The Politics of African Household Budget Studies in South Africa

Abstract

Abstract:This paper traces the development of studies of African household budgets in South Africa, from the 1920s up to the 1970s, and indeed in summary form till the present. It argues that, although the genre seems to be politically neutral, and only concerned to establish “the facts,” in reality the outcome of the various researches, and certainly their presentation was dependent on the political and institutional position of the researcher, whether “liberal,” linked to commercial institutions, or as part of the apartheid state.