Tag: political economy

When Jean-Baptiste Say published his Treatise on Political Economy in 1803, he was not trying to be provocative. He was trying to be clear. In doing so, he ended up stating something both obvious and easy to forget: real economic activity begins with production, not consumption.

Working with key concepts developed by Gillian Hart, this book argues for a critical ethnographic approach to advance social justice movements for a radically different world. It offers an invaluable toolkit for activists and scholars engaged in sharpening their critical concepts for social and environmental change.

Nearly three decades after the dawn of democracy, South Africa has remained a country of ‘two agricultures’. On the one hand we have a subsistence, primarily non-commercial, black farming segment. On the other hand, however, we have a predominantly commercial and white farming sector that is well-resourced and has access to domestic and international trade networks.

Through investigatory reports and interviews, Jonathan Jansen reveals the structural conditions for chronic dysfunction in a sample of South African universities. He reveals the political economy at work and the intense competition for resources on campuses. He also provides interventions for these fragile institutions.

As jobs disappear, wages flat-line and inequality grows, this timely book presents a compelling analysis of the need, conditions and possibilities for a universal basic income (UBI) in South Africa and beyond. Highly topical and distinctive in its approach, In the Balance: The Case for a Universal Basic Income in South Africa and Beyond offers a robust and critical examination of a universal basic income.

Over the past 20 years the global political economy has experienced its most profound shifts since the onset of the industrial revolution. In South Africa and the World, Mills Soko reflects on some of the salient issues that have pervaded public discourse during this time, analysing them within the context of the contemporary South African political economy and of the country’s position in the world.

The proposal for a universal basic income grant (BIG) has been on the table for almost 20 years. It was first recommended by the Committee of Inquiry (Taylor Committee) into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africa in 2002, after a number of civil society organisations had petitioned for it on account of persistent poverty and structural inequality.

Bill Freund, the late social historian and leading analyst of African history, passed away in 2020 soon after finishing his autobiography. Often described as the academy’s ‘outsider insider’, he was an eminent South African historian who published prodigiously in the areas of labour, capital and economic history.