Lahla Ngubo : the continuities and discontinuities of a South African Black middle class

Includes bibliographical references.This study contributes to our understanding of the trajectories of South Africa’s historical black middle class - a class which is defined by access to education, and resulting occupational opportunities, as well as access to land. The middle class under study is a particular black middle class that established itself in Mthatha in the former Transkei Bantustan from 1908 onwards, when the Mthatha municipality needed a new and safe source of fresh drinking water and sold land to both black and white buyers in order to finance the so-called Umtata Water Scheme. This allowed the accumulation of land in the hands of a hitherto largely occupationally-based, mission-educated black middle class. The way in which this particular landed middle class has reproduced and transformed itself from the around 1900 to the present is the focus of the analysis

I-Dollar EYI One! -Ethnolinguistic Fractionalisation, Communication Networks and Economic Participation-Lessons from Cape Town, South Africa

The relationship between ethnolinguistic fractionalisation and development has long been of interest to economists and linguists. While econometric analyses have shown relatively stable interactions between high levels of fractionalisation and low indices of development, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are still unclear. This paper explores the importance of fragmented versus unified communication networks for socio-economic development, using data from Cape Town, South Africa. Like other cities in low- and middle-income countries, Cape Town shows growing linguistic diversity due to high levels of rural-urban migration. Two aspects of the city's economy will be discussed on the basis of specialised survey data and anthropological fieldwork: (a) the labour market, and (b) informal entrepreneurial activities. The analysis shows the importance of language as an explanatory variable in the study of economic life, and allows us to advance our understanding of human and social capital formation in ethnolinguistically fragmented societies. In the conclusion the authors discuss the policy implications of the study.

Standardizing minority languages: Competing ideologies of authority and authenticity in the global periphery

This book addresses a crucial, yet often overlooked dimension of minority language standardisation, namely, how social actors engage with, support, alter, resist and even reject standardisation processes. We look at standardisation processes as a political domain where social actors use standards as semiotic resources for articulating discourses on society. The chapters in this volume are therefore concerned first and foremost with social actors, their ideologies and practices, rather than with language per se. By considering the perspectives and actions of people who participate in or are affected by minority language politics, this volume aims to provide a comparative and nuanced analysis of the complexity and tensions inherent in minority language standardisation processes. Echoing Fasold (1984), this involves a shift in focus from a sociolinguistics of language to a sociolinguistics of people. How do social actors experience and negotiate these predicaments? Why are standards for minoritised languages sometimes sought after and praised and at other times vehemently contested and rejected? What are the consequences of standardisation projects for different people? It is these questions that this volume considers through case studies of minority language standardisation from around the world. The authors, who come from very different backgrounds with respect to involvement in standardisation processes, draw on ethnographic, historical and discourse data in order to examine standardisation projects in diverse settings. In bringing these case studies and analyses together, we aim to provide both empirical and conceptual insights into minority language standardisation. This volume highlights the role of social actors in the creation and negotiation of standards, and the diversity of marginalised or peripheral speech communities in which standardisation efforts occur. Focusing on ground-level processes and participants allows us to illuminate ways in which projects to standardise minoritised languages echo, reinvent, and at times subvert the characteristics of language standardisation established since the 18th century. Beginning with a reflection on language standardisation from a historical perspective (section 2), we then define our focus on minority/ minoritised language communities and discuss the nature of standardisation projects in these settings in particular (section 3). We conclude with an overview of the volume (section 4)