Precarious liberation : workers, the state, and contested social citizenship in postapartheid South Africa / / Franco Barchiesi

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910962401903321
• Autore: Barchiesi Franco
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Albany, : State University of New York Press; Scottsville, South Africa, : University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, c2011
• ISBN: 9781438436128; 1438436122; 9781461905998; 1461905990
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (356 p.)
• Collana: SUNY series in global modernity
• Disciplina: 305.5/620968
• Soggetti: Working class - South Africa; Wages - South Africa; Democratization - South Africa; South Africa Politics and government 1994-
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front Matter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Preface -- Note on South Africa’s Racial Terminology -- Introduction -- Redeeming Labor -- The Work-Citizenship Nexus of Postapartheid South Africa -- Contesting Commodification -- The Changing World of Work in Gauteng -- Translation Troubles -- “Like a Branch on a Rotten Tree” -- Conclusion -- Appendix on Methodology -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: Winner of the 2012 CLR James Award presented by the Working Class Studies AssociationMillions of black South African workers struggled against apartheid to redeem employment and production from a history of abuse, insecurity, and racial despotism. Almost two decades later, however, the prospects of a dignified life of wage-earning work remain unattainable for most South Africans. Through extensive archival and ethnographic research, Franco Barchiesi documents and interrogates this important dilemma in the country's democratic transition: economic participation has gained centrality in the government's definition of virtuous citizenship, and yet for most workers, ; employment remains an elusive and insecure experience. In a context of market liberalization and persistent social and racial inequalities, as jobs in South Africa become increasingly flexible, fragmented, and unprotected, they depart from the promise of work with dignity and citizenship rights that once inspired opposition to apartheid. Barchiesi traces how the employment crisis and the responses of workers to it challenge the state's normative imagination of work, and raise decisive questions for the social foundations and prospects of South Africa's democratic experiment.