Skills and quality production in the South African wine industry

Thesis (DPhil (Sociology and Social Anthropology))--Stellenbosch University, 2007.There is a general consensus amongst industry experts that in order for the South African wine industry to sustain the success it has enjoyed thus far in export markets like the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Sweden and to become even more internationally competitive, its has to improve the quality of its wine and move into higher price categories of the wine market. Skills’ training has been highlighted as a significant component of a strategy to improve the quality of South African wine and its competitiveness in world markets. The aim of this study was to find out how the South African wine industry is adapting to new vineyard practices necessary for quality production at farm level, especially as far as training of vineyard workers is concerned. Four theoretical perspectives are discussed in relation to the restructuring of the world agro-food industry, the question of quality and the issue of training as it relates the production of quality wine. These theoretical perspectives are regulation theory, global commodity chain analysis, actor-network theory and the ergonomics perspective on the skills needed for the production of quality wine. The focus of the study was on different kinds of producers, i.e. co-operative cellars, private cellars and estates. The research covered two of the main wine-producing areas, namely Paarl and the Robertson area. At each farm, interviews were conducted with the farm owner, farm manager or viticulturist as well as a number of workers. Interviews were also conducted with prominent wine makers, skills trainers and facilitators and other industry experts. This was done to gain a better understanding of the South African wine industry as well as the major issues and debates as far as quality production and skills training are concerned. The study found that although there has been a general upgrading of skills in relation to new vineyard practices for quality production, workers at the co-operatives and estates studied do not yet receive the kind of in-depth knowledge which the theory argues is necessary for the production of quality wine. The private cellars invest much more time and resources in the training of their workforce. As far as the private cellars and estates are concerned there is a correlation between the quality of wine and training. The private cellars sell more than 50% of their wine in the premium, super-premium, ultra-premium and icon categories of the international wine market. The estates sell 70% and more of their wine in the basic category. The co-operatives on the other hand do not confirm the theory. In the absence of formal training, they manage to produce wine that competes well on an inter and intra-regional level. The evidence suggests that in a country like South Africa, in the context of a legacy of low education and literacy levels amongst workers, repeated demonstration and strict supervision can compensate to a certain degree for a lack of in-depth knowledge and discretion amongst workers

'Do you own your freedom?' Reflecting on Cape Town youths' aspirations to be free

Young people make up half of the world’s population and constitute the majority of the population across the Global South (Cooper et al. 2019). In South Africa, the youth constitute one-third of the country’s population, many of whom belong to the so-called ‘born free’ generation. The ‘born free’ generation typically refers to those who were born after the end of Apartheid, or those who were coming of age after 1994. The youth, particularly in cities of the South, represent an excluded majority in terms of access to meaningful employment and quality living environments. This article reflects on a research project which used narrative photovoice as a method to engage a group of 13 young people from Mitchell’s Plain, Philippi and Gugulethu; poor marginalised areas in Cape Town. Narrative photovoice combines photography with writing to give participants an opportunity to convey particular stories or issues through their photography. Through a process of co-production and collaboration between academic researchers, a community-based organisation (CBO) called ‘Youth for Change’ and a creative enterprise called ‘noDREAD’productions, the youth were engaged in a creative process using photographs to tell stories about themselves, their communities and the broader city context in which they live. This article draws on Appadurai’s notion of the ‘capacity to aspire’ to make sense of the aspirations and dreams the participants talk about through their photographs; how they navigate structural, psychological and other factors which impede their aspirations and their freedom, and how they make sense of their everyday realities. The article advances two interlinked arguments: firstly, it makes visible the ‘navigational capacity’ of youth from marginalised neighbourhoods and their capacity to aspire amidst multiple constraints. It does so by illustrating how the youth grapple with the idea and experience of freedom in their everyday life. Secondly, it makes a case for the use of photovoice as a method that is well positioned to (a) capture the visual dimension of youth aspirations and (b) allow for co-production between the different stakeholders

Guest Editorial : Urban Youth - Engaging young people and their futures in African cities

The twin reality of Africa as the world’s demographically youngest and most rapidly urbanising continent should, by default, make it a hotspot for youth-centred urban research. And yet, the voices of young Africans remain grossly absent in public discourse, policy debates and mainstream research on issues that directly affect them. This lacuna propelled the conceptualisation of this themed volume, entitled Urban Youth – Engaging young people and their futures in African cities. Showcasing submissions that not only push the envelope in terms of conceptual debates but also reflect in unconventional ways on experimental methods of co-production, this volume contributes to contemporary youth scholarship in three ways: firstly, by bringing together empirically rich, theoretically profound and collaborative scholarship from Africa; secondly, by showcasing cities in general and African cities in particular as productive, epistemological and relevant socio- political settings; and thirdly, by highlighting the importance of collaborative, multimodal research with youth that takes seriously their agency, aspirations and lived experiences, as much as the everyday structural challenges they face. To situate the volume, we first look briefly at common representations of young people, and particularly young Africans, within global media and policy discourses. To outline the broader knowledge project this volume connects to, we then discuss a few basic epistemological overlaps between the emerging fields of Global South Youth Studies and Southern urbanism. Introducing the rich array of creative, rigorous, experimental and propositional practices and research- based contributions that make up this themed volume constitutes the heart of this editorial. In conclusion, we argue that to secure our common urban future, it is pivotal to centre the voices of Africa’s youth. For this, creative multimedia approaches to knowledge co- production and representation will be needed, as will robust, multimodal Afro-centric partnerships

Informal settlement upgrading and safety: Experiences from Cape Town, South Africa

Informal settlement dwellers are disproportionately affected by ill health, violence and many other socio-economic challenges. These are largely connected to the unhealthy and unsafe physical conditions within which they live. Interventions in the built form through the provision of physical infrastructure have been proposed as a strategy to improve economic, social and health outcomes for informal settlement dwellers and are also suggested as tools to address violence and insecurity, which have reached unprecedented levels in many cities of the South

Neo-liberalism (s), socio-spatial transformation and violence reduction in Cape Town – lessons from Medellin

Some of the contemporary debates within urban geography is around the changing nature of neoliberalism, how cities have become the new sites for capitalist accumulation through new forms of neoliberal urban governance and whether or not this holds true for cities in the global South. This paper focuses on two cities in the global South, Cape Town and Medellin and uses safety and spatial transformation as lenses to interrogate this issue through an examination of spatial transformation efforts in the Voortrekker Road Corridor Integration Zone (VRCIZ). It seems that in Cape Town, more than Medellin, crime prevention efforts in certain parts of the city, as witnessed in the Voortrekker Road Corridor Integration Zone (VRCIZ), are driven largely by a desire to deal with crime and grime in order to attract private business. What is lacking in Cape Town is an explicit focus on addressing the underlying socio-economic causes of violence and crime. This will go a long way towards creating a sense of inclusion and belonging amongst Cape Town’s marginalised communities. The stories of Medellin and Cape Town point to the idea of different kinds of neo-liberalism(s); shaped by the particularities of the local socio-political, economic, cultural and institutional context

Skills and quality production in the South African wine industry

Thesis (DPhil (Sociology and Social Anthropology))--Stellenbosch University, 2007.There is a general consensus amongst industry experts that in order for the South African wine industry to sustain the success it has enjoyed thus far in export markets like the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Sweden and to become even more internationally competitive, its has to improve the quality of its wine and move into higher price categories of the wine market. Skills’ training has been highlighted as a significant component of a strategy to improve the quality of South African wine and its competitiveness in world markets. The aim of this study was to find out how the South African wine industry is adapting to new vineyard practices necessary for quality production at farm level, especially as far as training of vineyard workers is concerned. Four theoretical perspectives are discussed in relation to the restructuring of the world agro-food industry, the question of quality and the issue of training as it relates the production of quality wine. These theoretical perspectives are regulation theory, global commodity chain analysis, actor-network theory and the ergonomics perspective on the skills needed for the production of quality wine. The focus of the study was on different kinds of producers, i.e. co-operative cellars, private cellars and estates. The research covered two of the main wine-producing areas, namely Paarl and the Robertson area. At each farm, interviews were conducted with the farm owner, farm manager or viticulturist as well as a number of workers. Interviews were also conducted with prominent wine makers, skills trainers and facilitators and other industry experts. This was done to gain a better understanding of the South African wine industry as well as the major issues and debates as far as quality production and skills training are concerned. The study found that although there has been a general upgrading of skills in relation to new vineyard practices for quality production, workers at the co-operatives and estates studied do not yet receive the kind of in-depth knowledge which the theory argues is necessary for the production of quality wine. The private cellars invest much more time and resources in the training of their workforce. As far as the private cellars and estates are concerned there is a correlation between the quality of wine and training. The private cellars sell more than 50% of their wine in the premium, super-premium, ultra-premium and icon categories of the international wine market. The estates sell 70% and more of their wine in the basic category. The co-operatives on the other hand do not confirm the theory. In the absence of formal training, they manage to produce wine that competes well on an inter and intra-regional level. The evidence suggests that in a country like South Africa, in the context of a legacy of low education and literacy levels amongst workers, repeated demonstration and strict supervision can compensate to a certain degree for a lack of in-depth knowledge and discretion amongst workers

Grounding smart technologies in informal urbanism: Mobile applications, urban infrastructures and service delivery in Cape Town’s informal settlements

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