Beall, J., Crankshaw, O. and Parnell, S., ‘The Causes of Unemployment in Post-Apartheid Johannesburg and the Livelihood Strategies of the Poor’, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 91(4), 2000, pp.379 396. (original) (raw)

The dynamics of urban poverty in South Africa

A 2002 review prepared for the Urban Sector network to examine urban poverty, livelihoods and vulnerability coupled with a critical assessment of new poverty reduction agendas in South Africa

Beall, J., Crankshaw, O. and Parnell, S., 'Local government, poverty reduction and inequality in Johannesburg'

Environment and Urbanization, 11(2), pp.107 122., 2000

This paper discusses the difficulties facing the post-apartheid metropolitan government of Johannesburg as it reforms itself, seeking to better respond to the needs of all its citizens, while also attracting new investment. These difficulties include high levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality as well as the apartheid legacy of "separate development" with its large backlog of poor quality housing and inadequate basic services, much of it concentrated in former "black townships" and peripheral informal settlements. Limited budgets and overloaded bureaucracy have limited the scale, quality and speed of delivery. Meanwhile, the need for organizational change and for good fiscal performance compete for attention and resources with poverty reduction and with the need for a more integrated, cross-sectoral poverty reduction policy. The paper ends with a discussion of how the principal challenges facing Johannesburg are also challenges for contemporary urban governance in many other cities.

Decent Employment and Poverty Alleviation for Socio-Economic Development and Its Implications for the Well-Being of the Citizenry in South Africa

Applied Studies in Agribusiness and Commerce

The need for governments and private employers to adequately provide decent work within the economy for all its inhabitants cannot be over-emphasized. This imperative is even more important since most obtainable work have been characterized by many detrimental dimensions which can be considered as constituting ‘indecent employment’. From the viewpoint of human development, the paper examines how ‘decent employment’ can serve as an antidote to poverty. Thus, decent employment can positively affect both material and non-material social development which include health, education, social security, food security and overall well-being.. The present paper is borne out of the desire to empower the average South African citizen in specifically attaining an improved socio-economic living standard. This paper employs a qualitative, thematic analysis of selected reported cases of perceived ‘indecent’ or non-meaningful employment from both informal and formal sectors’ Additionally, this paper...

Local government, poverty reduction and inequality in Johannesburg

Environment and Urbanization, 2000

This paper discusses the difficulties facing the post-apartheid metropolitan government of Johannesburg as it reforms itself, seeking to better respond to the needs of all its citizens, while also attracting new investment. These difficulties include high levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality as well as the apartheid legacy of "separate development" with its large backlog of poor quality housing and inadequate basic services, much of it concentrated in former "black townships" and peripheral informal settlements. Limited budgets and overloaded bureaucracy have limited the scale, quality and speed of delivery. Meanwhile, the need for organizational change and for good fiscal performance compete for attention and resources with poverty reduction and with the need for a more integrated, cross-sectoral poverty reduction policy. The paper ends with a discussion of how the principal challenges facing Johannesburg are also challenges for contemporary urban governance in many other cities.

Poverty politics. Reconceptualising economic growth in Durban, South Africa

2007

In this thesis I show how narrow representations of 'the economy' in urban poverty discourses and practices have channelled the attention of academics and policy makers in particular ways as they have attempted to address urban poverty. I explore representations of the relationship between poverty and economic growth by these groups to show how dominant urban poverty discourses and practices tend, at best, to place poor people in the informal economy or at worst, outside of the economies of cities. One reason for this is traced to poverty studies' understanding of poor people as independent units undertaking survivalist activities or livelihoods. However, thinking of poor people as making up dispersed sets of networks connected into a diverse economy opens up new spatial imaginations of the city and new possibilities for policies aimed at achieving social justice. Drawing on the example of the city of Durban, South Africa, I explore how thinking about poor people's a...