Giving and Solidarity

Resource Flows for Poverty Alleviation in South Africa

In this report, the responses of almost 2 000 unemployed individuals in South Africa in a survey conducted in six provinces are considered. The results are supported by the findings of several local and international research projects on job creation. Strategies to optimise the impact of job creation efforts are also suggested.

Community meetings seldom lead to significant change in urban policies, and have been accused of being sterile, sedative, or manipulative. This book starts from a simple question: why do people then continue to participate in these meetings, sometimes massively, and on a regular basis? Authors from a variety of disciplines explore the multiple roles of these �invited� spaces of participation. From consolidation of individual social status and networks, to the construction and framing of the local �community�, the display of political or group loyalties and maintenance of clientelist exchange, access to information, rumors or gossip but also forms of education on who and what is the state, invited spaces of participation are also, crucially, places of emergence of collective awareness, through shared expressions of frustration, that can lead to political mobilisation and other, less institutionalised forms of participation. This book, unpacking community politics and rethinking the complex articulations between ��invited� and invented� spaces of participation, is of relevance for international and national audiences interested in urban governance and local democracy.

While the informal sector is the ‘forgotten’ sector in many ways, it provides livelihoods, employment and income for about 2.5 million workers and business owners. One in every six South Africans who work, work in the informal sector. Almost half of these work in firms with employees; these firms provide about 850 000 paid jobs – almost twice direct employment in the mining sector. The annual entry of new enterprises is quite high, as is the number of enterprises that grow their employment. There is no shortage of business initiative and desire to grow.

Leading intellectuals from business, organised labour, community organisations, government structures and academics examine the effects of a whole range of global forces on local forms of identity, coherence and cohesion. This compelling book merits close attention from anyone interested in the wide-ranging effects of globalisation on South Africa.