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This book uses the transformative innovation policy (TIP) as a lens to show how innovative processes, practices and systems could address critical challenges and facilitate the delivery of sustainable human settlements in South Africa. The TIP approach shows that addressing societal problems is not a function of a technical solution within a government department but one that requires partnership with multiple stakeholders. The book argues that it is essential to understand and embrace innovation policy that is transformative and responds to the social and environmental needs at local, provincial and national levels. It demonstrates that innovation policy should focus on transforming the soc...
This book unpacks the political economy of government subsidised housing programmes in South Africa. Exploring government policy towards subsidised housing in South Africa, this edited collection analyses various programmes, their shortcomings and potential options to address these weaknesses in the context of a country suffering from an exponential demand for housing in the face of insufficient supply. The Political Economy of Government Subsidised Housing in South Africa looks at the complex and contested nature of the issue in post-apartheid South Africa, stimulating debate and knowledge sharing on housing programmes, proffering solutions to the issue. The book explores the issue from both practical and intellectual standpoints, exploring the relationship between historical institutional legacies and contemporary power structures, and their role in provision of housing for the growing population of South Africa. This book will be of great interest to students of urban and regional planning, political economy, development studies, and African studies.
This book considers how basic income could be used as a mechanism for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in African agrarian societies. African agrarian societies are among those most severely impacted by disasters due to insufficient financial and technological resources to prepare for and respond to crises. This book argues that hazards and environmental disasters are increasingly not isolated occurrences, and the vulnerability of communities is cumulative event after event, with capacities to cope and adapt weakened progressively. With pre- and post-disaster operating as a single continuous process, basic income could provide communities with a stable flow of money, leaving them better able to adapt and respond to crises. To illustrate the theoretical framework, the book uses Mozambique, and more specifically the district of Búzi, as an instrumental case study. This innovative book will be of interest to readers across the fields of global development, African studies and humanitarian and disaster studies.
This book explores the ways in which political settlements can contribute to positive changes in Africa’s agricultural and manufacturing sectors. Contemporary Africa has seen many governments, donors, and commercial private enterprises supporting innovative agricultural and agroprocessing schemes with the purpose of diversifying economies. However, many of the schemes collapse or at best fail to generate the needed jobs. Focusing on case studies in Kenya, Nigeria, and Ethiopia, this book takes an interdisciplinary approach that combines economic analysis, life histories, policy approaches methods, and political economy theory to reframe the field with new questions. The contributors offer ...
Majority State Ownership of Oil and Mining Sectors in Africa: The Resource Curse Undermined shows that countries in sub-Saharan Africa with majority state ownership of their major oil or mineral export sectors suffered from more severe versions of the natural resource curse than other similar countries. Examining natural resource exporting nations in sub-Saharan Africa between 1966 to 2000, Quinn shows that on average, states with majority state ownership of these sectors featured lower growth, lower incomes, declining alternative export sectors, more debt, lower levels of investment, lower levels of political and civil rights, and more domestic conflict than other similar countries. These r...
This book reframes the purpose of infrastructure from being an input to economic growth to becoming a major instrument in reducing socio-economic inequalities in both industrialized and developing countries. Drawing on global and national lessons of COVID-19 and extensive working experience in 55 countries, this book reviews infrastructure policies and performance over several decades and suggests that the “underperformance” of infrastructure could be improved by more attention to users and the demand side, and thereby contribute to overcoming many obstacles facing low-income communities around the world. This book argues that growth is not a necessary condition for sustainability or soc...
This book examines the connections between poverty and innovation in Africa. Through case studies and theorizations from a distinctly African perspective, it stands in contrast to current theoretical works in the field, which remain very much rooted in Western-orientated thinking. The book investigates the application of methodologies which explain numerous African contexts in connection with issues of poverty and inequality. It reflects on comparative practices and praxes on the African continent, including commonplace traditions and practices in alleviating poverty, taken against a background of the failure of current prescriptions for poverty alleviation, such as the Structural Adjustment...
Science, technology, and innovation (STI) are generally accepted as major drivers of growth and can help address poverty and directly improve the well-being of different groups in society. However, under certain circumstances, STI can reinforce social exclusion and inequalities. This book explores discourses around directionality and the importance of Innovation for Inclusive Development (IID) in addressing policy questions that explore the relationship between IID with inequalities in income and opportunities. It seeks to unpack the concept of IID and what it means in a country such as South Africa – a country characterised by endemic poverty, deepening inequality, and high levels of unemployment. The book is largely original and based on a critique of existing literature to expose specific issues or bolster specific arguments about the role of IID in equitable and inclusive development. This book has been written by various scholars who understand the various notions of IID and how it can possibly be applied and the relevance of such knowledge for policy, programmes and practice.
This book gives a comprehensive overview of Ghana’s hydrocarbon economy using actor network and assemblage theories to contest the methodological nationalism of mainstream accounts of the resource curse in resource-rich countries. Drawing upon recent field research focused on Ghana’s oil and gas sector and utilizing the theoretical framework of actor network theory, the authors contend that there is an assemblage of political, economic, social and environmental networks, processes, actions, actors, and structures of power that coalesce to determine the extent to which the country’s hydrocarbon resources could be regarded as a "curse" or "blessing." This framing facilitates a better understanding of the variety (and duality) of local and global forces and power structures at play in Ghana’s growing hydrocarbon industry. Giving a nuanced and multi-perspectival analysis of the factors that underlie oil-engendered development in Ghana, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of African political economy, development and the politics of resource extraction.
This volume reflects on the recent political developments in Zimbabwe and their current and future impact on the agrarian sector. Utilising new empirical data gathered across Zimbabwe, the contributors shed light on the liberalisation of agricultural policy after Mugabe. Chapters examine how the adoption of neo-liberal orthodoxy in agrarian policy making will affect the new agrarian structure, looking at issues such as productivity, the impact on vulnerable groups, changing land tenure arrangements, joint ventures and land grabbing. Providing a new way of conceptualising Zimbabwe’s agrarian futures, this book will be of interest to researchers, NGOs and policymakers interested in the politics of land and agriculture in Zimbabwe and southern Africa.