Recent and upcoming events

The first in a new series of CSSR quantitative methods workshops focuses on panel data analysis and uses the Cape Area Panel Study to illustrate a few basic techniques.

Sociological treatments of the reproduction of social inequality in South Africa often focus on historical, political and economical aspects while references  popular culture are commonly used to describe differences rather than to explain them. As a result much of South African cultural sociology, especially with regards to youth culture, is entailed in in-depth ethnographic descriptions of particular subcultures. In contrast this seminar is about the role of taste and cultural preferences in the reconfiguration of common perceptions of “otherness” and their function in the reproduction of social inequality. By presenting findings from a survey and in-depth focus groups with schoolchildren in Cape Town it explores the divisive potential of contemporary youth culture, especially where class and race connotations meet. Bourdieu’s work on cultural capital and habitus is applied in the context of South African youth culture in order to discern the links between structural inequality and taste. Particular attention is paid to the effects of uneven access to different forms of media.

In the late 1970s, North Western Tanzania and Southern Uganda probably constituted the epicentre of the African HIV epidemic. By the time Museveni’s National Resistance Army took Kampala in 1986, AIDS constituted a real crisis. But the new government's willingness to confront the disease (which contrasted with the denial exhibited by most African governments), its frank prevention campaigns and its emphasis on "partnership" with civil society contributed to a stellar international reputation and significant investments by donors. But its reputation probably gained most from the declines in HIV prevalence observed in Uganda from the early 1990s. This paper interrogates whether the Museveni government's reputation for excellent leadership on AIDS is deserved. It does so by examining the role of underlying epidemiological trends in explaining the HIV prevalence declines (by implementing a standard epidemiological model) and the evolving role of non-state actors in the Ugandan AIDS response. Particular attention is paid to institutional arrangements and a political culture that discourages vocal civil society and to donor dependence and donor dominance of the policy agenda.

Recent scholarly work has demonstrated that urban tenure forms exists on a continuum from informal to freehold rather than as a dualistic relationship of dejure versus defacto tenure as held for a long time. Knowledge about the effects of dejure versus defacto tenure has accumulated but we know little about the effects of these intermediate forms, on economic and particularly on social dimensions of poverty. Using a capital asset framework, this paper investigates the effects of leasehold tenure as opposed to occupancy tenure on economic capital as indicated by household income, number of assets, credit access and income generating activities, and social capital as indicated by social networks, financial value of networks, and social cohesion. The study draws evidence from a pseudo-natural experiment in Lusaka, Zambia. In this experiment, residents of Matero and George have lived as neighbours renting from the Lusaka City Council and living in similar conditions for over forty years. In 1996, Matero residents benefitted from the privatization of public housing receiving 99-year leasehold tenure while those in George continued to rent from the council under 30-year occupancy tenure. A survey (n=623) and qualitative interviews (n=35) were conducted in 2011. The study finds that leasehold tenure was associated with higher household income and number of assets but no effect on income generating activities and credit access. Leasehold tenure was positively associated with number of networks but had no effect on the financial values of those networks and on social cohesion. Calls about formalization of intermediate forms of urban tenure are discouraged as they may consolidate into stratified social formations overtime.