Pub Date : 2021-11-22DOI: 10.1080/02533952.2021.2000735
Bernard Dubbeld, Adam Cooper
This editorial introduces and frames the six papers of this special section. It begins by proposing that youth unemployment needs to be understood in relation to a range of patterns of “getting by” in the global south. We suggest that the many practices of work, including informal ones, discussed in the collection do not attest to a society in “need of development” but rather point towards the future of work, here and elsewhere. While taking transformations in capitalism seriously, we argue that renewed pressures on secure wage work may not lead to a precarity in quite the same way that it has been theorised in the global north. Instead, especially through a focus on youth and generation, we point to multiple experiential circumstances in which work and its futures are enacted. These pertain to time and value and to the importance of space in positioning actors in enabling or foreclosing opportunities for earning income.
{"title":"Youth and the future of work: introduction","authors":"Bernard Dubbeld, Adam Cooper","doi":"10.1080/02533952.2021.2000735","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2021.2000735","url":null,"abstract":"This editorial introduces and frames the six papers of this special section. It begins by proposing that youth unemployment needs to be understood in relation to a range of patterns of “getting by” in the global south. We suggest that the many practices of work, including informal ones, discussed in the collection do not attest to a society in “need of development” but rather point towards the future of work, here and elsewhere. While taking transformations in capitalism seriously, we argue that renewed pressures on secure wage work may not lead to a precarity in quite the same way that it has been theorised in the global north. Instead, especially through a focus on youth and generation, we point to multiple experiential circumstances in which work and its futures are enacted. These pertain to time and value and to the importance of space in positioning actors in enabling or foreclosing opportunities for earning income.","PeriodicalId":51765,"journal":{"name":"Social Dynamics-A Journal of African Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41704640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02533952.2021.1997302
Liesl Orr
ABSTRACT Worker education is crucial for developing alternative perspectives and collective responses to the socio-economic and ecological challenges facing the working class. This paper summarises findings of research commissioned by the Worker Education Committee of the Human Resources Development Council on the nature and provision of worker education. The research was conducted with trade unions, labour service organisations and institutions involved in worker education. The research process collectively defined worker education as education for workers, controlled by workers and their organisations for their own needs and purposes, and oriented towards building collective organisation to advance workers’ struggles. Worker education includes the employed (in both precarious and “standard” employment) and the unemployed. Key challenges include the lack of sustainable financing of worker education, the lack of time-off for workers to access education, and fragmented worker education initiatives. The revitalisation of worker education requires a reassertion of the historical character of worker education, organically linked to working class struggles and union organising, rather than narrowly focused on skills acquisition for individual advancement. Revitalising worker education cannot solve the problems facing the labour movement on its own. Rebuilding worker organisation and relationships of solidarity and collective action within and between organised and unorganised workers is integral to the revitalisation of worker education.
{"title":"A review of the state of trade union-based worker education","authors":"Liesl Orr","doi":"10.1080/02533952.2021.1997302","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2021.1997302","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Worker education is crucial for developing alternative perspectives and collective responses to the socio-economic and ecological challenges facing the working class. This paper summarises findings of research commissioned by the Worker Education Committee of the Human Resources Development Council on the nature and provision of worker education. The research was conducted with trade unions, labour service organisations and institutions involved in worker education. The research process collectively defined worker education as education for workers, controlled by workers and their organisations for their own needs and purposes, and oriented towards building collective organisation to advance workers’ struggles. Worker education includes the employed (in both precarious and “standard” employment) and the unemployed. Key challenges include the lack of sustainable financing of worker education, the lack of time-off for workers to access education, and fragmented worker education initiatives. The revitalisation of worker education requires a reassertion of the historical character of worker education, organically linked to working class struggles and union organising, rather than narrowly focused on skills acquisition for individual advancement. Revitalising worker education cannot solve the problems facing the labour movement on its own. Rebuilding worker organisation and relationships of solidarity and collective action within and between organised and unorganised workers is integral to the revitalisation of worker education.","PeriodicalId":51765,"journal":{"name":"Social Dynamics-A Journal of African Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":"498 - 515"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42296173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02533952.2021.1999632
Crystal Farmer
ABSTRACT The global video games industry is one of the largest entertainment sectors. Independent, or “indie” video game producers make games using small production budgets, outside of larger corporate game companies. In South Africa, video game production is a new industry. Because of the absence of large game companies, formalised production and distribution infrastructure, all producers are independent. This essay is primarily an ethnographic account of the work and lifestyles of a community of video game creators in Cape Town. I approach the category of “youth” to address the sociological facts of those who work in independent game development and as a metaphor for the emerging game development industry in Cape Town. I show how indie game developers attempt to “evangelise” their craft, hoping to grow the industry by attracting more creators and consumers. They negotiate the tensions of the haphazard work rhythms and uncertainty of financial security and their desire to express themselves by making a career out of creating meaningful cultural artefacts, eschewing mainstream expectations and definitions of success. The essay concludes with a discussion on how the industry could grow in the future, and the possible impact of this growth on the current culture of work and community.
{"title":"Arrested (game) development: labour and lifestyles of independent video game creators in Cape Town","authors":"Crystal Farmer","doi":"10.1080/02533952.2021.1999632","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2021.1999632","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The global video games industry is one of the largest entertainment sectors. Independent, or “indie” video game producers make games using small production budgets, outside of larger corporate game companies. In South Africa, video game production is a new industry. Because of the absence of large game companies, formalised production and distribution infrastructure, all producers are independent. This essay is primarily an ethnographic account of the work and lifestyles of a community of video game creators in Cape Town. I approach the category of “youth” to address the sociological facts of those who work in independent game development and as a metaphor for the emerging game development industry in Cape Town. I show how indie game developers attempt to “evangelise” their craft, hoping to grow the industry by attracting more creators and consumers. They negotiate the tensions of the haphazard work rhythms and uncertainty of financial security and their desire to express themselves by making a career out of creating meaningful cultural artefacts, eschewing mainstream expectations and definitions of success. The essay concludes with a discussion on how the industry could grow in the future, and the possible impact of this growth on the current culture of work and community.","PeriodicalId":51765,"journal":{"name":"Social Dynamics-A Journal of African Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":"455 - 471"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42970509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02533952.2021.1996693
Nomkhosi Mbatha, Leah Koskimaki
ABSTRACT Young migrant street traders are often pulled to the informal economy in South African cities in pursuit of work opportunities and financial independence. However, they often have to work long hours and endure periods of uncertainty as they hope for better futures. This article highlights the way the concept of waithood emerges in the narratives of street trading work of seven migrant youth from The Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria and Malawi in Durban, South Africa. This paper focuses on the way in which “dual waithood” – the period of uncertainty that characterises both migrant and youthful life – intersect to orient these young migrant street traders to continually strategise and pass their time. The narratives shed light on the way hope emerges in the overlapping urban spaces of work in the informal economy.
{"title":"No time to relax: waithood and work of young migrant street traders in Durban, South Africa","authors":"Nomkhosi Mbatha, Leah Koskimaki","doi":"10.1080/02533952.2021.1996693","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2021.1996693","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Young migrant street traders are often pulled to the informal economy in South African cities in pursuit of work opportunities and financial independence. However, they often have to work long hours and endure periods of uncertainty as they hope for better futures. This article highlights the way the concept of waithood emerges in the narratives of street trading work of seven migrant youth from The Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria and Malawi in Durban, South Africa. This paper focuses on the way in which “dual waithood” – the period of uncertainty that characterises both migrant and youthful life – intersect to orient these young migrant street traders to continually strategise and pass their time. The narratives shed light on the way hope emerges in the overlapping urban spaces of work in the informal economy.","PeriodicalId":51765,"journal":{"name":"Social Dynamics-A Journal of African Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":"422 - 438"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41392142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02533952.2021.1991751
Mondli Hlatshwayo
ABSTRACT Consistent with the large-scale re-emergence of precarious forms of work, in recent years literature on precarious workers and their working conditions has become one of the main strands in labour studies. However, the literature on the nexus between precarious workers and workers’ education is almost non-existent; and yet precarious work is probably the future of labour at least under global capitalism. In an attempt to fill the gap and make a contribution to the emerging literature on precarious workers and workers’ education, the article argues that the emerging workers’ education that has tended to be ignored by the literature on precarious work is beginning to respond to the fact that the workforce within South African borders has been fundamentally restructured by the current phase of capitalism. The decline of the trade union movement in South Africa in the 2000s meant that precarious workers have limited resources to advance their workers’ education agenda, but interestingly non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and advice centres are gradually fling the gap by engaging with precarious workers in education that is dialogical and emancipatory. There is a similar trend in other countries, where precarious workers are also defining their educational programmes to improve their working conditions.
{"title":"How is workers’ education responding to the rising precariousness of work? Some international and South African examples","authors":"Mondli Hlatshwayo","doi":"10.1080/02533952.2021.1991751","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2021.1991751","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Consistent with the large-scale re-emergence of precarious forms of work, in recent years literature on precarious workers and their working conditions has become one of the main strands in labour studies. However, the literature on the nexus between precarious workers and workers’ education is almost non-existent; and yet precarious work is probably the future of labour at least under global capitalism. In an attempt to fill the gap and make a contribution to the emerging literature on precarious workers and workers’ education, the article argues that the emerging workers’ education that has tended to be ignored by the literature on precarious work is beginning to respond to the fact that the workforce within South African borders has been fundamentally restructured by the current phase of capitalism. The decline of the trade union movement in South Africa in the 2000s meant that precarious workers have limited resources to advance their workers’ education agenda, but interestingly non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and advice centres are gradually fling the gap by engaging with precarious workers in education that is dialogical and emancipatory. There is a similar trend in other countries, where precarious workers are also defining their educational programmes to improve their working conditions.","PeriodicalId":51765,"journal":{"name":"Social Dynamics-A Journal of African Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":"568 - 583"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46749050","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02533952.2021.1984144
L. Cooper
ABSTRACT This article sketches the contours of the particular tradition of radical workers’ education that emerged in South Africa in the context of the re-emergence of militant trade unionism in the 1970s and 1980s. It draws methodologically on Cultural Historical Activity Theory and its view of education as an activity system to present an analysis of the some of the distinctive features of this tradition of radical workers’ education. These include its transformative purpose, its internal ideological contestation, and the combination of an ideologically directive pedagogy with learning in “praxis.” Contextual conditions that supported the emergence of this radical tradition have shifted in more recent times, undermining its historical practices. The article concludes that recognising and reclaiming this radical tradition can enrich our knowledge archive and our education practices.
{"title":"Conceptualising the historical tradition of radical workers’ education in South Africa","authors":"L. Cooper","doi":"10.1080/02533952.2021.1984144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2021.1984144","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article sketches the contours of the particular tradition of radical workers’ education that emerged in South Africa in the context of the re-emergence of militant trade unionism in the 1970s and 1980s. It draws methodologically on Cultural Historical Activity Theory and its view of education as an activity system to present an analysis of the some of the distinctive features of this tradition of radical workers’ education. These include its transformative purpose, its internal ideological contestation, and the combination of an ideologically directive pedagogy with learning in “praxis.” Contextual conditions that supported the emergence of this radical tradition have shifted in more recent times, undermining its historical practices. The article concludes that recognising and reclaiming this radical tradition can enrich our knowledge archive and our education practices.","PeriodicalId":51765,"journal":{"name":"Social Dynamics-A Journal of African Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":"534 - 549"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48408216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02533952.2021.1999113
S. Allais
ABSTRACT This paper explores South African experiences in using formal credentials in worker education. In specific, it analyses the value and use of the outcomes-based, unit standards-based qualifications registered on the South African national qualifications framework for “trade union practice.” Creating formal qualifications for worker education programmes was hotly debated for many years in the labour movement. The paper finds little evidence of positive achievement of the creation of a formal qualification route for trade unionists. The main stated reason for the introduction of the formal qualification route was to support the educational and labour market mobility of union activists. There is no evidence of this to date, and the paper argues that the design of the qualification makes it unlikely to become a possibility. The existence of the qualification has facilitated funding for worker education, but a greater success would have been to convince public bodies to fund worker education according to its intrinsic logic. The paper also finds that to date the negative consequences that many unionists predicted in these debates have not arisen. However, this seems to be in spite of and not because of the qualification model and may be attributable to the strength of the single provider of the qualification.
{"title":"Crediting worker education? Insights from South African experiences","authors":"S. Allais","doi":"10.1080/02533952.2021.1999113","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2021.1999113","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper explores South African experiences in using formal credentials in worker education. In specific, it analyses the value and use of the outcomes-based, unit standards-based qualifications registered on the South African national qualifications framework for “trade union practice.” Creating formal qualifications for worker education programmes was hotly debated for many years in the labour movement. The paper finds little evidence of positive achievement of the creation of a formal qualification route for trade unionists. The main stated reason for the introduction of the formal qualification route was to support the educational and labour market mobility of union activists. There is no evidence of this to date, and the paper argues that the design of the qualification makes it unlikely to become a possibility. The existence of the qualification has facilitated funding for worker education, but a greater success would have been to convince public bodies to fund worker education according to its intrinsic logic. The paper also finds that to date the negative consequences that many unionists predicted in these debates have not arisen. However, this seems to be in spite of and not because of the qualification model and may be attributable to the strength of the single provider of the qualification.","PeriodicalId":51765,"journal":{"name":"Social Dynamics-A Journal of African Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":"550 - 567"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44604697","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02533952.2021.1992878
Jelena Vidojević, I. Chipkin
ABSTRACT This paper considers the ANC government’s approach to welfare and, in particular, its de facto rejection of a Universal Basic Income Grant. In the first part of this essay we argue that the current welfare model in SA is underpinned by a naive conception of the South African economy as potentially fast-growing and labour absorbing across all skills types. In the second part of this essay, we consider the gendered character of welfare and of unemployment arguing that under current conditions young men are effectively excluded from social protection. We propose that this situation interrupts the transition to male adulthood and fuels violence against women and children. We conclude by proposing that a Universal Basic Income Grant is necessary under conditions of mass, structural unemployment and widespread 'waithood'.
{"title":"The gendered character of welfare: reconsidering vulnerability and violence in South Africa","authors":"Jelena Vidojević, I. Chipkin","doi":"10.1080/02533952.2021.1992878","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2021.1992878","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper considers the ANC government’s approach to welfare and, in particular, its de facto rejection of a Universal Basic Income Grant. In the first part of this essay we argue that the current welfare model in SA is underpinned by a naive conception of the South African economy as potentially fast-growing and labour absorbing across all skills types. In the second part of this essay, we consider the gendered character of welfare and of unemployment arguing that under current conditions young men are effectively excluded from social protection. We propose that this situation interrupts the transition to male adulthood and fuels violence against women and children. We conclude by proposing that a Universal Basic Income Grant is necessary under conditions of mass, structural unemployment and widespread 'waithood'.","PeriodicalId":51765,"journal":{"name":"Social Dynamics-A Journal of African Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":"472 - 487"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47443899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02533952.2021.1981580
J. Pieterse, J. Sharp
ABSTRACT Many Afrikaans-speaking people in Pretoria’s white working-class suburbs during the apartheid era lost their jobs in the 1990s when the heavy industries in which they worked were downsized or closed down. This paper explores the livelihood strategies open to the next generation – the ex-workers’ children who are confronted by wage employment opportunities very different from those open to their parents. Popular interpretations of the position of members of the apartheid-era white working class in South Africa today are contradictory. One narrative holds that their present circumstances mark the return of the “Poor Whites” of the early twentieth century, while a second contends that they continue to benefit uniformly from the “wages of whiteness.” The evidence we draw from our ethnographic field research in the former white working-class suburbs suggests that both of these understandings simplify a complex situation. We show the ways in which young people endeavour to fashion livelihoods at present, and discuss how the differences between their various livelihood strategies shape their understanding of what it means to be Afrikaans and white in the post-apartheid era.
{"title":"Precarious employment and precarious life: youth and work in Pretoria’s white working-class suburbs","authors":"J. Pieterse, J. Sharp","doi":"10.1080/02533952.2021.1981580","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2021.1981580","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Many Afrikaans-speaking people in Pretoria’s white working-class suburbs during the apartheid era lost their jobs in the 1990s when the heavy industries in which they worked were downsized or closed down. This paper explores the livelihood strategies open to the next generation – the ex-workers’ children who are confronted by wage employment opportunities very different from those open to their parents. Popular interpretations of the position of members of the apartheid-era white working class in South Africa today are contradictory. One narrative holds that their present circumstances mark the return of the “Poor Whites” of the early twentieth century, while a second contends that they continue to benefit uniformly from the “wages of whiteness.” The evidence we draw from our ethnographic field research in the former white working-class suburbs suggests that both of these understandings simplify a complex situation. We show the ways in which young people endeavour to fashion livelihoods at present, and discuss how the differences between their various livelihood strategies shape their understanding of what it means to be Afrikaans and white in the post-apartheid era.","PeriodicalId":51765,"journal":{"name":"Social Dynamics-A Journal of African Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":"439 - 454"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48058108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02533952.2021.1981582
A. Cooper
ABSTRACT Rather than framing the South African youth unemployment debate in deficit terms, highlighting a lack of skills, educational and economic growth, this study focuses on creative practices and aspirations of Black youth in the Johannesburg tour- ism industry. This group’s activities included tours of former migrant hostels, derelict buildings and township bicycle tours. These young entrepreneurs were placed at a fault line between township and mainstream economies, hustling capitals from various spaces to generate an income. Life histories of four young male entrepreneurs are described in detail. Their knowledge of and access to the inner-city and townships was desirable to certain tourists, creating a demand for “raw” or “authentic” experiences in informal settings. However, their origins in marginalised spaces, the operations of the main- stream capitalist economy and limited financial capital produced structural barriers to their rising too high. Johannesburg therefore mediated the acquisition and use of different forms of capital that Black youth tried to accumulate and use for income generation opportunities in the tourism sector. The inner-city and townships formed both a ceiling and a “dance floor,” enabling them to create innovative livelihoods, but these sites simultaneously and paradoxically pre- scribed limits to their upward social mobility.
{"title":"“Dancing on the ceiling” : young Black entrepreneurs leveraging capitals across sub-fields in Johannesburg tourism","authors":"A. Cooper","doi":"10.1080/02533952.2021.1981582","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2021.1981582","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Rather than framing the South African youth unemployment debate in deficit terms, highlighting a lack of skills, educational and economic growth, this study focuses on creative practices and aspirations of Black youth in the Johannesburg tour- ism industry. This group’s activities included tours of former migrant hostels, derelict buildings and township bicycle tours. These young entrepreneurs were placed at a fault line between township and mainstream economies, hustling capitals from various spaces to generate an income. Life histories of four young male entrepreneurs are described in detail. Their knowledge of and access to the inner-city and townships was desirable to certain tourists, creating a demand for “raw” or “authentic” experiences in informal settings. However, their origins in marginalised spaces, the operations of the main- stream capitalist economy and limited financial capital produced structural barriers to their rising too high. Johannesburg therefore mediated the acquisition and use of different forms of capital that Black youth tried to accumulate and use for income generation opportunities in the tourism sector. The inner-city and townships formed both a ceiling and a “dance floor,” enabling them to create innovative livelihoods, but these sites simultaneously and paradoxically pre- scribed limits to their upward social mobility.","PeriodicalId":51765,"journal":{"name":"Social Dynamics-A Journal of African Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":"403 - 421"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48361609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}