Urbanization policy: Lessons from South America for South Africa?

South African cities are currently moving through a critical period in the history of their development. Rates of growth over the last few years have been unprecedented and many of the factors which shape urban development (legislation, institutional structures, government spending patterns and so on) are currently undergoing significant transformation. Factors such as these have given rise to a concern that South African cities may face collapse if emerging problems are not addressed, and there has been intensified interest in the arena of urban policy. A significant feature of many of these current policy initiatives is that they look to other parts of the world (and frequently to South American countries) for “lessons” in solving the problems of urban settlement. This paper examines the feasibility of adopting policy models from elsewhere io address local development problems, and focuses specifically on the question of a national urban settlement strategy for South Africa. The paper concludes that a high degree of local specificity exists, and the simplistic adoption of foreign policy models can have a negative impact on attempts here to meet growing urban needs.     

Social relationships and shifting languages in Northern Thailand1

This paper explores how speakers’ understandings of the conduct of social relationships mediate changing and socially distinctive syncretic language practices in a Northern Thai community. Although a shift away from vernacular (Kam Muang) speech styles to Standard Thai was emblematically tied to young and urban speakers in nostalgic discourses, syncretic speech styles and metalinguistic discourses also reflected local and socially positioned understandings of institutional roles and social relationships. I argue that scholars of language change and shift should foreground the mediating role of social relationships in speakers’ uses and understandings of their communicative repertoires across multiple timescales.     

Lineaments of the Political Geography of State Formation in Twentieth-Century South Africa

As a step towards framing an understanding of the politics of the South African transition and the prospects for democracy in that country, this paper asks the question: what kind of state is it that is being transformed? It offers the argument that we should conceptualize the history of state formation within the territory that is presently called South Africa in terms of three inter-related trajectories: imperial, national, and urban. By doing this, it is argued, the dimensions of key obstacles in the path of democratic national governance understood as ‘legacies of apartheid’ become clearer as the new leadership of the state strives to establish new forms of rule. Understanding the history of the imperial state system, as well as stressing the distinctiveness of the urban domain, adds to the well-attested story of racial exclusion in the national state and enables a clearer appreciation of matters such as the status of women, the mobilization of ethnic nationalism, problems of crime and civil disorder, and the new forms of politics that are emerging as local ANC notables become agents of the state in black townships and rural areas.     

Of Enlightenment and Alaska Early Moderns

This article examines transformations of status-capital in the modern history of the Alaska Native Alutiiq. I redevelop Pierre Bourdieu's forms of capital and habitus to analyze how Alutiiq elites stay on course during massive changes in their social structure. By drawing attention to citizenship statuses of the nineteenth century Russian and American colonial periods, I explore how local structural inequalities emerge in Alaska, yet with leaders of the same Alaska Native kin groups moving into the new privileged positions as Russian Imperial citizen, then later as American citizen. The study identifies citizenship as a key technology of group identification in Alaska and, in particular, how civilizing processes associated with citizenship create marked objective differences among the Alutiiq. Alaska Native society's articulation with the Russian and, later, American cultural-political orders creates new kinds of local structural inequalities. By possessing the requisite cultural capital to comprehend structural shifts in politics and the economy, Alaska Native elites strategically fit into new legal and ideological regimes of belonging. What develops is an example of the durability of an Alaska Native ruling elite by means of the transformation of prestige.     

Restoring Law and (Racial) Order to the Old Dominion

In 2006, cities and counties across the USA began adopting ‘Illegal Immigration Relief Acts’ to relieve themselves of the economic and social burden that undocumented immigrants were allegedly presenting. By restricting the access of undocumented residents to housing, jobs and social services, local ordinances would encourage undocumented residents to ‘self-deport’ from the locality if not from the nation. Highly contentious, politically and juridically, local anti-illegal immigration laws have divided communities. Proponents maintain that such laws merely uphold the ‘rule of law’, while opponents see them as thinly veiled efforts to drive out Latin American residents, with immigration status serving as a proxy for race. A growing body of scholarship examines local anti-immigrant law and offers significant insights into the causes and undeniably racialized effects of these laws. Yet the issue of racism requires more scholarly attention. Critical race theory holds that all racisms are historically particular and must be examined as expressive of particular conjunctures. To that end, this essay develops a theoretically informed and historically grounded analysis of local anti-immigration law. It establishes local and national interests in local anti-immigrant law and explains how these interests converge. Through a case study of Prince William County (PWC), Virginia, I examine local anti-immigrant activism and connect them to larger political shifts in the contemporary USA. I argue that local white propertied interests converge with national conservative and federalist interests in the county's anti-illegal immigrant law. The essay seeks to demonstrate the value of bringing cultural studies methodology to bear on (local) immigration law.     

The representation of the Chinese product crisis in national and local newspapers in the United States

This paper examines how national and local newspapers in the United States frame Chinese product recalls in 2007. First, it reviews literature on international communication and framing. Second, it content analyzes the presentations of the Chinese product recalls in two leading national newspapers, including the New York Times and the USA today, and six major newspapers from five Southern states, including Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Third, it compares media representations of Chinese products in the two national newspapers with those in Southern newspapers. We argue that American media are still dominated by stories from the U.S. perspectives and Chinese sources are less likely to be cited. Even though Southern newspapers play an important role in constructing local knowledge, their limited scope of coverage and perspectives constrain their role in reporting international news.     

Neighborhood Organization and Local Social Action:

This case study examines the history, structure and social, economic, and political changes of an urban neighborhood in Ohio, and how local social actors and organizations affect those changes. The data are based on personal interviews, meeting minutes, newsletters, newspaper articles, and other documentation and materials. The analysis shows that (1) individual social actors are the most important factors in bringing about change consistent with the local social action system, (2) there is a significant and positive relationship between the economic condition of the neighborhood and the success of the changes in the neighborhood, (3) changes consistent with the local social action system are most effectively induced when various organizations and social groups are organized independently of each other but at the same time associated through coalition activities, and (4) the larger urban system (both political and economic systems) in which the neighborhood is located can have strong influence on the neighborhood change.     

Public duty and private prejudice: sexualities equalities and local government

Rather than critiquing social institutions and practices that have historically excluded lesbians and gay men, as did earlier social movements in the 1960s and 1970s, since the 1990s the politics of sexuality has increasingly been about demanding equal rights of citizenship. These citizenship demands have, at least to a degree, been answered via a raft of recent legislation in the UK including the Adoption and Children Act 2002, Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the Civil Partnership Act 2004, and by associated changes in policy making and practice that emphasize ‘Equality and Diversity’. In this article we consider how the implementation of sexualities equalities policies is related to processes of privatization and individualization. This is illustrated by using sexualities equalities work in local government as a case study to indicate how processes of change and resistance are aided by these processes. The article draws on findings from a study of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equalities initiatives in local government in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which examined the views of those who now have a public duty to implement recent legislative and policy shifts and are obliged to develop equalities initiatives concerning ‘sexual orientation' and ‘gender reassignment’.     

Urban poverty,economic restructuring and poverty reduction policy in urban China: Evidence from Shanghai, 1978–2008

This article uses the city of Shanghai as a case study to analyze the changing institutional mechanisms for the new urban poverty stratum in China. Specifically, the article examines urban poverty in relation to economic restructuring and the transformation of the welfare provision system in three stages of market reforms. The article first examines the overall economic growth strategies at the national level, and then examines local government policy outcomes at the city level. The impacts of institutional changes on urban poverty and social inequality are subsequently. Finally, the article assesses the current poverty reduction policies and proposes a “social inclusion” framework to alleviate urban poverty in China.     

Leave the Fields without Leaving the Countryside: Modernity and Mobility in Rural,Ethnic China

Studies of internal migration in contemporary China frequently focus on the movement of rural people to urban centers, while studies of Chinese tourism concentrate on the mobility of urban travelers. These approaches to mobility coincide neatly with established understandings of modernity, despite the fact that the Chinese government has tried to promote certain forms of rural modernization without mobilization–hence the national slogan “leave the fields without leaving the countryside.” This article complicates the relationship between modernity and mobility in China by examining mobility from the perspective of returned migrants in rural, ethnic minority tourism villages. Through the analysis of five migrants' stories of travel, I explore the ordering of mobility, or how differing types of mobility come to be re-signified in times of immense social change and the consequences of these symbolic shifts on local understandings of ethnic identity and rural livelihoods. My argument builds on analytical frameworks of mobility in post-reform China by examining how mobility itself has been ordered in ways that reveal particular desire, inequalities, and power relations. By exploring how mobility both orders social relationships and how different forms of mobility, such as tourism or migration, come to be ordered in relation to each other, I draw attention to how mobility, and by extension immobility, generates the conditions of possibility for tourism village residents to make sense of the potential and paradoxes of rural, ethnic tourism development in contemporary China.     

CROSSING TEHRAN AVENUE

The online city magazine TehranAvenue.com (TA) occupies the transnational crossroad of digital and urban space. It thus provides an important case study of how urban studies, postcolonial theory and critical cyber studies can be combined fruitfully to explain the potentialities and limits of digital and social networks in transnational Middle Eastern contexts. The article explores metaphors of the Internet as city, theories of transnational urban space and recent studies of the Internet and its politico-cultural uses in Iran to establish a theoretical method that can explain the simultaneity of local and transnational in digital and urban spaces. Qualitative data (email and telephone interviews with TA's founder, editor and contributors), combined with content analysis of the site, supports the claim that the city as metaphor and metonym can account for the intersection between contemporary North African and Middle Eastern digital spaces and national and diasporic urban spaces. The digital city – or blogabad – expands physical urban space into transnational networks. But there are important limits to the transnational reach of mediated social networking practices. In fact, the located identifications of web users are often much more important than the global reach of the technologies they use.     

Finding the city in sociology: Broadening and deepening the geographic scope of the urban and inequality literatures

Cities have long been the object of fascination within sociology. Key portions of sociological literatures on inequality and globalization, for instance, have focused on urban spaces as essential sites for the production and reproduction of social life, and urban sociology itself is one of the oldest fields in the discipline. For all of this prominence, however, locating the city itself in these literatures can be difficult. Much of our understanding of urban life and urban social problems is derived from a relatively small number of American cities. Moreover, cities are often relegated to a supporting role as a research site rather than an institution worthy of interrogation. This article reviews the path that has brought a specific set of cities to the fore of American sociological analyses. In response, broadening literatures to cities in the literal and figurative American South and producing deeper literatures of specific cities can give sociology the opportunity to produce more representative and contextually rich analyses of inequalities, urban social life, and urban form. The literature on St. Louis, Missouri is presented as an example of what such a broader and deeper literature could encompass.     

The distinctive South and the invisible North: Why urban ethnography needs regional sociology

This article is a review of urban ethnography's Northern bias and regional sociology's Southern bias. I begin by arguing that these two subfields have reified the South's reputation for regional distinctiveness and rendered the North's regional characteristics invisible. To illustrate why urban ethnography needs regional sociology, I explain how the reluctance to view Northern cities through a regional lens has resulted in canonical conceptualizations of “the street” that lack precision and clarity. I conclude with a discussion of how efforts to revive regional sociology by conducting ethnographic research in Southern cities will need to expand beyond the study of the South to achieve lasting impact in urban ethnography more broadly.     

The Dark Side of the Force: A Case Study of Restructuring and Social Capital1

Abstract This paper uses a case study of a Southern textile community to show how a distinct form of social capital is embedded in local networks of power and domination. Textile firms and communities in the South have undergone restructuring: technology and labor processes have modernized, firms have merged, consolidated, or closed, and the number of workers has declined. An analysis of Cannon Mills and its associated mill community of Kannapolis identifies the sources of the paternalist form of social capital that dominated work and community social relations. Corporate mergers, downsizing, technological change, shifts in the labor market, municipal incorporation, and labor organizing contributed to the transformation and decline of paternalistic social capital. The case study reminds social scientists that social capital is a context dependent form of power that can be created, accumulated, or destroyed. While many current analyses treat social capital as an unquestioned positive force, the case study reveals the dark side of social capital.     

Youth on the margins in Northern Ireland,England, and Ukraine

This paper deals with the experience of the two authors working in a number of different settings. Both have been for many years practitioners using the Social Action model, Jennie in England and Eamonn in Northern Ireland. Together we have also been providing training for youth social workers in Ukraine, on issues of Social Action and empowering practice. What we attempt to do in this paper is first consider some of the issues and debates around the concept of marginalization. Then, referring to Northern Ireland, England, and Ukraine, we will provide some perspectives on the situation of young people, with examples of the mechanics of marginalization and blocks to the inclusion of young people in their societies. We hope to show that marginalization is a topical concept in all three places and that it has elements that transcend cultural and national boundaries, despite the social circumstances in Belfast, Derby, and Ukraine being very different. However, there are also aspects of the marginalization of young people that are different. Next, we will go on to describe the Social Action approach and to give some examples of how we have attempted to put the philosophy and approach into practice in three different countries and in the settings of research, practice, and training. To do this we will draw on our experience and work with young people in England and Northern Ireland and with youth social workers in Ukraine.     

Rural-Urban Differences and Their Amelioration

South Korean society is in transition toward a multicultural society. Integrating multicultural education into current citizenship education is challenging for the society. Historically, many national tragedies have created the unique characteristics of what being Korean means. South Korean social studies curriculum emphasized that Korea is a monolithic society with one language, one history, and one ethnicity. In recent years, however, the number of foreigners living in South Korea dramatically increases because of work, study, and marriage. As they become be members of Korean society, it is necessary that South Koreans acknowledge diverse groups in the society and revise a long-held belief about who we, as Koreans, are. To this end, the Korean social studies curriculum should include more information about as well as respect and promote ethnic, cultural, and social diversity. Social studies teachers should attempt various activities to promote students’ understanding of current social changes in South Korea.     

Social Development and Minimum Standards in Social Work Education in South Africa

This paper evaluates how well South African minimum standards for social work education, known as Exit Level Outcomes, are aligned to a social development paradigm. Developmental social work is a relatively new approach in social work education internationally, and this article can therefore provide lessons for other countries using this paradigm in an education model based on national minimum standards.

The complexities and difficulties of using a minimum standards approach in education are discussed and the policy context for the development of these standards in South Africa is explained. The use of a social development framework for the analysis is motivated in relation to its relevance to the social context. Nine criteria for a social development perspective were drawn from the literature to form an analytical framework. A content analysis using this framework was done on the minimum standards.

The results show that the minimum standards are generally aligned with social development principles that drive national priorities, but a few significant gaps exist, which are outlined and discussed. This article attempts to grapple with the complexities of using these minimum standards to drive both curricula related and extra curricula activities in social work education in South Africa     

Social workers' conceptions of how the local living environment is related to social exclusion

The article is concerned with how community-based social workers conceptualize the relationship between the local living environment and social exclusion and inclusion processes. It provides a brief overview of general urban theory concerning the significance of the local living environment in a globalized world and looks at how social workers understand the mechanisms of spatial marginalization and urban segregation. In addition, the article examines social workers' views on sustainable living environments that support inclusion. It is argued that, through their daily work, social workers have a special yet restricted view on social exclusion and inclusion processes. Their knowledge could contribute to efforts to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of spatial marginalization because they work in a position from which they can see the consequences and interdependencies of multiple issues between structural changes and individual survival in the context of the local living environment.     

Public Policies Addressed to the Social and Solidarity Economy in South America. Toward a New Model?

Since the beginning of this century, most South American countries have modified their position within society, challenging the self-regulating nature of markets and intervening in social issues. This approach supports the transition toward a “third-generation” model for the social policy field, one in which Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) acquires a relevant role. In the last few years, many public policies have included SSE in their design, with the purpose of addressing the key issues of developing societies: unemployment and poverty. This article analyzes the main regulatory dimensions and conditionings of the national programs that promote SSE in South American countries and aim to enhance social inclusion and employment. Particularly, the article examines the most illustrative social programs implemented at the national level in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela in the last decade.     

The Kazakhs of Western Mongolia: transnational migration from 1990–2008

The Kazakhs are the largest minority group in Mongolia, a relatively homogenous country dominated by Khalkh Mongols. Since 1991, Mongolia has transitioned politically and economically and witnessed significant changes in internal and international migration flows. The large-scale movement of ethnic Kazakhs from Western Mongolia to Kazakhstan represents one such emerging international flow. This migration is influenced by economic motivations, historical cultural ties to Kazakhstan, and immigration policies of both countries. This paper assesses the local and national circumstances that shape migration decision-making in Western Mongolia during the transition years and highlights changes in the characteristics and directions of migration flows during this time. We identify three periods of migration with each period characterized by changing economies and national policies in Mongolia and Kazakhstan, as well as changes in communications technologies and extensiveness of social networks among prospective migrants. These periods illustrate how transnational migration flows evolve through time and are affected by national, local, and individual circumstances.