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Preferences for the scope of protests
No full textThis paper studies a dimension of protest largely overlooked in the literature: protest scope, that is, whether protests seek large, structural, changes for a large share of the population or focus on small-scale improvements for small groups. We argue that this protest dimension is relevant for understanding the political consequences of protests. We show empirically that protests vary substantially in scope and that scope is not collinear with other protest dimensions, such as size, motive, or tactics. We explore drivers of individual preferences for protest scope with a survey
experiment in two South African townships. We find that respondents made to feel more efficacious tend to support protests of broader scope. This effect operates via a social psychology channel whereby efficacy leads people to assign blame for their problems to more systemic causes.The research for this paper was funded by the German Research Foundation in the context of the research project “Local Conflict and the Local State” (JU 2979/2-1). We would like to thank Bert Klandermans, Eva Anduiza, Paul Walsh, as well as participants of the workshop “A Closely Coupled Tango? Interactions between Electoral and Protest Politics” at the 2017 ECPR Joint Sessions in Nottingham, the 2017 Barcelona-Gothenburg-BergenWorkshop on Experimental Political Science
in Bergen, the 2017 International Meeting on Experimental and Behavioral Social Sciences in Barcelona, the EPSA 2017 in Milan, the 2017 seminar series of the School of Politics and International Relations at Univerity College Dublin, and the seminar series of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) at the University of Cape Town. All errors are ours
Exploring the Intersection between Physical and Virtual Mobilities in Urban South Africa: Reflections from Two Youth-Centered Studies
No full textMore legislation, more violence? The impact of Dodd-Frank in the DRC
No full textThe Dodd Frank Act was passed by the US Congress in July 2010 and included a provision – Section
1502 – that aimed to break the link between conflict and minerals in the Eastern Democratic Republic
of Congo. To date there is only one rigorous quantitative analysis that investigates the impact of Dodd-
Frank on local conflict events. Looking at the short-term impact (2011-2012), it finds that the policy
backfired. This study builds on a larger, more representative, dataset of mining sites and extends the
time horizon by three years (2013-2015). The results indicate that the policy also backfired in the
longer run, especially in areas home to gold mines. For territories with the average number of gold
mines, the introduction of Dodd-Frank increased the incidence of battles with 44%; looting with 51%
and violence against civilians with 28%, compared to pre-Dodd Frank averages. Delving deeper into
the impact of the conflict minerals legislation is important, as President Trump suspended the
legislation in February 2017 for a two-year period, ordering his administration to replace it with
another policy.We thank Dominic Parker and Bryan Vadheim for sharing their data and codes. We further thank
Dominic Parker and two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions. We are
grateful to the International Peace Information Service for sharing their data.
This paper is published in PLOS ONE (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201783
From definition to measurement: constructing a social cohesion index for South Africa
No full textSocial cohesion has increasingly become a subject of interest for international organisations, governments, policy-makers and other practitioners. Whilst social cohesion is not a new concept, finding its origins in the work of Durkheim as early as 1893, it is the case that social cohesion has generated increasing interest from international governance institutions, states and policy-makers since the 1980s. This has often been in response to divisions and cleavages within societies, related to factors including economic downturn, tensions associated with migration, and ethnic or cultural conflict. Few would contest that in many ways, South Africa remains a deeply divided society. It thus perhaps comes as little surprise that, particularly given the declining focus on reconciliation within the national policy agenda, the South African government has increasingly focused on measures to deepen social cohesion through a range of different interventions and initiatives. However, while there is a widespread agreement that social cohesion influences economic and social development, and that nurturing a more cohesive society is an important policy goal in itself, little progress has been made in trying to measure it and track progress in this domain over time. One of the most severe limitations to this progress is the lack of definitional consensus on social cohesion. Yet, without clear definition of what is meant by social cohesion, it becomes difficult to assess whether social cohesion has improved or worsened. Without measurement, potential key determinants that are most important among a large number of factors that influence social cohesion (e.g., inequality, poverty, violence, gender conflicts, mistrust, and others) remain obscured, making it difficult to formulate policies that can be expected to materially improve social cohesion and achieve inclusive development.This paper was prepared by the Poverty and Inequality Initiative (PII) at the University of Cape Town, with the support of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD)
The intergenerational transmission of depression in South African adolescents: A cross-sectional longitudinal study
No full textPLEASE NOTE: This paper has been updated.
Background: Mental health data is seldom available in low-income countries in Africa, and estimates of the size of the intergenerational transmission of depression in these countries are scarce, particularly using up-to-date nationally representative data. South Africa has high rates of depression compared to other low-and-middle-income countries, especially among adolescents. This paper presents the most recent nationally representative estimates of the size of the intergenerational transmission of depression among low-income adolescents in South Africa
Entry into and Exit from Informal Sector Ownership in South Africa
No full textAlthough South Africa’s informal sector is small compared to other developing countries, it nevertheless provides livelihoods, employment and income for millions of workers and business owners. Almost half of informal-sector workers work in firms with employees. The annual entry of new enterprises is quite high, as is the number of informal enterprises that grow their employment. There is no shortage of entrepreneurship and desire to grow.
However, obstacles and constraints cause hardship and failure, pointing to the need for well-designed policies to enable and support the sector, rather than suppress it. The same goes for formalisation. Recognising the informal sector as an integral part of the economy, rather than ignoring it, is a crucial first step towards instituting a ‘smart’ policy approach.
The South African Informal Sector is strongly evidence- and data-driven, with substantial quantitative contributions combined with qualitative findings – suitable for an era of increased pressure for evidence-based policy-making – and utilises several disciplinary perspectives
Identity, inequality and social contestation in the Post-Apartheid South Africa
No full textThis paper examines contestations in the South African society - its past, present and future. It provides historical accounts of formation of ethnic and race identities; and offers some evidence that South Africans became less exclusive of people in other race groups during the early years of post-Apartheid period but have reversed this accomplishment over the last ten years. The paper then holistically examines inequality in the post-apartheid period; namely, at national level, between and
within ethnic and race groups, and measured by income and by self-assessment of an individual’s life satisfaction. Using the frequency of and desire for interracial social interactions as an indicator of exclusiveness or inclusiveness of racial identities in South Africa, the paper finds positive correlation between the exclusiveness of racial identify on one hand and inequalities of the level of life satisfaction within and between race groups. It identifies “inequality hot spots” on this basis, which need to be addressed if a more cohesive society is to be nurtured in the country. Finally, the paper finds tentative signs of the emergence of a common citizenry, a national identity, which would also be needed for South Africa to transition to a cohesive society.Hiroyuki Hino, Murray Leibbrandt and Muna Shifa acknowledge funding from the French Development Agency (AFD) as part of the “Social Cohesion, Inequality and Inclusive Development” partnership agreement between the French Development Agency, South African Office and the University of Cape Town. Murray Leibbrandt, Muna Shifa and Ratjomose Machema also
acknowledge funding from the Research Chairs Initiative of the South African National Research Foundation and the South African Department of Science and Technology. We are grateful for very useful comments from Arnim Langer, Frances Stewart and John Lonsdale
Defining social cohesion
No full textPromoting social cohesion is one of the most difficult, yet one of the most important, challenges facing South Africa. However, while there is a widespread agreement that social cohesion influences economic and social development, and that nurturing a more cohesive society is an important policy goal in itself, little progress has been made in trying to measure it and track progress in this domain over time. One of the most severe limitations to this progress is the lack of definitional consensus on social cohesion. It may seem intuitive to describe it as the glue that binds us together, or the forging of a common sense of identity and belonging. To others, it may speak to a willingness to extend trust to outsiders, to respect fellow citizens and uphold their dignity, and to be moved to action in the face of persistent inequality on behalf of those who are marginalised. Alternatively, specifically in the South African context, its very essence may be seen as common humanity embodied in the notion of ubuntu.This paper was prepared by the Poverty and Inequality Initiative (PII) at the University of Cape Town, with the support of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD)
Preschool attendance, school progression, and cognitive skills in East Africa
No full textWe study the effects of preschool attendance on children's school progression and cognitive skills in
Kenya and Tanzania. Our analysis uses novel data from large-scale household surveys of children's
literacy and numeracy skills, which also collect retrospective information on preschool attendance.
Against the backdrop of a large expansion of pre-primary education, our regressions identify the
impacts from within-household differences, controlling for a variety of child-specific covariates. In
both countries, children who go to preschool tend to enroll in primary school late, and thus fall
behind in terms of grades completed at early ages. However, once in school, they progress through
grades faster and at ages 13-16 have completed about one and a half more months of schooling
than their same-aged peers who did not attend preschool. They also score around 0.10 standard
deviations higher on standardized cognitive tests, showing that there are important long-term
benefits from preschool in Kenya and Tanzania.We thank Kaveh Majlesi, Alessandro Martinello, Andreas Stegmann, Alessandro Tarozzi, Petra
Thiemann, and audiences at the Lund-SFI Workshop in Applied Microeconomics, the Nordic
Conference in Development Economics, and the Copenhagen Education Network Workshop for
helpful comments
Perceived HIV-related stigma among university students in South Africa: implications for HIV testing
No full textHIV-related stigma, and particularly perceived stigma, has a negative impact across the HIV care continuum. This study adds to our understanding of stigma by assessing how perceived stigma varies from one context to another and how such differences are associated with the location where individuals would prefer an HIV test. We used self-administered questionnaire data (n = 378) obtained from a convenience sample of students (18 years and older) attending a tertiary education institution in Durban, South Africa. Perceived stigma in the university environment was compared to perceived stigma in the home community environment. Multiple logistic regression analysis tested whether a higher level of perceived stigma in one setting was associated with a preference for HIV testing in the other setting. While levels of symbolic stigma and discrimination were low, a large proportion of the sample perceived that people living with HIV experience some form of stigmatisation in the home community and university environments (47% vs 41%, p = 0.09). A total of 31% reported less perceived stigma in the university environment. Students who perceived less stigma in the university environment were significantly more likely to report a preference for HIV testing at the university clinic rather than at a clinic in their community (aOR: 2.03; p < 0.01). Perceptions common across settings that people living with HIV experience stigmatisation are of great concern, especially for efforts to increase demand for HIV testing among young people. Results suggest that HIV-testing services in environments perceived to be less stigmatising than home communities could provide preferred alternatives for HIV testing