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This book argues that we need to focus attention on the ways that
workers themselves have invested subjectively in what it means to
be a worker. By doing so, we gain an explanation that moves us
beyond the economic decisions made by actors, the institutional
constraints faced by trade unions, or the power of the state to
interpellate subjects. These more common explanations make workers
and their politics visible only as a symptom of external
conditions, a response to deregulated markets or a product of state
recognition. Instead - through a history of retailing as a site of
nation and belonging, changing legal regimes, and articulations of
race, class and gender in the constitution of political subjects
from the 1930s to present-day Wal-Mart - this book presents the
experiences and subjectivities of workers themselves to show that
the collective political subject 'workers' (abasebenzi) is both a
durable and malleable political category. From white to black
women's labour, the forms of precariousness have changed within
retailing in South Africa. Workers' struggles in different times
have in turn resolved some dilemmas and by other turn generated new
categories and conditions of precariousness, all the while
explaining enduring attachments to labour politics.
This book is the first of its kind to bring together a collection
of critical scholarly work on consumer culture in South Africa,
exploring the cultural, political, economic, and social aspects of
consumption in post-Apartheid society. From sushi and Japanese
diplomacy to Queen Sophie's writhing gown, from middle class
Sowetan golfers to an indebted working class citizenry, from
wedding websites to wedding nostalgia, from the liberation of
consuming to the low wage labour of selling, the chapters in this
book demonstrate a variety of themes, showing that to start with
consumption, rather than ending with it, allows for new insights
into long-standing areas of social research. By mapping, exploring
and theorizing the diverse aspects of consumption and consumer
culture, the volume collectively works towards a fresh set of
empirically rooted conceptual commentaries on the politics,
economics, and social dynamics of modern South Africa. This effort,
in turn, can serve as a foundation for thinking less parochially
about neoliberal power and consumer culture. On a global scale,
studying consumption in South Africa matters because in some ways
the country serves as a microcosm for global patterns of income
inequality, race-based economic oppression, and hopes for the
material betterment of life. By exploring what consumption means on
the 'local' scale in South Africa, the possibility arises to trace
new global links and dissonances. This book was originally
published as a special issue of Critical Arts.
As the largest private employer in the world, Walmart dominates
media and academic debate about the global expansion of
transnational retail corporations and the working conditions in
retail operations and across the supply chain. Yet far from being a
monolithic force conquering the world, Walmart must confront and
adapt to diverse policies and practices pertaining to regulation,
economy, history, union organization, preexisting labor cultures,
and civil society in every country into which it enters. This
transnational aspect of the Walmart story, including the diversity
and flexibility of its strategies and practices outside the United
States, is mostly unreported. Walmart in the Global South presents
empirical case studies of Walmart’s labor practices and supply
chain operations in a number of countries, including Chile, Brazil,
Argentina, Nicaragua, Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand. It
assesses the similarities and differences in Walmart’s acceptance
into varying national contexts, which reveals when and how state
regulation and politics have served to redirect company practice
and to what effect. Regulatory context, state politics, trade
unions, local cultures, and global labor solidarity emerge as
vectors with very different force around the world. The volume’s
contributors show how and why foreign workers have successfully,
though not uniformly, driven changes in Walmart’s corporate
culture. This makes Walmart in the Global South a practical guide
for organizations that promote social justice and engage in worker
struggles, including unions, worker centers, and other nonprofit
entities.
This book argues that we need to focus attention on the ways that
workers themselves have invested subjectively in what it means to
be a worker. By doing so, we gain an explanation that moves us
beyond the economic decisions made by actors, the institutional
constraints faced by trade unions, or the power of the state to
interpellate subjects. These more common explanations make workers
and their politics visible only as a symptom of external
conditions, a response to deregulated markets or a product of state
recognition. Instead - through a history of retailing as a site of
nation and belonging, changing legal regimes, and articulations of
race, class and gender in the constitution of political subjects
from the 1930s to present-day Wal-Mart - this book presents the
experiences and subjectivities of workers themselves to show that
the collective political subject 'workers' (abasebenzi) is both a
durable and malleable political category. From white to black
women's labour, the forms of precariousness have changed within
retailing in South Africa. Workers' struggles in different times
have in turn resolved some dilemmas and by other turn generated new
categories and conditions of precariousness, all the while
explaining enduring attachments to labour politics.
The death of Nelson Mandela on 5 December 2013 was in a sense a
wake-up call for South Africans, and a time to reflect on what has
been achieved since 'those magnificent days in late April 1994' (as
the editors of this volume put it) 'when South Africans of all
colours voted for the first time in a democratic election'. In a
time of recall and reflection it is important to take account, not
only of the dramatic events that grip the headlines, but also of
other signposts that indicate the shape and characteristics of a
society. The New South African Review looks, every year, at some of
these signposts, and the essays in this fourth volume of the series
again examine and analyse a broad spectrum of issues affecting the
country. They tackle topics as diverse as the state of organised
labour; food retailing; electricity generation; access to
information; civil courage; the school system; and - looking
outside the country to its place in the world - South Africa's
relationships with north-east Asia, with Israel and with its
neighbours in the southern African region. Taken together, these
essays give a multidimensional perspective on South Africa's
democracy as it turns twenty, and will be of interest to general
readers while being particularly useful to students and
researchers.
This book is the first of its kind to bring together a collection
of critical scholarly work on consumer culture in South Africa,
exploring the cultural, political, economic, and social aspects of
consumption in post-Apartheid society. From sushi and Japanese
diplomacy to Queen Sophie's writhing gown, from middle class
Sowetan golfers to an indebted working class citizenry, from
wedding websites to wedding nostalgia, from the liberation of
consuming to the low wage labour of selling, the chapters in this
book demonstrate a variety of themes, showing that to start with
consumption, rather than ending with it, allows for new insights
into long-standing areas of social research. By mapping, exploring
and theorizing the diverse aspects of consumption and consumer
culture, the volume collectively works towards a fresh set of
empirically rooted conceptual commentaries on the politics,
economics, and social dynamics of modern South Africa. This effort,
in turn, can serve as a foundation for thinking less parochially
about neoliberal power and consumer culture. On a global scale,
studying consumption in South Africa matters because in some ways
the country serves as a microcosm for global patterns of income
inequality, race-based economic oppression, and hopes for the
material betterment of life. By exploring what consumption means on
the 'local' scale in South Africa, the possibility arises to trace
new global links and dissonances. This book was originally
published as a special issue of Critical Arts.
As the largest private employer in the world, Walmart dominates
media and academic debate about the global expansion of
transnational retail corporations and the working conditions in
retail operations and across the supply chain. Yet far from being a
monolithic force conquering the world, Walmart must confront and
adapt to diverse policies and practices pertaining to regulation,
economy, history, union organization, preexisting labor cultures,
and civil society in every country into which it enters. This
transnational aspect of the Walmart story, including the diversity
and flexibility of its strategies and practices outside the United
States, is mostly unreported. Walmart in the Global South presents
empirical case studies of Walmart's labor practices and supply
chain operations in a number of countries, including Chile, Brazil,
Argentina, Nicaragua, Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand. It
assesses the similarities and differences in Walmart's acceptance
into varying national contexts, which reveals when and how state
regulation and politics have served to redirect company practice
and to what effect. Regulatory context, state politics, trade
unions, local cultures, and global labor solidarity emerge as
vectors with very different force around the world. The volume's
contributors show how and why foreign workers have successfully,
though not uniformly, driven changes in Walmart's corporate
culture. This makes Walmart in the Global South a practical guide
for organizations that promote social justice and engage in worker
struggles, including unions, worker centers, and other nonprofit
entities.
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