http://hdl.handle.net/1842/1688 2013-05-22T14:04:49Z 2013-05-22T14:04:49Z Mann, Laura Elizabeth http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6465 2012-09-26T15:04:06Z 2012-06-29T00:00:00Z

Title: Retreat of the state and the market: liberalisation and education expansion in Sudan under the NCP Authors: Mann, Laura Elizabeth Abstract: This thesis is an analysis of two concurrent processes - the liberalisation of the economy and the expansion of the tertiary education system - by the National Islamic Front (NIF)/National Congress Party (NCP) in Khartoum, Sudan. It is based on 18 months fieldwork conducted between 2008 and 2010, combining qualitative material from interviews, focus groups and field notes with a questionnaire administered to 300 employees in 14 organisations and 100 other individuals on public transportation. This questionnaire was adapted from Mark Granovetter’s survey of job information in the United States. The thesis makes both theoretical and empirical contributions. It examines the extent to which liberalisation has developed ‘markets’ by looking at communication in the labour market from the point of view of university graduates and managers in different fields. In contrast to Granovetter’s theory of ‘the strength of weak ties’ (SWT), it shows a trend of strong and strengthening ties in the Sudanese labour market. It argues that the combination of politically motivated liberalisation and the drastic expansion of education has plunged Sudan into a state of ‘hyperinflation’ of its qualifications, making public information about candidates untrustworthy and encouraging managers to use more personal sources of information to evaluate candidates. A simultaneous privatisation and internationalisation of opportunity has ensued. Educational expansion and liberalisation have dissolved the national cognitive space of the labour market and have forced actors to construct their own private economic spaces and to draw on transnational spaces in order to deal with uncertainty. The thesis therefore demonstrates an incongruity between ‘liberalised markets’ and the ‘markets’ envisioned by economic models (spaces of communication and coordination between strangers). It concludes by arguing that the retreat of both state and market has contributed to the ethnic fragmentation of Sudan under the NCP.

2012-06-29T00:00:00Z Fisher, Thomas James http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6452 2012-09-26T14:45:07Z 2012-06-29T00:00:00Z

Title: Chagga elites and the politics of ethnicity in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania Authors: Fisher, Thomas James Abstract: The focus of this thesis is on elite members of the Chagga ethnic group. Originating from the fertile yet crowded slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, this group is amongst the most entrepreneurial and best educated in Tanzania. In the literature on ethnicity, elites are usually understood as playing a key role in the imagining of ethnicities, while at the same time usually being venal and manipulating ethnicity for purely instrumental means. Yet this approach not only risks misrepresenting elites; it also clouds our understanding of ethnicity itself. This thesis interrogates themes of elites, politics and ethnicity through an examination of the trajectories of Chagga experience from the 1850s to the present. Any discussion of Chagga ethnicity must have at its centre place - the landscape of Kilimanjaro, and the kihamba banana garden. Ideas of Chagga ethnicity were shaped by how the very first European explorers and missionaries saw the landscape of the mountainside. This formed how the colonial Tanganyikan state treated the Chagga people, placing them in an advantageous position through education, and a wealthy one through the growing of coffee. In the 1950s, the Chagga ethnic group came under a single political leadership for the first time with the introduction of a Paramount Chief. This decade marked a period of Chagga nationalism. The role of intellectuals in the articulation and imagination of Chagga ethnicity is examined through two Chaggaauthored ethnohistories. After independence in 1961, the advantages of the colonial period placed Chagga elites in key roles in the new state. However, as Tanzania moved towards Julius Nyerere’s ujamaa socialism, the policies of the state began to clash with the more capitalist outlook of the Chagga elite. Nevertheless, through educational achievement and international migration, members of the Chagga elite were able to remain influential and powerful. As such, they were in an ideal position to take advantage of the political and economic liberalisation, even as new challenges emerged from within Kilimanjaro itself. The thesis concludes with an analysis of the role of ethnicity in the 2005 Presidential elections in Tanzania. This thesis makes a contribution to the literature on ethnicity in Africa by providing an account of elites that is more nuanced than in much of the existing literature. Even though Kilimanjaro saw one of the strongest manifestations of ethnic nationalism during the colonial period, Chagga elites contributed greatly to the nation-building project in postcolonial Tanzania. Tanzanian nationalism, however, did not destroy a Chagga identity, but rather enabled a new imagining of Chagga ethnicity which today continues to have a role and saliency within the Tanzanian nation.

2012-06-29T00:00:00Z Staniland, John Luke Seneviratne http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6420 2012-09-14T14:58:35Z 2012-06-29T00:00:00Z

Title: Tale of two townships: race, class and the changing contours of collective action in the Cape Town townships of Guguletu and Bonteheuwel, 1976 - 2006 Authors: Staniland, John Luke Seneviratne Abstract: This thesis examines the emergence and evolution of ‘progressive activism and organisation’ between 1976 and 2006 in the African township of Guguletu and the coloured township of Bonteheuwel within the City of Cape Town. In doing so it compares both how activism has changed over time (including as a result of democratisation) and how it differed between and within these two communities. Whilst at heart an empirical study of activism it seeks to move beyond the specificities of the cases studied to also draw broader conclusions about the nature and causes of collective action and organisation. Drawing on both social movement and class theory it aims to shed some light on the fundamental question of the relationship between structure and agency - why do people act and what defines the form of action they take? It combines a quantitative study of the changing relationship between race, class and state policy with qualitative studies of activism in Guguletu and Bonteheuwel. These two studies cover in detail: the development and unfolding of the riots of 1976; the great boycott season of 1979/80 which saw large numbers of Africans and coloureds across Cape Town drawn into school, bus and consumer boycotts; the development of activism between 1980 and 1985, including the impact of the United Democratic Front; the township unrest of 1985-7; the transition period between 1988 and 1994; and post-apartheid activism in the two communities. It draws on theories of class which recognise the importance of peoples’ positions within the state’s distributional networks (citizenship), experiences and expectations of social mobility and the impact of historical experience of class formation on expectation (moral economy). In doing this it shows how differences in race, education, age and labour market position all interacted to pattern activism in the case studies. Struggles in Cape Town throughout the period 1976-2006 were not dualistic conflict between classes, races or between the oppressed and forces of global capital, nor were they mechanistic responses to the opening and closing of political space. They were complex coalitions of competing and collaborating class forces which were defined by the underlying nature of the city’s political economy and which emerged in interaction with changing opportunities for action.

2012-06-29T00:00:00Z Grant, Julie http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6316 2012-08-22T13:42:44Z 2012-06-29T00:00:00Z

Title: Rural development in practice? The experience of the ‡Khomani bushmen in the Northern Cape, South Africa Authors: Grant, Julie Abstract: This thesis analyses the dynamics, complexities and numerous obstacles that serve to constrain rural development within the ‡Khomani Community of the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Following the end of Apartheid, given the disparity in wealth evident among the country’s population, in 1994, the South African Government embarked on a process to address inequality. In regard to the rural poor, who constitute the majority of the country’s poor, the Government envisioned that a more equitable distribution of land would result in economic development and poverty alleviation for land reform beneficiaries. Consequently, a Land Reform Policy was introduced, which was used by the ‡Khomani Bushmen to reclaim ancestral land in South Africa’s rural Northern Cape in 1999. More than ten years on, however, the living conditions of the ‡Khomani have not improved, and the Community continues to live in poverty. Despite the award of land and financial input from government and development agencies, the ‡Khomani have no basic services and are unable to significantly diversify or increase livelihood strategies. Multiple factors including a lack of Community cohesion and capacity, limited opportunities due to remote rural location, and the inability of government and development actors to successfully apply effective interventions, serve to constrain development, and maintain ‡Khomani disempowerment. The thesis argues that governments, development institutions and actors must recognise the need for a multidimensional approach to development to alleviate poverty, while recognising the limits of external actors and the role of communities in this regard. Essentially, sustainable rural development will only ensue when communities are able to make effective decisions based on meaningful choices.

2012-06-29T00:00:00Z