Struggles around the Commodification of Daily Life in South Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	Struggles around the Commodification of Daily Life in South Africa
Author:	Naidoo, Prishani
Year:	2007
Periodical:	Review of African Political Economy
Volume:	34
Issue:	111
Period:	March
Pages:	57-66
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	public services economic policy poverty protest Urbanization and Migration Politics and Government Economics and Trade
External links:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056240701340340 http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=4005BF6432EDEE73947F
Abstract:	Postapartheid South Africa has seen the emergence of new social and community movements making demands on the African National Congress government to deliver on its promise of 'a better life for all'. In these struggles, the identity of 'the poor' has been increasingly mobilized, both by movements reminding the State of its obligations to its people, and in official policy discourse seeking to introduce neoliberal macroeconomic changes. This paper explores how the category of 'the poor' is mobilized in struggles for basic services in urban areas in South Africa, and in State policy that seeks to draw poor people into agreements to pay for services. In doing this, it explores the possibilities inherent in capitalist society for change and the building of relations that challenge or subvert the dominant logic of commodification and, in turn, of capital. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]