement, modernity and new International Relations writing in South Africa

Books reviewed in this article:
Korwa Gombe Adar and Rok Ajulu, Globalization and emerging trends in African states' foreign policymaking processes: a comparative perspective of Southern Africa.
Patrick Bond, Against global apartheid: South Africa meets the World Bank, IMF and international finance.
Greg Mills, The wired world: South Africa, foreign policy and globalization.
Philip Nel, Ian Taylor and Janis van der Westhuizen, South Africa's multilateral diplomacy and global change: the limits of reformism.
Ian Taylor, Stuck in middle GEAR: South Africa's post–apartheid foreign relations.     

从冲突到和解:近代英美关系考察

近代是英美关系发展变迁的重要历史时期,在一个多世纪的时间里英美由战争、冲突逐步走向了接近与和解。在此过程中,国际体系及其变更、地缘政治、心理要素与文化制度的认同、新兴强国崛起和国家战略调整等诸多因素共同起到了重要的作用。作为英美历史性接近的结果,到19世纪末,英国启动了向美国“转让”世界霸权的进程。就深远影响来看,它还使美国开始更多地卷入欧洲事务和世界事务,并促成了20世纪国际关系中另一项重大事态的出现——美国世界霸权的逐步确立。     

论非洲的族际冲突

冷战结束后,族际冲突成为世人瞩目的焦点问题。“从南非各城市的边缘地带到斯里兰卡海岸,从科索沃的山谷到巴斯克山区,武器的铿锵声已经发出。”“族际冲突最有可能成为２１世纪的政治问题。民族自决的教义作为２０世纪的典型诉求之一,将成为２１世纪的咒语。”①非洲...     

Modernising colonialism: The British Labour movement and Africa

The article evaluates the widely held view that the Attlee governments lacked a distinctive approach to colonial affairs by examining the Labour movement's post-war, institution building activities in Kenya. In Labour's colonial policy deliberations, Kenya was the focus of particular attention and is used as a case study to shed light on the Labour leadership's wider imperial concerns and objectives. From the 1920s, the Labour party advocated that the colonies be encouraged to develop trade unions, co-operatives and local government. Some tentative moves in this direction were made in 1930 by Ramsay MacDonald's administration but it was not until Labour came to power in 1945 that, in response to international pressure and the nationalist challenge, significant steps were taken to promote institutions which would organise the African masses. The argument advanced is that Labour leaders drew on their movement's historical traditions to encourage forms of African economic and political activism which were likely to stabilise colonial rule.     

Making Law Work: Restructuring Land Relations in Africa

This article explores a number of issues concerning the appropriate role for the law to play in the restructuring and reform of land relations and land tenure in Africa. Given current (external) donor tendencies, and (internal) pressures for reform from within, this is a particularly topical issue: in seeking to explore it, the author draws on his own experiences and involvement in land law reform, as well as other sources of information, concentrating on countries and events in Eastern and Southern Africa. After examining various models and country experiences, the article concludes that, while there is no single ‘right way’ to tackle land tenure reform in Africa, there are a number of factors which may be crucial to success, and in which the law—and lawyers—can play a vital role.     

British government policy in sub-Saharan Africa under New Labour

British government policy in Africa under Labour has been motivated by a combination of humanitarianism and self-interest. The policy has been shaped principally by the Department for International Development (DFID), but also by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and by Prime Minister Tony Blair himself, as he has become more interested in Africa issues. The main focus of the policy has been on poverty reduction and development. The approach has been multi-dimensional, aiming to tackle the principal obstacles to development such as conflict, HIV, debt, governance and trade barriers. The UK has sought to increase its leverage in Africa by working multilaterally with its allies and through the UN, the World Bank and the EU. But the policy has been hampered by the inherent difficulty of promoting sound development policies in weak states, by a lack of UK leverage to affect change, and by a UK preference for statist solutions. Strategic and commercial objectives pursued by the FCO and the prime minister have sometimes appeared as being at odds with the developmental objectives of DFID. Post-9/11 concerns have reinforced the UK's motivation for dealing with Africa's problems, particularly the problems of weak and failed states. But western policies related to the war on terror may give rise to new contradictions and complicate the UK's developmental efforts in Africa.     

Interregional Interaction in Southern Africa: Zhizo and Leopard's Kopje Relations in Northern South Africa, Southwestern Zimbabwe, and Eastern Botswana, AD 1000 to 1200

The dominant model of relations between Zhizo- and Leopard's Kopje-ceramic using groups in northern South Africa, southwestern Zimbabwe, and eastern Botswana between AD 1000 and 1300 has been one of hostile invasion by Leopard's Kopje groups, who are thought to have forced Zhizo groups into eastern Botswana (Huffman, 1978, 1986a, 1996). Leopard's Kopje groups are thereupon thought to have set about the process of nascent state formation in the absence of any significant contact, other than violence or intermittent intermarriage (Denbow, 1982, 1983, 1986; Huffman, 1986a, 1996), with their Zhizo (i.e., Toutswe) neighbors to the west. More recently, Denbow (1990) has modified his position to include trade in exotic goods as a regular feature of Leopard's Kopje–Zhizo relations. Radiocarbon and ceramic data from the Iron Age site Leokwe Hill, in combination with the available ceramic data and a reanalysis of the ceramics from the site Schroda, indicate that current interpretations of the relations between Zhizo and Leopard's Kopje groups need to be reconsidered. New hypotheses are presented that posit that the nature and intensity of interaction between these groups was more far-reaching than is currently thought.Le modéle dominant des relations entre les groupes qui ont utilisés les ceramiques Zhizo et ceux qui ont utilisés celles de Leopard's Kopje dans le nord de l'Afrique du Sud, sud-est du Zimbabwe et l'est du Botswana entre AD 1000 et 1300, a été l'invasion hostile par les groupes de Leopard's Kopje, qui, l'on pense avoir forcé les groupes Zhizo dans l'est du Botswana (Huffman, 1978, 1986a, 1996). Les groupes de Leopard's Kopje sont pensés avoir établi le procédée de l'état de formation (nascent) en l'absence de tous contacts significatifis, autre que la violence ou des mariages consanguins intermittents (Denbow, 1982, 1983, 1986; Huffman, 1986a, 1996), avec leur Zhizo (c.à.d. Toutwse) voisins à l'ouest. Récemment, Denbow (1990) a modifié sa position pour inclure le commerce des produits exotics comme une caractéristique réguliere des relations entre Leopard's Kopje et Zhizo. Le radiocarbonne et les données en céramique du site de l'âge de fer Leokwe Hill, en combinaison avec les données de céramiques disponibles et une ré-analyse des céramiques du site Schroda, indiquent que les interprétations des relations entre Zhizo et les groupes de Leopard's Kopje doivent être reconsidêrées. Des nouvelles hypothéses sont présentées qui proposent que la nature et l'intensité des interactions entre ses groupes étaient d'ptune portée bien plus grande que nous le pensons actuellement.Sashi-Limpopo Archaeological Project     

中亚国家的民族关系与地区安全

随着地缘政治的变化,中亚五国的民族问题凸显跨国性。民族与宗教因素相结合、相促发,利用宗教服务于极端民族主义是影响民族关系、制约国家经济建设和危及地区安全的突出征象。“9.11”事件以后,由于美国的军事介入,致使中亚的民族问题更加复杂,不仅关涉五国间的国家关系,而且牵动包括我国西北边疆及其他周边国家在内的地区安全。面临来自周边动荡带的巨大压力,中亚的稳定仍然十分脆弱,强化国家安全的任务极其艰巨。中亚各国政府针对本国出现的一些具体问题,积极推行一系列促进族际关系健康发展的措施,民族问题始终处于政府的控制之下,整个地区总体上保持基本稳定态势,但局部片区的安全形势不容乐观,种种变数难以预测。     

Manufacturing amnesia: Corporate Social Responsibility in South Africa

'Manufacturing amnesia' argues that the term 'Corporate Social Responsibility' has been abandoned by most South African firms in favour of the term 'corporate social investment'. This has been done in order to divert attention from calls on business to redress the results of its historical contribution to the apartheid system. The discourse of reconciliation has further served to erase memories of past corporate behaviour. It also masks continuing inequalities and unsustainable practices. Business has responded weakly to the pressures for CSR, of which five broad areas are identified and analysed. Voluntary sustainability initiatives have not succeeded and compliance with black economic empowerment charters and environmental standards have to be legislated and regulated. Firms need to reassess their legacies more honestly until which time their CSR contributions will be regarded as cosmetic and self-serving.     

Female Labour Force Participation and Fertility in South Korea

Drawing on data from the Korea Labour and Income Panel Study 1998?2008, this article attempts to assess the impact of female labour force participation on childbirth decisions in South Korea. To control for the dynamic processes through which soon-to-be mothers choose to get out of the labour force to give birth, empirical datasets using three different birth-month lag scenarios are examined: no lag; five-month lag; and eight-month lag. In addition parity-specific effects for the first and second childbirth are evaluated in consideration of previous findings showing different effects by birth order. Results suggest that, regarding the first birth, female labour force participation does not seem to have significantly diminished transition probability to first birth. Female labour force participation, however, appears to affect the second childbirth decision in a negative direction, although the impacts are not as great as have been widely publicised.