'Schooling bodies to hard work': the South African state's policy discourse and its moral constructions of welfare. Issue 2 (2nd April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Barchiesi, Franco
• Is Part Of: Journal of contemporary African studies. Volume 34:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 221
• Page End: 235
• Publication Date: 2016-04-02
• Subjects: South Africa -- politics -- state -- labour -- welfare -- social policy; Africa -- Periodicals; Africa -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Africa -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 960
• DOI: 10.1080/02589001.2016.1202552
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0258-9001

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article offers an investigation of social policy discourse with specific regard to the ways in which interventions aimed at addressing poverty and social inequality have conceptualised welfare, social assistance and social security. It argues that the post-1994 African National Congress (ANC)-led government has placed a priority on waged employment and labour market participation as the preferred route to social inclusion and social security, to the detriment of universal redistributive programmes not associated with paid work. The state's promotion of a form of social disciplining centred on wage labour has clashed with the material reality of spiralling unemployment and the proliferation of precarious and unprotected occupations. This disjuncture raises important questions concerning the capacity of the new institutional dispensation to govern South Africa's long transition – or even the ability of the ANC to justify their policy decisions to their core constituency.