204 research outputs found
Can economic policy escape state capture?
No full textAn attack from within by fellow citizens (without a civil war), is worse than an attack by the enemy outside. Mark Swilling shows how this was done in his book, “Shadow State: The Politics of State Capture”
Urban Social Movements under Apartheid.
No full textM. Swilling — Les mouvements sociaux urbains et l'apartheid.
Analyse de la relation entre les contradictions inhérentes au système d'apartheid urbain et les mouvements sociaux urbains apparus pour contester ce système. Il s'agit de montrer que, même s'il existe des conditions structurelles, d'importantes déterminations idéologiques et organisationnelles ont, au niveau régional, des conséquences différentes sur la contestation. La démonstration se fonde sur deux grèves générales, l'une au Transvaal en novembre 1984, l'autre dans l'est du Cap en mars 1985. L'analyse des dimensions structurelles, organisationnelles et idéologiques de ces mouvements de masse mène à la conclusion que l'Afrique du Sud est dans une impasse, où aucune des parties n'a les ressources politiques ou militaires nécessaires pour s'assurer de façon décisive l'initiative stratégique.Swilling Mark. Urban Social Movements under Apartheid.. In: Cahiers d'études africaines, vol. 25, n°99, 1985. Ségrégation spatiale, ségrégation sociale. pp. 363-379
The Apartheid City and the Politics of Bus Transportation.
No full textJ. J. McCarthy & M. Swilling — L'apartheid urbain et la politique des transports en commun.
Cet article examine l'histoire des systèmes de transport semi-publics sud-africains et le réseau de contradictions qui sont à l'origine de la Commission d'enquête Welgemoed sur les services d'autobus réservés aux Noirs. Les mesures prises par l'Etat à la suite de cette commission sont analysées dans le contexte de la politisation croissante du problème des transports et de la multiplication des boycotts. L'exemple du boycott récent des autobus d'East London illustre l'interdépendance complexe entre accumulation capitaliste, politique d'État et réaction populaire.McCarthy Jeffery J., Swilling Mark. The Apartheid City and the Politics of Bus Transportation.. In: Cahiers d'études africaines, vol. 25, n°99, 1985. Ségrégation spatiale, ségrégation sociale. pp. 381-400
Transformational infrastructure for development of a wellbeing economy in Africa
No full textCITATION: Mebratu, D. & Swilling, M. (eds) 2019. Transformational infrastructure for development of a wellbeing economy in Africa. Stellenbosch: SUN PReSS, doi:10.18820/9781928480419.The original publication is available at https://africansunmedia.store.it.si/zaAfrican countries face unprecedented challenges of defining a future development pathway in a resource- and carbon-constrained world. This book addresses this challenge, with special reference to the set of infrastructure that most African countries require to meet the sustainable development goals and fulfil the aspirations of Agenda 2063. Infrastructure is a key factor that determines how resource and energy flow and transform through socio-economic systems. Decisions made today by African countries on their infrastructural configuration will determine the inclusivity, resource intensity and climate resilience of their development pathways for decades to come. This book is a product of a two‑year research conducted by a group of African scholars who have an extensive academic and practical experience on the development of key infrastructure sectors in Africa.Introduction -- Executive summary -- Transformative leapfrogging to a wellbeing economy in Africa -- Ecological infrastructure as a basis for the African wellbeing economy -- Sustainable energy systems in Africa -- Inclusive and sustainable industrial development for Africa -- Sustainable urban development in Africa -- Lifecycle management for sustainable infrastructure planning and development in Africa -- Distributed renewable economy for Africa as a basis for wellbeing economy development -- Inclusive governance for sustainable development in Africa -- Indicators on transformational infrastructure for a wellbeing economy.https://africansunmedia.store.it.si/za/book/transformational-infrastructure-for-development-of-a-wellbeing-economy-in-africa/802540Publisher's versio
Linking complexity and sustainability theories : implications for modeling sustainability transitions
No full textPlease cite as follows: Peter, C. & Swilling, M. 2014. Linking Complexity and Sustainability Theories: Implications for Modeling Sustainability Transitions. Sustainability, 6(3):1594-1622, doi:10.3390/su6031594.The original publication is available at http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/3/1594In this paper, we deploy a complexity theory as the foundation for integration of different theoretical approaches to sustainability and develop a rationale for a complexity-based framework for modeling transitions to sustainability. We propose a framework based on a comparison of complex systems’ properties that characterize the different theories that deal with transitions to sustainability. We argue that adopting a complexity theory based approach for modeling transitions requires going beyond deterministic frameworks; by adopting a probabilistic, integrative, inclusive and adaptive approach that can support transitions. We also illustrate how this complexity-based modeling framework can be implemented; i.e., how it can be used to select modeling techniques that address particular properties of complex systems that we need to understand in order to model transitions to sustainability. In doing so, we establish a complexity-based approach towards modeling sustainability transitions that caters for the broad range of complex systems’ properties that are required to model transitions to sustainability.Publishers' Versio
Governance of urban transitions : towards sustainable resource efficient urban infrastructures
No full textCITATION: Swilling, M. & Hajer, M. 2017. Governance of urban transitions : towards sustainable resource efficient urban infrastructures. Environmental Research Letters, 12(12):1-8, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa7d3a.The original publication is available at http://iopscience.iop.orgThe transition to sustainable resource efficient cities calls for new governance arrangements. The awareness that the doubling of the global urban population will result in unsustainable levels of demand for natural resources requires changes in the existing socio-technical systems. Domestic material consumption could go up from 40 billion tons in 2010, to 89 billion tons by 2050. While there are a number of socio-technical alternatives that could result in significant improvements in the resource efficiency of urban systems in developed and developing countries (specifically bus-rapid transit, district energy systems and green buildings), we need to rethink the urban governance arrangements to get to this alternative pathway. We note modes of urban governance have changed over the past century as economic and urban development paradigms have shifted at the national and global levels. This time round we identify cities as leading actors in the transition to more sustainable modes of production and consumption as articulated in the Sustainable Development Goals. This has resulted in a surge of urban experimentation across all world regions, both North and South. Building on this empirically observable trend we suggest this can also be seen as a building block of a new urban governance paradigm. An 'entrepreneurial urban governance' is proposed that envisages an active and goal-setting role for the state, but in ways that allows broader coalitions of urban 'agents of change' to emerge. This entrepreneurial urban governance fosters and promotes experimentation rather than suppressing the myriad of such initiatives across the globe, and connects to global city networks for systemic learning between cities. Experimentation needs to result in a contextually appropriate balance between economic, social, technological and sustainable development.http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7d3aPublisher's versio
Africa's game changers and the catalysts of social and system innovation
No full textIt is widely recognized that many African economies are being transformed by rapid economic growth driven largely by rising demand for the abundant natural resources scattered across the African continent. I critically review the mainstream game-changing dynamics driving this process, with special reference to a set of influential policy-oriented documents. This is followed by an analysis of less-recognized game-changing dynamics that have, in turn, been affected by the mainstream game-changing dynamics. These less-recognized game-changing dynamics include energy infrastructure challenges in a context of climate change, securing access to water, access to arable soils, slum urbanism, and food security responses. These mainstream and less-recognized game-changing dynamics provide the context for analyzing a range of African actor networks engaged in social and system innovations. I use a transdisciplinary framework to discuss these actor networks and how they construct their understanding of the game changers affecting their programs and actions. Based on a case study of the iShack initiative in Stellenbosch, South Africa, I conclude that social and system innovations will need to be driven by transformation knowledge co-produced by researchers and social actors who can actively link game-changing dynamics that operate at multiple scales with local-level innovations with potential societal impacts
Rethinking the science–policy interface in South Africa: Experiments in knowledge co-production
No full textThis article contributes to the increasingly significant discussion about the science–policy interface. The challenge therein is that such a discussion tends to revolve around two seemingly mutually exclusive approaches: the reflexive approach inspired by Maarten Hajer’s work that deconstructs the discourses of participatory policymaking, and the more normative transdisciplinary approaches that legitimise researchers as active change agents. With reference to a discussion of three South African case studies characterised by practical involvement of researchers in change processes, it is concluded that both approaches have merit and can improve the other: the reflexive approach could benefit from a better understanding of appropriate research methods for facilitating authentic engagement and participation, and the transdisciplinary approach could benefit from some reflexive caution about the change agent roles of researchers. The dynamics of the case studies and conclusions are significant in light of the fact that the South African research community is being influenced by re-alignments in the global scientific research community, resulting in an increasing emphasis on the need to do transdisciplinary research. For example, the adoption by some of the most significant global scientific associations in the natural and social sciences of the Future Earth platform at the Rio+20 conference in 2012 reflects most clearly this re-alignment. Researchers would be well advised to critically engage this agenda rather than presume it means little more than a rewording of traditional interdisciplinary approaches
Book Review - Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World
No full textA review of Mark Swilling and Eve Annecke: Just Transitions, United NationsUniversity Press, Tokyo, Paperback Edition, 2012
Neopatrimonialism and state capture : the case of the South African Social Security Agency
No full textThesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2019.ENGLISH SUMMARY : Since 2016, when the term first entered South Africa’s political-economic discourse, the colloquial use of the concept “State Capture” has come to be a representative descriptor of a state besieged by corruption. In 2017, a collective of academics formed the State Capacity Research Project (SCRP) and released the Betrayal of the Promise: How South Africa is Being Stolen report (Bhorat, Buthelezi, Chipkin, Duma, Mondi, Peter, Qobo & Swilling, 2017), which was one of the first attempts to provide an academic framework for understanding this phenomenon. Drawing on neopatrimonial school of thought, the report argued, as do I, that State Capture extends beyond being a mere form of “grand corruption”. Building on this framework, this thesis critically examines the theories of state capture and neopatrimonialism, and puts forward a conceptualisation of State Capture as a context-specific phenomenon, encompassing a much broader political project undertaken by the power elite, which results in a unique form of (mis)governance.
In July 2018, a follow-up case study was released, titled How One Word Can Change the Game: Case Study of State Capture and the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) (Foley & Swilling, 2018), which was produced from the research undertaken for this thesis. The case study presented in this thesis centres around what is commonly referred to as SASSA-Gate, where in March 2017 a potential national crisis was narrowly averted when the Constitutional Court was forced to extend an already unlawful and invalid contract to ensure the continuation of payment of social grants to some 17 million beneficiaries. The foundation of the crisis is linked to the original invalid contract, which was entered into between SASSA and Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) in 2012, and which has been surrounded in controversy and allegations of corruption ever since.
At the centre of the SASSA-Gate crisis (and the main motivation for the awarding of the invalid contract) is the proprietary biometric card technology of CPS. From the research, it emerged that there are potential insights which might be gained by applying the conceptualisation of State Capture to the ever-increasing uncertainties associated with future developmental disruptions, such as those associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).
The research was undertaken as both a descriptive and an exploratory qualitative case study and is presented in a dense narrative format. Granular research methodology was adopted, where various data sources were combined and analysed from multiple perspectives and at different levels, and as such the findings of the research cannot be easily summarised. The principal outcome of the research is the case study itself. The overall objectives of the research were primarily to provide a detailed account of the SASSA-Gate crisis and to further develop the theoretical framework for understanding the phenomenon of State Capture and how this relates to the concept of systemic neopatrimonialism. Ultimately, this research seeks to add further understanding of the current discourse on State Capture in South Africa and to provide a much needed, detailed account of how the shadow state operates and manoeuvres alongside and within formal government structures.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING : Sedert 2016, toe die term die eerste keer in Suid-Afrika se polities-ekonomiese diskoers gebruik is, het die informele gebruik van die konsep “Staatskaping” ’n verteenwoordigende beskrywer van ’n staat in die greep van korrupsie geword. In 2017 het ’n groep akademici die State Capacity Research Project (SCRP) gestig en die Betrayal of the Promise: How South Africa is Being Stolen-verslag (Bhorat et al., 2017) uitgereik, wat een van die eerste pogings was om ’n akademiese raamwerk te voorsien om hierdie verskynsel te verstaan. Gegrond op die neopatrimoniale denkskool, redeneer hierdie verslag, en ek ook, dat “Staatskaping” meer is as bloot ’n vorm van “grootskaalse korrupsie”. Gegrond op hierdie raamwerk, ondersoek hierdie tesis krities die teorieë van staatskaping en neopatrimonialisme, en doen aan die hand ’n konseptualisering van Staatskaping as ’n konteks-spesifieke verskynsel, wat ’n baie breër politiese projek omvat wat deur die mags-elite onderneem word, wat lei tot ’n unieke vorm van (wan)regering.
In Julie 2018 is ’n opvolg-gevallestudie uitgereik, getitel How One Word Can Change the Game: Case Study of State Capture and the South African Social Security Agency (Foley & Swilling, 2018), wat ontwikkel is vanuit die navorsing wat vir hierdie tesis onderneem is. Die gevallestudie voorgehou in hierdie tesis sentreer rondom wat oor die algemeen na verwys word as “SASSA-Gate”, waar ’n potensiële nasionale krisis naelskraap afgeweer is toe die Konstitusionele Hof gedwing was om ’n reeds onwettige en ongeldige kontrak te verleng om te verseker dat die betaling van sosiale toelae aan ongeveer 17 miljoen begunstigdes sou voortgaan. Die basis van die krisis hou verband met die oorspronklike ongeldige kontrak, aangegaan tussen SASSA (die Suid-Afrikaanse Sosiale Sekuriteitagentskap) en Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) in 2012, wat sedertdien omhul is in kontroversie en bewerings van korrupsie.
Te midde van die “SASSA-Gate”-krisis (asook die hoofmotivering vir die toekenning van die ongeldige kontrak) is CPS se patentregtelike biometriese kaarttegnologie. Uit die navorsing het dit duidelik geword dat moontlike insigte verkry kan word vanuit die toepassing van die konseptualisering van “Staatskaping” op die immer-groeiende onsekerhede wat geassosieer word met die toekomstige ontwikkelingsontwrigtinge, soos daardie wat geassosieer word met die Vierde Industriële Revolusie (4IR).
Hierdie navorsing is onderneem as beide ’n beskrywende en ondersoekende gevallestudie en word voorgelê in ’n kompakte narratiewe formaat. Granulêre navorsingsmetodologie is onderneem, waarvolgens verskeie databronne gekombineer en geanaliseer is vanuit verskeie perspektiewe en op verskillende vlakke; as sulks kan die navorsingsbevindinge nie maklik opgesom word nie. Die hooftuitkoms van die navorsing is die gevallestudie self. Die algehele doelwitte van die navorsing was primer om ’n omvattende beskrywing van die “SASSA-Gate”-krisis te verskaf en om die teoretiese raamwerk vir die begryp van die verskynsel van Staatskaping verder te ontwikkel, en hoe dit verband hou met neopatrimonialisme. Op die lange duur poog hierdie navorsing om meer kennis te bou rakende die huidige diskoers van Staatskaping in Suid-Afrika en om ’n broodnodige omvattende beskrywing te verskaf van hoe die skadu-regering naas en binne formele regeringstrukture werk en maneuvreer.Master
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