Invitation to a workshop at Wits on 13 March 2014 Dear Sir/Madam, Nicolas Pons-Vignon, Aurelia Segatti and Karl Von Holdt would like to invite you to a workshop on the political economy of South Africa: South Africa: Developmental failure or neoliberal success?. As political economist Vishnu Padayachee noted in 2006, South Africas rich critical scholarship of the 1980s and 1990s lost a great deal of its capacity to remain critical of power in democracy (2006, 16). Progressive scholars have often sought to inform policy rather than analyse how it is produced. A frequent implication is that frustrating policy directions are met with disbelief and attempts to argue from within, either the state or the Tripartite Alliance. Yet, on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the historic electoral victory of the ANC, and in the aftermath of major working class mobilisation in mining and agriculture, it seems essential to offer an assessment from without. The main objective of this workshop will be to unpack the concurrent political, economic and social dynamics of neoliberal deepening under a democratic regime, thereby shedding light on the complex unfolding and idiosyncrasies of neoliberalism in post-apartheid South Africa. The papers to be presented explore five key dimensions of South Africas neoliberal deepening: 1. South Africa as a violent democracy (K. von Holdt), 2. The material impact of neoliberal policies on social welfare (F.Khan), 3. The question of BEE (R. Southall), 4. The capture and transformation of the South African state and its macro-economic instruments and institutions (A. Segatti & N. Pons-Vignon), 5. The restructuring of ownership and competition (T.Makhaya & S.Roberts). Each paper will be followed by a short critical discussion. Confirmed discussants include Gavin Capps, SWOP, Ncebisi Ndletyana, MISTRA, Dinga Sikwebu, NUMSA, and Mark Heywood, Section 27, This workshop draws on a series of international comparative case studies interrogating the framework developed by D. North (Nobel Prize), J. Wallis, and B. Weingast, on Violence and Social Order (CUP, 2009) and coordinated by the AFD. Case studies included Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Pakistan, Turkey, and Vietnam. Some of the papers have been published in the December 2013 special issue of the Review Of African Political Economy under the title Revisiting the South African developmental impasse: the national neoliberal revolution. ________________________________________ Date: 13 March 2014 Time: 8:30am - 17:00pm Venue: Wits Club The workshop will be followed by a cocktail party. ________________________________________ RSVP: [email protected] | 4 March 2014. As there is only a limited number of copies of the special issue available and for catering purposes, please ensure you confirm your attendance.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Feb 2014 10:30:51 +0000
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