The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

Granting Justice 1

The book thus takes issue with the characterisation of the South African state as “developmental”. The crucial aspect of care is missing from the practice for this to be the case. Thus, while the grants address the immediate survival needs of many South Africans, social justice requires quite a different approach, an approach of care that would grant agency and dignity to recipients.

Hochfeld adopts a highly personal narrative style of writing that reflects the ethical standpoint that she took during her research. Telling a story is what makes her writing so strong and distinguishes it in the development literature. The book falls into the fields of development studies, and social welfare and social development. The following are possible keywords: social justice; gender justice; care; social development; poverty; social protection; southern welfare; family strengthening; developmental social work.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 240mm x 168mm (Soft Cover)
Pages : 256
ISBN 13 : 978-0-7969-2620-3
Publish Year : March 2022
Rights : World Rights

List of tables and figures viii

Foreword ix

Acknowledgements xiii

Abbreviations xiv

  1. The child support grant: Hopes for a transformative agenda 1
  2. ‘Please, sir, may I have some more?’ Social justice and the politics of redistribution 24
  3. Narrative without stories, stories without narrative 44
  4. A ‘hand-up’, not a ‘hand-out’ 66
  5. The more you need, the less deserving you are: Nandi’s story of poverty 90
  6. Choosing between security and freedom: Households and cash 114
  7. Social justice: We need cash and care 131

Notes 149

References 151

About the author 172

Appendix: List of publications by Tessa Hochfeld 173

Index 176

The late Prof Tessa Hochfeld (1972-2019) was an internationally recognised academic and social worker who was passionate and committed to social and gender justice. The way she went about her research reflected her kindness and generosity of spirit, her engagement and subjectivity. Yet it was critical and reflective of what it might mean for a theory of justice in a southern context. Tessa's work was not simply about theory, although it was profoundly theoretical. It was about finding ways to improve people's lives. Her research was motivated by finding solutions that were tested, based on evidence and that built on what she learnt from people's everyday struggle to make a living.

She leaves a rich theoretical and critical body of intellectual work on social welfare, social protection, gender, social care and social and gender justice. This work is highly relevant to contemporary debates on distributive justice in political and social thought internationally, and most importantly, to understanding what is loosely referred to as 'Southern Welfare'.

Tessa was also a talented and committed teacher, mentor and supervisor. It is our wish, as her family and colleagues, to see her work continued through the development of excellent Masters researchers who are interested in the field of social and gender justice and in committing to her approach of "engaged scholarship".Bursary recipients will be selected from applicants to the Interdisciplinary Masters in Social Policy and Development programme – a programme that Prof Hochfeld was instrumental in setting up.

Endorsements

Granting Justice takes issue with the characterisation of the South African state as ‘developmental’. The crucial aspect of care is missing from the practice for this to be the case. Although grants address the immediate survival needs of many South Africans, social justice requires quite a different approach, an approach of care that would grant agency and dignity to recipients.

Tessa Hochfeld in this posthumous book, approached the grant system from the bottom up. She was interested in how women defined their own needs, rather than how these were defined by the state, and whether cash made an impact on their decision-making within households.

I am very pleased that this important work on the South African child care grant and its effects on lives of women by Tessa Hochfeld is being published posthumously, as it offers a significant contribution to debates on societal arrangements regarding care and justice in current times of global precarity.

Vivienne Bozalek, Emerita Professor Women’s and Gender Studies, University of the Western Cape, Honorary Professor Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning, Rhodes University

By diving deep into poor women’s lives while keeping a steady eye on feminist theories, Tessa Hochfeld guides us in the debate on the implications of child support grants for female recipients in South-Africa. Inspired by the American philosopher Nancy Fraser, Tessa wonders whether cash transfers contribute to these mothers’ capacities to live the lives that they value, and make the world more just. The study is a path-breaking example of understanding the meaning of institutional failure for individual lives, in this case the lives of six women living in Johannesburg. Hochfeld concludes that the South African state, while offering cash grants for its poor children (the majority of all South-African children), fails to invest systematically in poor children’s future, thereby not only limiting the impact of the grant but also continuing injustice by privatising caring responsibility onto families, in particular mothers. The book must be read by all activists, policy-makers, students, academics, and politicians in and outside South-Africa.

Trudie Knijn, Emerita Professor of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Share this

You might also consider these related books

5 Inch300

Labour Struggles in Southern Africa, 1919-1949
New Perspectives on the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU)

This collection provides fresh perspectives on the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union of Africa (ICU). By far the largest black political organisation in Southern Africa before the 1940s, the ICU was active in six African colonies as well as in global trade union networks.

Product information

Format : 240mm x 168mm
Pages : 390
ISBN 13 : 978-0-7969-2641-8
Publish Year : January 2023
Rights : World Rights
Price R R395.00
2141  Large

The Development Decade?
Economic and social change in South Africa, 1994-2004

Covering a breadth if issues, the international developement specialists who have contributed to this volume significantly deepen our understanding of the key socio-economic issues in the first decade of South Africa's democratic Governance.

Locating the South African challenges within a broader international perspective, the issues covered include all the major economic growth challenges confronting South Africa - employment, industrial policy, urban governance, the informal economy - and the social challenges of poverty , inequality, HIV/AIDS and health policy. The key development debates of the post-apartheid era are outlined and the success or otherwise of a decade of reform and experimentation is considered.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 168mm x 240mm
Pages : 484
ISBN 10 : 0-7969-2123-7
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2123-9
Publish Year : 2006
Price R 297.00
2023

PRODDER Southern African Development Directory 1999-2000

This directory provides a comprehensive overview of the southern African Development Community's (SADC) development role-players. More than 5 000 organisations are listed including government departments, parastatals, research institutions, business organisations, corporate social investment programmes, NGOs, CBOs, training institutions, local and international donor agencies, United Nations agencies and diplomatic representation in southern Africa.

Product information

Format : 295mm x 205mm
Pages : 565
ISBN 10 : 0-7969-1926-7
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-1926-7
Publish Year : 1999
Price R 291.00
2213  Large

Changing Social Policy
The Child Support Grant in South Africa

An important historical record of one part of post-apartheid South Africas policymaking, Changing Social Policy in South Africa charts the generation of the Report of the Lund Committee, which ultimately resulted in the establishment of the Child Support Grant (CSG) in post-apartheid South Africa.

Product information

Format : 148mm x 210mm (Soft Cover)
Pages : 168
ISBN 10 : 0-7969-2200-4
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2200-7
Publish Year : 2008
Rights : World Rights
Price R 165.00