Poverty, possessions and proper living : constructing and contesting propriety in Soweto and Lusaka City

Bibliography: 131-137.Recent material culture theory points out how material possessions are woven into the fabric of lives, shaping social relations and texturing people's meanings and interpretation of their world. This study embarks on exploring aspects of this objected fabric, in the context of urban working black South Africans, living in three different township suburbs in Gauteng, in four differing housing circumstances, in the mid-1990s and in the midst of much uncertainty of what the future might hold for poor urban residents. Drawing on participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and household and appliance ownership surveys, the study explores the ways in which domestic objects- appliances specifically - function symbolically for a set of people living in Soweto formal houses, backyard shacks, an informal settlement and in Lusaka City site-and -service settlement on the West Rand, in Gauteng, South Africa. I examine symbolic constructions and creations in these people's homes, gleaning some of the meaning people attributed to particular modes of equipping their homes, and how aspects of their image of themselves and each other were presented, acted out, created, 'conversationed', contested and negotiated through material goods

Addressing the impact of HIV/AIDS on children in South Africa - Priorities for funders and development agencies

This briefing paper is structured into two parts. Part A provides a brief overview of orphan numbers and what we know about the living circumstances of children growing up in the context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Part B of the paper provides a set of key recommendations to guide funders in responding to the impact of HIV/AIDS on children

Orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS in South Africa: a fact sheet for Members of Parliament

Prepared for the public hearings on Section 75 of the Children's Bill, August 2004

Children's Institute submission on the draft regulations to the Children's Act 38 of 2005

Written submission to the national Department of Social Development, 11 August 2008

Children 'in need of care' or in need of cash? Questioning social security provisions for orphans in the context of the South African AIDS pandemic

Joint working paper of the Children's Institute and Centre for Actuarial Research, University of Cape Town