South Africa: The Continuing Politics of Basic Income

Seekings, Jeremy; Matisonn, Heidi

doi:10.1057/9781137265227_7

Cited by 27 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…South Africa is an extreme case, spending over 3.5% of GDP on social assistance to one in three South Africans (Seekings & Moore, ). In South Africa and Namibia, there have even been demands for the introduction of a Basic Income Grant for all citizens (Standing & Samson, ; Haarmann & Haarmann, ; Seekings & Matisonn, ).…”

Section: Unemployment and Lewis‐like Growth In Southern Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Employment and labour productivity in high unemployment countries

Nattrass

Seekings

2018

Development Policy Review

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Contemporary development strategies emphasize labour productivity growth because it has historically underpinned rising living standards. Today, however, poverty reduction and inclusive development in those developing countries with high unemployment require increasing the employment rate even if this means lower average labour productivity. We critique the International Labour Organization (ILO) for its overly universalizing advocacy of high‐productivity growth strategies and for failing to confront the trade‐off between more and better‐quality jobs. This is particularly problematic in high unemployment contexts in Southern Africa, where labour productivity growth between 2000 and 2013 came at the cost of a falling employment rate.

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Section: Unemployment and Lewis‐like Growth In Southern Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Employment and labour productivity in high unemployment countries

Nattrass

Seekings

2018

Development Policy Review

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“…Yet neither ruling officials nor impoverished masses seem to have rallied to the BIG cause. No doubt there are many reasons (for a recent analysis of the South African case, see Seekings & Matisonn ). But one wonders if an underlying weakness of the campaign may not be that while social payments address quite directly (if minimally) the material needs of impoverished citizens, they offer far less by way of dealing with their social and moral needs.…”

Section: Asocial Assistance?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Declarations of dependence: labour, personhood, and welfare in southern Africa

Ferguson

2013

Royal Anthropological Inst

444

235

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Dependence on others has often figured, in liberal thought, as the opposite of freedom. But the political anthropology of southern Africa has long recognized relations of social dependence as the very foundation of polities and persons alike. Reflecting on a long regional history of dependence ‘as a mode of action’ allows a new perspective on certain contemporary practices that appear to what we may call ‘the emancipatory liberal mind’ simply as lamentable manifestations of a reactionary and retrograde yearning for paternalism and inequality. Instead, this article argues that such practices are an entirely contemporary response to the historically novel emergence of a social world where people, long understood (under both pre‐capitalist and early capitalist social systems) as scarce and valuable, have instead become seen as lacking value, and in surplus. Implications are drawn for contemporary politics and policy, in a world where both labour and forms of social membership based upon it are of diminishing value, and where social assistance and the various cash transfers associated with it are of increasing significance.

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“…A large informal sector and the blurring boundary between working and not working, as well as the need to combine labour income with social transfers and improve the bargaining power of the most precarious workers are even more topical in low and middle-income countries than they are in the developed welfare states. 5 Some seminal discussions have been seen in South Africa (Seekings & Matisonn, 2012;Barchiesi, 2008) and Brazil (Matarazzo Suplicy, 2002). The discussion on India will be referred to in the discussion chapter.…”

Section: Basic Income As Social Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Some seminal discussions have been seen in South Africa (Seekings & Matisonn, ; Barchiesi, ) and Brazil (Matarazzo Suplicy, ). The discussion on India will be referred to in the discussion chapter. …”

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confidence: 99%

Micro‐investment perspective and the potential of the universal basic income

Eskelinen

Perkiö

2018

Development Policy Review

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The article evaluates prospects of the Basic Income (BI) as a development policy tool. While BI is a relatively new initiative within development policy, the article argues that it should be seen as a serious option in the future, given the changing geography of poverty and the findings from existing cash transfer schemes. The analysis is carried out as a synthesis of existing findings on BI pilot programmes, along with cash transfer instruments more generally. While not including new empirical data, the synthesis allows preliminary estimates on the likely impacts of abolishing conditioning and targeting in cash transfer schemes. Particular attention is paid to the notion of micro‐investment and the psychological conditions of micro‐investment.

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South Africa: The Continuing Politics of Basic Income

Cited by 27 publications

References 10 publications

Employment and labour productivity in high unemployment countries

Employment and labour productivity in high unemployment countries

Declarations of dependence: labour, personhood, and welfare in southern Africa

Micro‐investment perspective and the potential of the universal basic income

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