Unemployment and 'informal' income-earning activity in Soweto. Part I

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented July 1980The papers have been collected into two parts under the titles ‘Production’ (Part I) and ‘Reproduction’ (Part II). A third contribution- a fictionalized account of some of the activities of what has been labelled the ‘lumpenproletariat’ - will be circulated to those who express an interest, more for their enjoyment than for discussion. The rationale underlying the necessarily rather simplistic division of the papers is, in large part, related to our general dissatisfaction with existing modes of analysis of the so-called ‘informal sector’. With very few exceptions, the existing studies have tended to restrict their object of investigation to an essentially static analysis of the economic content - operations of production and exchange and patterns of distribution of profits or products associated with them - of the activities which the 'informal sector' is held to subsume. Table I provides a fairly conventional typology of the various activities that would normally be regarded as falling within the 'informal' category under South African conditions. It is our contention that, by narrowing their focus in this way, such studies have generally either taken as given, or altogether overlooked, the social conditions of existence of these activities. We would further argue that no adequate explanation of the nature and significance of 'informal' activity, however it is to be distinguished, is possible if this omission or neglect is not directly confronted

International Trade and Investment Sanctions

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the theory of international economic sanctions and to provide estimates of the short-run economic impact on South Africa of externally imposed reductions of the imports and capital flows into that country. A macroeconomic picture of South Africa's "dependence" is drawn, and the economy's vulnerability in the short run is seen to be in its capacity to import, not in exports or capital flows. Trade and capital sanctions most clearly damage South Afnca's growth potential; the short-run impact is harder to quantify. A static linear programming model of the South African economy is constructed in an attempt at this quantification. This model estimates that small sanctions would have small impact—i.e., if imports were reduced by less than one-fourth, GDP would be cut by only about one half as large a percentage as imports. Larger import reductions cause greater damage. If imports were to be cut in half, not only would GDP be seriously reduced but massive unemployment and relocation of white labor would occur.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68182/2/10.1177_002200277902300401.pd

Book Reviews: Economic Development and Transition

Economic development and transition - thought, strategy and viabilityJustin Yifu LinCambridge University Press:Cambridge, UK2009. 170 p

Unemployment and 'informal' income-earning activity in Soweto. Part II

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 11 August 1980In Part I of this collective work, we attempted to conceptualise in a rigorous fashion the nature and distinguishing characteristics of certain of the economic activities conventionally subsumed under the banner of the 'informal sector'. The analytical sterility of this term has now been widely recognized.(1) In reaction to the uncritical acceptance of the dualism inherent in the 'informal’/ 'formal' dichotomy and its translation into a series of policy proposals (2) by orthodox development theorists, a growing body of literature has focussed attention on the complex linkages and asymmetrically dependent relationships of the continuum of activities which cut across this division. … In this paper, our attempt to conceptualise 'informal' economic activity within the broad perspective of the overall reproduction of capitalist social relations will be developed around the central problem of the reproduction of capital's labour force. The particular focus of the paper will be on the relationship between certain aspects of the struggles of capital and labour over the way in which this process unfolds and the concept of the family a household unit as the primary site of the process in capitalist societ

An evaluation of the IMF mission document on economic policies for a new South Africa

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:9348.965(27) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo