Thèses sur le sujet « Inequality – South Africa »

Includes bibliographical references.
This paper examines the effect of circumstances on the opportunities available to individuals in South Africa, by quantifying the degree to which inequalities in labour market outcomes are due to circumstances (unequal opportunities). To do so, two distinct Inequality of Opportunity indices are applied to the first wave of the National Income Dynamic Study (NIDS). The dissimilarity index estimates the opportunities that need to be reallocated, for all economically active South Africans to have equal access to employment in spite of their circumstances. Whereas the inequality of economic opportunity index, estimates the (lower bound) share of total income inequality that can be attributed to differing circumstances. Results from the empirical analyses reveal that circumstances, such as race, gender and parental education, do not contribute significantly to inequalities in accessing employment. This is in contrast to the substantial share of labour market income inequality, found to stem from circumstances. These results suggest that policies aimed at redressing inequities in the labour market, should focus on the channels through which circumstances, especially race and gender impact an individual’s opportunities and thus their ability to acquire labour market income.

This paper constructs an Inequality of Opportunities framework for South Africa and seeks to establish whether earnings inequality therein has been driven by differing circumstances or variations in efforts. The analysis has been performed on a 2008 cross-sectional South African dataset, proxying for circumstances using years of parental education and for efforts using an individual's own education in years.

South Africa has undergone a remarkable political transformation since the birth of democracy in 1994, yet it remains plagued by extremely high levels of socio-economic inequality, violent crime and social unrest. Although inequality is often regarded as a major driver of many social problems, the evidence base concerning inequality in South Africa is relatively limited, consisting primarily of national level Gini coefficients or General Entropy measures based upon household income, expenditure or consumption data. In this thesis I argue that these broad national level measures say little about people's actual day-to-day lived experiences of inequality and how these individual experiences of inequality may be shaped by the local geographical areas in which people live and go about their daily lives. I construct a series of empirical measures of exposure to socio-economic inequality which reflect the socio-spatial environments in which people live. I argue that these new measures can be used as explanatory factors in the study of other social outcomes, both at an individual level (for example, individuals' attitudes) and at an area level (for example, rates of violent crime). Exposure to inequality is measured both from the perspective of the 'poor' population and the perspective of the 'non-poor' population and the measures are constructed and presented at small area level using the Datazone statistical geography. I analyse the spatial distribution of exposure to inequality and find that exposure to inequality is typically highest in urban neighbourhoods, particularly in the major metropolitan areas. I develop a measure of intensity of exposure in order to highlight areas with both high exposure and high levels of deprivation. I also present one example of how my new measures can be used to explore associations with other outcomes, specifically looking at the relationship between people's lived experience of inequality and their attitudes towards inequality and redress.

Includes bibliographical references.
This paper comments on a possible relationship between wage inequality and trade liberalisation in South Africa. Several unique contributions are made here: first, the above-mentioned relationship is tested using mandated-wage regressions that were based on the zero-profit condition; second, the impact of falling tariffs on factor returns is analysed directly; and third, the indirect impact of trade liberalisation on factor returns, through its effect on technology, is examined.

Includes bibliographical references.
The effect of energy on inequality and poverty is not well understood and its role in growth-inequality-poverty nexus has not been adequately studied. A country's energy mix can playa significant role in economic growth and poverty alleviation. Policy authorities and donors increasingly lend support to modem energy provision, especially Rural Electrification (RE). This thesis investigates which energy types contribute to poverty alleviation in South Africa and through what mechanisms. Theory indicates that poverty alleviation comes by growth boosting and inequality reducing policies. As such, the investigation of the pro-poor effects of any policy or factor would naturally culminate in studying the effects on economic growth (or production) and income distribution. Theory suggests endogeneity on one hand between energy and GDP and on the other between GDP and inequality. This necessitates a system of equations rather than the traditional single equations approach. There are other (South Africa-specific) reasons why the inequality-development relationship and the role of energy should be investigated. First, South Africa has been under-researched due to lack of data. Recent data released by the Presidency of South Africa (AMPS Dataset) makes such analysis possible. Secondly, the Kuznets' inequalitydevelopment hypothesis can be tested with time series data rather than the cross-section analyses found in earlier literature. Third, energy's role in economic growth or production has been analysed with aggregate energy measures and aggregate GDP. This work argues that such an approach will mask energy type-specific and sector-specific details and undertakes a more disaggregated analysis. Fourth, the multiracial nature of South Africa requires sub-group decomposed inequality rather than national aggregates.

This thesis begins with the assumption that the theory of academic dependency provides an adequate framework within which the relationship between social science communities in the North and South can be understood. Present problems of social scientists in the South have very often been attributed to this dependence and it has been concluded that academic dependence has resulted in an uncritical and imitative approach to ideas and concepts from the West (Alatas, 2000). This dependence has also resulted in the general regression among social scientists based in the South and in a marginalisation of their works within the social science community no matter how significant and original they may be. The problematic invisibility of the works of prominent South African scholars is a dimension of a wider crisis of academic dependence, if unchecked this current trend will also reinforce academic dependence. From the nature of the problems generated by academic dependence, it is obvious that there is a need for an intellectual emancipation movement. This movement may take different forms that may range from but are not limited to a commitment to endogeneity which involves among other things, knowledge production that takes South African local conditions seriously enough to be the basis for the development of distinct conceptual ideas and theories. This requires transcending the tendency to use ‘the local’ primarily as a tool for data collection and theoretical framing done from the global north. Secondly, there is a need to take the local, indigenous, ontological narratives seriously enough to serve as source codes for works of distinct epistemological value and exemplary ideas within the global project of knowledge production. Endogeneity in the context of African knowledge production should also involve an intellectual standpoint derived from a rootedness in the African conditions; a centring of African ontological discourses and experiences as the basis of intellectual work (Adesina, 2008: 135). In this study, it is suggested that the recommendations highlighted above can only succeed if scholars make an effort to actually engage with locally produced knowledge. There is therefore a need to make greater efforts to know each other’s work on Africa. This demand is not to appease individual egos but it is essential for progress in scientific work. African communities will benefit from drawing with greater catholicity from the well–spring of knowledge about Africa generated by Africans. In the South African context, transcending academic dependence in the new generation of young academics requires engagement with the work of our local scholars who have devoted their lives to knowledge production. This thesis explores the scholarship of Professor Bernard Magubane by engaging with his works on race, class and inequality by locating his works within the wider debates on race, class and inequality in South Africa. The specific contributions of Professor Magubane to the enterprise of knowledge production are identified and discussed in relation to his critique of Western social science in its application to Africa. The making of Professor Magubane’s life, his career, scholarship and biography details are analysed with the intention of showing their influence on Magubane as a Scholar. The examination of Professor Magubane’s intellectual and biographical accounts help to explain the details, contexts and implications of his theoretical paradigm shifts. This helps prove that Professor Magubane’s experiences and theoretical positions were socially and historically constituted. The research from which this thesis derives is part of an NRF-funded project, on Endogeneity and Modern Sociology in South Africa, under the direction of Professor Jimi Adesina.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-79).
This paper analyses changes in the inequality of employment earnings in South Africa between 1993 and 2008. This is done through the implementation of a relatively new method of comparing the contributions of various factors to observed changes in incomes distributions. Counterfactual earnings distributions are calculated to assess the effect of changes in the returns to individual characteristics on inequality, and whether these changes operated through changing labour market outcomes or earnings for those employed. The effect of changes in the distribution of education is also calculated, and this is again decomposed into effects operating through labour market outcomes and effects operating through employment earnings. The method is designed to be used in labour markets with high unemployment rates, and incorporates analysis of labour market effects and earnings into one unified approach, which is unusual in the literature on earnings inequality.

While the transition to democracy in South Africa extended civil and political rights and freedoms to all South Africans, there has been disagreement over the preferred nature and scope of social rights within post-apartheid society, reflecting debates over the trajectory of economic policy. Appreciable developmental gains have been made by the state over the last quarter-century, yet the challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality persist, coupled with mounting popular discontent with the pace of transformation and political accountability. This has led to fundamental questions about social justice, restitution, and the kind of society we wish to promote. Appeals for a more inclusive, transformative social policy have also emerged, arguing that a wider vision of society is required involving multiple government responsibilities and informed by an ethic of equality and social solidarity. Against this background, in this thesis I study the views of the South African public towards economic inequality, general preferences for government-led redistribution, as well as support for social policies intended to promote racial and economic transformation. The research has been guided by several overarching questions: To what extent do South Africans share common general beliefs about material inequality? Does the public exhibit a preference for government redistribution in principle? And how unified or polarised are South Africans in their support for specific redress policies in the country? Responding to these questions has been achieved by drawing on unique, nationally representative data from the South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS), which has enabled me to chart social attitudes over a period of almost fifteen years between late 2003 and early 2017. Use has also been made of social citizenship as a guiding conceptual framework to understanding social policy predispositions and analysing attitudinal change. The results demonstrate that the public is united in its awareness of and deep concern about economic inequality. Since the early 2000s, a significant majority has consistently expressed the view that the income gap in the country is too large, articulated a strong preference for a more equitable social structure, and acknowledged the class and social tensions that economic inequality has produced. There is also a preference for a narrowing of earnings disparities, a more generous minimum wage, and regulatory limits on executive pay. While this suggests a desire for fair and legitimate remuneration, the analysis also reveals that South Africans are willing to tolerate fairly high levels of inequality. Nonetheless, these beliefs are generally interpreted as a desire for a more equitable and fair society. This preference for change is reflected in a fairly strong belief that government should assume responsibility for reducing material disparities. One’s social position, mobility history, awareness of inequality, political leaning and racial attitudes all have a bearing on how weak and strong this predisposition is, but the normative demand for political redistribution remains fairly widely shared irrespective of these individual traits. Greater polarisation is however evident with respect to redistributive social policy, especially measures designed to overcome historical racial injustice (affirmative action, sports quotas, and land reform). These intergroup differences converge considerably when referring to class-based policy measures. One surprising finding is the evidence that South Africa’s youngest generation, the so-called ‘Born Frees’, tend to adopt a similar predisposition to redress policy as older generations, thus confounding expectations of a post-apartheid value change. I conclude by arguing that there seems to be a firmer basis for a social compact about preferences for interventions designed to produce a more just society than is typically assumed. Intractably high levels of economic inequality during the country’s first quarter-century of democracy is resulting in a growing recognition of the need for a stronger policy emphasis on economic inequality in South Africa over coming decades if the vision enshrined in the Freedom Charter and the Constitution is to be realised. South Africans may not be able to fully agree about the specific elements that constitute a socially just response to economic inequality. Yet, the common identification of and concern with redressable injustice, coupled with a broad-based commitment to government redistribution and classbased social policies, could serve as a foundation on which to rekindle the solidaristic spirit of 1994 and forge progress towards a more equitable society.

Magister Commercii - MCom
Inequality in South Africa has long been recognised as one of the most salient features of our society. Despite many efforts by the government to reduce inequality since our democratic transition in 1994, progress has been limited. The historic patterns of accumulation and economic concentration have continued to feed into South Africa’s patterns of uneven and combined development. Moreover, financial markets in many countries are undeniably incomplete, segmented, and inefficient. This is largely attributed by high transaction costs for both institutions and clients as well as biases against certain parts of the market. Therefore, people will continue to transact outside the formal financial system if they lack easy access and use of formal financial institutions. Private resources are often used in formal areas that provide better access and higher return on investment for private institutions. As a result, the development of the poorest areas remains relatively neglected.

Migration can be a hazardous venture, particularly if carried out clandestinely. Evidence indicates that foreigners working without formal authorisation, i.e. 'irregular migrant workers', are in a particularly vulnerable position primarily because of their irregular immigration status. They are more likely to be subjected to exploitative and unsafe employment practices in terms of benefits and conditions. This study examines the protection available to this category of migrant workers in South Africa, particularly their right of access to work-related social protection. South Africa is a major migrant-receiving country in Southern Africa because of its relatively stronger economy and political stability. However, the employment of foreign nationals without work permits, or foreigners working contrary to visa requirements, raises a series of policy issues. These issues, against the background of fairness and equity discourses pertaining to socio-economic entitlements, become exacerbated. This study examines the adequacy of domestic, constitutional and legislative frameworks that offer work-related social protection to foreign workers in South Africa. In the context of international, continental, and regional instruments that provide similar protection to irregular migrants, it could be argued that South Africa's restrictive legislative framework compromises equality in the right of access to social protection for some migrants. Although effective migration management depends on careful juxtaposition of myriad policies, emerging evidence suggests conflicting interplay between key South African policies intended to manage the rights of workers specifically and labour migration in the country generally. Critical analysis of relevant national immigration, labour, and social security laws indicates inconsistency with international human rights principles concerning the equality of opportunity or treatment of irregular migrants vis-àvis regular migrants and nationals regarding social protection. Yet, inequalities in the actual processes or opportunities (means) embedded in these policies disentitle many vulnerable foreign workers from important constitutionally entrenched fundamental rights because their presence and/or employment violates existing immigration laws. The study concludes by recommending policy interventions that may help remedy these problems.

Includes bibliographical references.
Household incomes in developing countries often rely on a variety of sources. Analyzing the effects on income inequality of these different sources can help understand developments underlying overall inequality. South Africa’s levels of inequality have been characterized as remaining “stubbornly high”(Leibbrandt and Finn, 2012). Studies show that in the past 20 years, Gini coefficients of per capita income have increased from 0.66 in 1993 to 0.70 in 2008. Lerman and Yitzhaki (1985) derived a method to decompose inequality of income by source followed by a derivation of the Gini Coefficient by Stark et al. (1986). It therefore becomes possible to assess the impact of changes in different components on inequality of total household income. This paper utilizes these techniques to focus on the effect of remittances on inequality in South Africa. Applying the decomposition of income sources to the South African National Income and Dynamics Survey (NIDS), the paper will take the analysis one step further by constructing a counterfactual that allows to compare current inequality levels to levels that would have prevailed had migration not taken place. For the construction of this counterfactual, conditional difference in difference matching will be employed and data on matched non-remittance households will be used to predict household incomes excluding remittances for migration households. The findings of this paper show that levels of inequality are still stagnating. While inequality measured by the Gini coefficient is lacking significant improvement, the counterfactual analysis shows that without remittances, inequality would be slightly worse than current levels. The counterfactual estimation thus supports the result of the decomposition of the Gini coefficient that also finds a minor inequality reducing effect of remittances.

This study sets out to identify the most effective way in which persistently and unacceptably high levels of inequality can be reduced in South Africa. Three alternative approaches were identified from the literature and their impact explored statistically. They are: the introduction of a ‘Social Solidarity Grant’; a decrease in unemployment by 5%; and a narrowing of the skill premium through an expansion of tertiary education. It is important to note that the study makes no attempt at explaining how these outcomes might be implemented or achieved. Rather, it sets out to determine only the effect that such policies may have on measured inequality. It was found that while the introduction of a new grant had a significant effect on inequality, this effect however, was once-off. The grant would be financed by individuals in the top decile through tax increases, which would be a complicated endeavour. Both job creation and a narrowing of the skills premium were significantly effective in decreasing inequality. The narrowing of the skills premium showed more promise due to its accelerating effectiveness in decreasing inequality over time and the fact that it directly addresses the problem of wage differentials. It was noted that the extreme levels of poverty and unemployment in South Africa may dampen enthusiasm for policies that narrow the skills premium to reduce inequality. These characteristics make job creation a more popular policy option because of the positive impact on poverty and unemployment as well as on inequality.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This work empirically examines South African data covering the years 1956-2011 to look into the relationship between FDI and inequality. By investigating how FDI is linked to inequality, policy makers would be better poised to develop policies that optimise on the benefits of FDI without the dampening effect of inequality. The benefits of FDI, particularly to the South African economy, are that it provides capital to finance investment by bridging the savings gap in the country. In addition to that, FDI facilitates transfer of technology and managerial skills from the source country. Moreover, FDI has a positive impact on balance of payment not only because of the impact capital inflow has on balance of payment, but because FDI also promotes exports of the country to world markets. Empirical evidence presented in literature suggests that the FDI-inequality relationship is complex. In some locations, for example in the US, Latin America and in some developing countries, FDI tends to raise income inequality. In other locations evidence is inconclusive. The results of this study showed that there is a negative relationship between inequality and foreign direct investment for the period examined in the study. This finding is not consistent with the a priori expectation that foreign direct investment increases inequality. Contrary to what has been predicted, the findings show that foreign direct investment is likely to reduce inequality. The findings also show that there is a statistically significant and positive relationship between GDP and inequality.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In order to evaluate the extent to which South Africa achieve the objectives of poverty and inequality reduction as well as job creation, up-to-date and reliable data are required. Since the transition, various survey data have been commonly used for these analyses, namely Census, Community Survey (CS) 2007, Income and Expenditure Survey (IES), October Household Survey (OHS), Labour Force Survey (LFS), Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), General Household Survey (GHS), Project for Statistics on Living Standards and Development (PSLSD), National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) and All Media Products Survey (AMPS). However, these datasets are not fully comparable, due to differences in the sampling design, sample size, questionnaire structure, methodology to derive labour market status, as well as the way the income and expenditure information was collected. Hence, this dissertation begins by analysing these issues in each survey in Chapter 2. With regard to the income and expenditure information, it was collected differently in the surveys: the recall method was used in all surveys except IES 2005/2006, the only survey that adopted the diary method; respondents were asked to report the actual amount in some surveys but only asked to declare the relevant interval in others; for the former approach, respondents could either declare the single estimate amount or amounts for sub-categories that were then aggregated; for interval data, various methods can be used to determine the amount in each interval. Thus, Chapter 3 begins by discussing the merits and drawbacks of these approaches, as well as how they would affect the reliability and comparability of income and expenditure variables across the surveys. In some surveys (e.g., the two censuses and CS 2007), quite high proportions of households incorrectly reported zero income or expenditure or did not specify their income or expenditure. Poverty and inequality estimates could be influenced by either including or excluding these households from the analyses. Hence, various approaches to deal with these households are examined in Chapter 3. As the surveys typically under-captured income or expenditure when compared with the national accounts income, the validity of the resultant poverty and inequality estimates might be affected. Hence, arguments for and against adjusting the survey means in line with the national accounts mean (e.g. by shifting the survey distribution rightwards) are discussed. As the survey data are, strictly speaking, crosssectional and not designed for time-series labour market, poverty and inequality analyses, it is sometimes argued that the data should be re-weighted to be consistent with demographic and geographic numbers presented by the Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA) and Census data. This cross entropy re-weighting approach is discussed in Chapter 3. Finally, the chapter examines the labour market status derivation methodology in all OHSs, LFSs and QLFSs in greater detail, and investigates how the changes across the surveys could possibly affect the comparability of labour market estimates throughout the years. The dissertation then examines the labour market trends since the transition by using the OHS, LFS and QLFS data, and it is found that both the labour force and employment numbers increased in general since the transition, but the latter increase was not rapid enough to absorb the expanding labour force. In addition, the number of narrow unemployed doubled between 1994 and 2009, and the narrow unemployment rate showed an upward trend and peaked at just above 30% in 2003. It decreased between 2004 and 2007, before rising again in 2008- 2009 due to the impact of global recession. Application of the cross entropy approach does not substantially affect labour market trends, suggesting that the trends (including the abrupt increase in labour market estimates during the changeover from OHS to LFS) were either real or took place due to the improvement of the questionnaire to capture the labour market status of the respondents better. Furthermore, the application of the LFS 2000b-LFS 2007b methodology on the earlier surveys reduced the extent of the abrupt increase of the number of broad unemployed and broad unemployment rates during the changeover between OHS and LFS. Finally, the use of the QLFS methodology (which required minor revisions) on the LFSs greatly reduced the extent of the abrupt decrease of unemployment aggregates between LFS 2007b and QLFS 2008Q1, thereby improving the comparability of these aggregates across the surveys. In Chapter 5 poverty and inequality concepts are reviewed, followed by a detailed explanation of the sequential regression multiple imputation (SRMI) technique to deal with households with zero or missing income or expenditure, as well as the derivation of real income, expenditure and consumption variables in each survey. Poverty and inequality trends since the transition are examined in Chapter 6. With regard to poverty, with the exception of AMPS, the poverty trends were very similar across the surveys, that is, poverty increased since the transition, before a downward trend took place since 2000. As far as inequality is concerned, both the levels and trends in the Gini coefficients differed a lot amongst the surveys, as the estimates were very stable in the AMPSs, showed an upward trend in surveys like IESs and GHSs, but first increased until 2000 before a downward trend took place in others (e.g., the two censuses and CS 2007). The levels of inequality also differed when comparing the surveys. The abovementioned poverty and inequality estimates and trends could in part be affected by the various issues discussed in Chapter 3, thus there is a need for careful analysis. The impact of the number and width of intervals in which income or expenditure data are recorded on poverty and inequality estimates and trends are dealt with in greater detail in Chapter 6 by applying various intervals on the three IESs and NIDS 2008. It is found that the number and width of intervals only had some impact on these estimates and trends in some surveys. The effect of adjusting the survey means in line with the national accounts mean is also investigated. Finally, the application of the cross entropy re-weighting technique did not have any significant impact on the poverty and inequality estimates and trends.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Data wat op datum en betroubaar is word vereis om te kan evalueer in watter mate Suid- Afrika sy doelwitte rakende die vermindering van armoede en ongelykheid en die skepping van werkgeleenthede bereik. Sedert die politieke oorgang word verskeie opnamedatastelle gewoonlik vir sulke ontledings gebruik, byvoorbeeld Sensusse, die Gemeenskapsopname van 2007, Inkomste- en Bestedingsopnames, Oktober-huishoudingsopnames, Arbeidsmagopnames, Kwartaallikse Arbeidsmagopnames, Algemene-Huishoudingsopnames, die Nasionale-Inkomste-Dinamika-Studie en die Alle-Media-en-Produkte-opnames. Weens verskille in steekproef-ontwerp, struktuur van die vraelyste, metodologie om arbeidsmarkstatus te klassifiseer, asook maniere waarop inligting oor inkomste en besteding ingewin is, is hierdie datastelle egter nie ten volle vergelykbaar nie, Gevolglik begin hierdie proefskrif in Hoofstuk 2 om elk van hierdie kwessies in elke opname te ontleed. Inkomste- en bestedingsinligting is in die opnames verskillend ingewin: In die meeste opnames is respondente gevra om aan te dui hoeveel hulle in die verlede bestee of verdien het, maar in die Inkomste- en Bestedingsopname van 2005/2006 is die dagboekmetode gebruik; respondente is in party opnames gevra om die presiese bedrag te vermeld, terwyl hulle in ander opnames die betrokke inkomste- of bestedingsinterval moes aandui; vir eersgenoemde is hulle gevra om òf die enkelbedrag te verklaar, òf hulle moes ‘n aantal sub-komponente onderskei; vir intervaldata kan verskillende metodes gebruik word om skattings van die inkomste in elke interval te maak. Dus begin Hoofstuk 3 met ‘n oorsig van die voor- en nadele van die verskillende benaderings en ‘n bespreking van hoe dit die betroubaarheid en vergelykbaarheid van inkomste- en bestedingsveranderlikes oor die opnames beïnvloed. In party opnames (bv. die twee sensusse en die Gemeenskapsopname van 2007) dui heelwat huishoudings verkeerdelik aan dat hulle geen inkomste verdien of uitgawes aangaan nie, of hulle spesifiseer nie hoeveel hulle verdien of bestee nie. Ramings van armoede en ongelykheid kan geraak word deur sulke respondent in te sluit of deur hulle uit te laat in die ontledings. Gevolglik word verskeie benaderings in Hoofstuk 3 bespreek om hiermee om te gaan. Omdat opnames vergeleke met die nasionale rekeninge tipies inkomste of besteding onderskat, mag dit die geldigheid van daaruitvoortspruitende armoede- en ongelykheidsramings raak. Gevolglik word argumente vir en teen die aanpsssing van die opname-data om dit in ooreenstemming te bring met die nasionale rekeninge (d.w.s. deur die verdeling na regs te verskuif) bespreek. Ten slotte, omdat die opnamedata streng gesproke kruissnitdata is en nie ontwerp is vir tydreekse van die arbeidsmag, armoede en ongelykheid nie, word soms aangevoer dat die gewigte van die data herweeg moet word om in ooreenstemming te wees met demografiese en geografiese data soos verkry van die Aktuariële Vereniging van Suid-Afrika en sensusdata. Hierdie kruisentropie herwegingsmetode word in Hoofstuk 3 bespreek. Ten slotte ondersoek die laaste hoofstuk die metodologie vir die bepaling van arbeidsmarkstatus in all die OHS, LFS en QLFS opnames in groter besonderhede, en ook hoe die veranderings oor die verskillende opname-reekse heen dalk die vergelykbaarheid van arbeidsmarkramings deur die jare kan beïnvloed. Die proefskrif ontleed daarna arbeidsmarktendense sedert die politieke oorgang met gebruik van die Oktober-huishoudingsoponames, Arbeidsmagopnames en Kwartaallikse Arbeidsmagopnames. Beide die arbeidsmag en indiensneming het sedert die transisie toegeneem, maar die toename in indiensneming was onvoldoende om die uitbreiding van die arbeidsmag te absorbeer. Verder het die getal eng-gedefinieerde werkloses tussen 1994 en 2009 verdubbel, en die eng werkloosheidskoers het ‘n toename getoon en in 2003 ‘n toppunt van 30% bereik. Dit het daarna tussen 2004 en 2007 gedaal voordat dit weer in 2008-2009 gestyg het weens die wêreldreseessie. Die toepassing van die kruisentropie-benadering het arbeidsmarktendense nie noemenswaardig beïnvloed nie, wat daarop dui dat hierdie tendense (insluitende die skielike toename in arbeidsmagramings in die oorgang van die Oktoberhuishoudingsopname- data na die Arbeidsmarkopname-data) werklik was, of anders plaasgevind het weens veranderings in die opnamevraelyste om respondente se arbeidsmarkstatus beter te probeer bepaal. Verder het die toepassing van die LFS2000b tot LFS 2007B metodologie op die vroeëre opnames die abrupte verlaging in die oorgang tussen die OHS en LFS in die getal breed-gedefineerde werkloses en breë werkloosheidkoerse verminder. Ten slotte het die gebruik van die QLFS-metodologie op die LFS (wat kleiner hersienings benodig het) die abrupte verlaging tussen LFS2007b en QLFS2008Q1 aansienlik verminder, en dus die vergelykbaarheid van hierdie groothede oor die opnames heen verbeter. In Hoofstuk 5 word eers ‘n oorsig van armoede- en ongelykheidsbegrippe gegee, waarma die sekwensiële-regressie-veelvoudige-imputasie-tegniek in besonderhede bespreek word. Hierdie tegniek word veral gebruik vir gevalle waar huishoudings aandui dat hulle inkomste of besteding nul is, of waar hulle nie antwoord nie. Daar is ook ‘n bespreking van die bepaling van reële inkomste, besteding of verbruiksveranderlikes in elke opname. Armoedeen ongeleykheidstendense word in Hoofstul 6 bespreek. Rakende armoede is daar, met uitsondering van die Alle-Media-en-Produkte-opname, eenstemmigheid dat dit sedert die politieke oorgang eers gestyg het voor dit sedert 2000 begin daal het. Sover dit ongelykheid aanbetref verskil neigings in die Gini-koëffissiënt baie tussen die opnames, want die ramings is stabiel oor die periode vir die Alle-Media-en-Produkte-opname, styg vir die Inkomste- en Bestedingsopname en die Algemene-Huishoudingsopnames, en styg tot 2000 voordat dit afneem in ander opnames (bv. die twee sensusse en die Gemeenskapsopname van 2007). Vlakke van ongelykheid verskil ook tussen die opnames. Deels kan die genoemde tendense in armoede- en ongelykheid dalk toegeskryf word aan die kwessies wat in Hoofstuk 3 bespreek is. Die effek van die getal en wydte van die intervalle waarin inkomste- en bestedingsdata ingewin word op ramings van armoede en ongelykheid word in meer besonderheid in Hoofstuk 6 bespreek. Deur die toepassing van verskillende intervalle op data van die drie Inkomste- en Bestedingsopnames en die Nasionale-Inkomste-Dinamika-studie word bevind dat die getal en wydte van intervalle ‘n beperkte effek op hierdie ramings en tendense het. Verder word gekyk na die effek van die aanpssing van die opname-data om dit in ooreenstemming met die nasionale rekeninge te bring. Ten slotte word getoon dat die gebruik van die kruisentropie-metode nie enige beduidende uitwerking op armoede- en ongeleykheidsramings en -tendense het nie.

Land and land reform have long been contentious and highly charged topics in South Africa, with land performing the dual functions of redress for the past and development for the future. This research explores both these aspects of land, with the focus being on the impact of land receipt on household welfare and food insecurity, and social preferences for fairness and redistribution more generally. One of the main aims is to contribute to the land reform debate by providing previously-lacking quantitative evidence on the aggregate welfare outcomes of land redistribution, as well as the extent of social preferences for redistribution in the land restitution framework. In exploring these issues, the welfare outcomes of land are first explored using the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) data and unconditional quantile regression analysis. The focus is then narrowed to the food insecurity impact of land receipt, beginning with a methodological chapter outlining the development of a new food insecurity index applying the Alkire-Foster method of multidimensional poverty measurement (2009; 2011). This is followed by the presentation and discussion of food insecurity profiles of land beneficiary and non-beneficiary households. The new index is also used as an outcome measure in exploring the determinants of household food insecurity. These two sections again use the NIDS data. The final section shifts the emphasis from the economic welfare benefits of land redistribution to notions of fairness and social justice encapsulated by land restitution. A behavioural laboratory experiment is used to investigate social preferences for fairness, and the factors that influence redistributive inclinations, by exploring the relative weights placed on fairness considerations and self-interest, as well as the fairness ideal. The findings indicate that beneficiaries do not use the land received for productive purposes, a possible explanation for the limited economic welfare impacts of land reform that are observed. Despite this limited developmental impact, the laboratory experiment makes it clear that land reform plays an important role in addressing other needs and wants in society, particularly in respect of preferences for fairness and addressing historical injustices.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-166).
(cont.) This thesis will examine the possibilities for cities to use the 2010 World Cup to hasten city development. The first chapter will detail the 2010 World Cup plan and the local stakeholders as well as the lessons learned from previous World Cups. The next chapter will examine the obstacles South Africa faces as it prepares for the 2010 World Cup and characteristics that make this host country different from previous World Cup hosts. Chapter three will describe the development strategy and explain how World Cup infrastructure can change the city. The next chapter will illustrate the World Cup conflict resulting from these development decisions. The final chapter will explain the reasons why local organizers are wasting this opportunity, instead exacerbating inequality and fragmentation, and conclude with suggestions for future World Cup planners.
Planning and preparations for the 2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup are well underway and there is little doubt that South Africa will impress sports fans and spectators with the modern stadiums and tourist facilities. The 2010 World Cup is an opportunity to hasten social, cultural, environmental, economic, and physical growth. South African cities should use 2010 to improve the public realm and create new economic opportunities for South Africans.Megaevents like the 2010 World Cup can generate economic investment and build an international image, but South Africa can also use World Cup funding to invest in the public realm. South Africa is economically, socially, and spatially fragmented. As South Africa struggles with issues of racism, inequality, crime, and poverty, development for 2010 offers an opportunity to unify the fragmented community through design. Development projects and urban investments for the 2010 World Cup can transform the city and stimulate new development patterns. Host cities can use new stadiums, transportation infrastructure, and tourist facilities as part of city improvement plans. Design, project sitting, and city policies can alleviate or exacerbate urban fragmentation by enticing infill development or wastelands. Considering the enormous public expenditures, it is imperative for cities to include substantial city improvements in the planning repertoire.Unfortunately, World Cup planners are not maximizing this opportunity. Planning for the WC tends to focus on economic development and image enhancement, instead of the possibilities for city improvements. Ideal city development often conflicts with international hosting requirements and deadlines. Despite high expectations, infrastructure projects are too focused on the ephemeral and not on the permanent.
by Astrid Wood.
M.C.P.

The National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) and the Post-Apartheid Labour Market Series (PALMS) are two data sources frequently relied upon for research into earnings in South Africa. This paper contributes to the literature in three ways. Firstly, I show how NIDS data can be adjusted to account for item non-response using a bracket reweighting technique and the effects thereof. Secondly, I consider how estimates of the wage distribution differ between NIDS and PALMS when using the most comparable estimation methods available. Finally, I discuss what the data reveal about the evolution of inequality in South African wages between 2008 and 2014.

Bibliography: leaves 52-55.
The paper begins with an introduction of trade unions in South Africa, focusing on the union membership trend in the last two decades of the twentieth century. This is followed by a review of work on earnings functions and modelling South African trade unions in chapter 2. The aim of this chapter is to show what work has been done in the area of earnings functions and trade unions. It also highlights the contribution of this paper as analysing the role of trade unions in determining earnings inequality and not just earnings levels. Chapter 3 analyses the variables in a trade union model, such as education, location, gender, experience, sector and occupation. Chapter 4 examines the decomposition of the effect of trade unions on the inequality of wage earnings. We find that the result of effect of trade unions on earnings inequality is higher than in comparable international work. The effect is much higher in the general earnings equation with union interactive variables than the equation with a single union dummy. We also find that, for the overall contribution to earnings inequality, education, sector and location have higher contributions in the non-unionised group than the unionised group. This indicates that trade unions have significant effect in dampening the effect of other variables on earnings inequality.

Chronic stress associated with living in societies with high income inequality may increase risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mental illness. Research has also linked social capital, including trust of other people, to mental health outcomes. South Africa has one of the highest levels of income inequality recorded worldwide and is experiencing a growing burden of non-communicable diseases. Data additionally suggest that levels of trust in South Africa are low. Using longitudinal data from adults interviewed in Waves 1 to 3 (2008-2012) of the National Income Dynamics Study, this dissertation examined whether district-level income inequality calculated from census and survey data was associated with several physical and behavioral risk factors for CVD (Paper 1) and with depressive symptoms (Paper 2), as well as whether trust at the individual and district levels was associated with depressive symptoms (Paper 3). Income inequality, measured using Gini coefficients, and prevalence of most CVD risk factors increased during the study time period, while depressive symptoms, measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies of Depression Short Form (CES-D-10), decreased. In pooled cross-sectional regression models, higher district inequality was associated with lower BMI and waist circumference. In longitudinal fixed-effects models, Gini coefficients were not significantly associated with any CVD risk factors. District-level Gini coefficients were not significantly associated with CES-D-10 scores or with high depressive symptoms (scores of 10 or higher) in either cross-sectional or longitudinal fixed-effects models. Low generalized and personalized trust at the individual level were associated with lower CES-D-10 scores and reduced risk of high depressive symptoms in pooled cross-sectional and longitudinal fixed-effects models. Neither district-level generalized nor personalized trust was associated with depressive symptoms. However, a cross-level interaction was observed suggesting that lower levels of trust are associated with reduced depressive symptoms when districts have low percentages of highly trusting individuals but not when district-level distrust is low. In conclusion, the results of this dissertation do not support the income inequality hypothesis in relation to CVD risk factors or depressive symptoms in South Africa. Moreover, findings suggest that trust may not be beneficial for depressive symptoms for all individuals or in all contexts.

South Africa is food secure at the national level; however widespread food insecurity persists at the household level. To understand the dynamics of micro-level food insecurity this dissertation investigates how two different aspects of 'food access' - diet quality and diet quantity - affect two outcomes of 'food utilisation' - hunger and nutrition. Diet quantity is captured by food expenditure in Wave 1 of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS). To capture diet quality I use dietary diversity, which is not directly available in NIDS. I build and test a food group dietary diversity score and a food variety dietary diversity score using NIDS Wave 1. Both dietary diversity indicators are found to usefully summarise information about food security in South Africa by using methods found in the dietary diversity literature. The dissertation then turns to testing whether the theoretical differences between diet quality and quantity play out empirically in the case of nutrition (adult BMI) and hunger (self-reported household hunger). The results reveal that food variety and food quantity are complementary in explaining the chance of household hunger, with food quantity having a slightly more important effect. The pathways to BMI differ by gender. Dietary diversity and food expenditure are substitutes in the case of male BMI; however, food variety and food expenditure are complementary to explaining female BMI when food expenditure enters into the model as a quadratic. Overall, food variety proved to be a stronger and more significant correlate of both outcomes than the food group dietary diversity score.

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2013
Gender inequality has always been a problem in the developing countries, and South Africa is no exception. There is pragmatic evidence about the level of gender inequality within households pre 1994 which was very high due to the discrimination and gender violence that were present within the country. Moreover, tradition and culture helped in the manifestation of gender inequality. However, the South African government has enacted to curb the manifestation of gender inequality within both the households and in the labour market. The Constitution of South Africa, 1996, Domestic Violence Act, 1998, Employment Equity Act (EEA), 1998, Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and Affirmative Action policy are the Acts and policies that were enacted to reduce gender inequality in the country. Women’s representation in the labour market was very low. Women also could not make decision within the households. The study investigates the construction of gender inequality within the households in the context of democratic dispensation in a rural community of Makanye village in Limpopo Province. The study argues that the past traditional and cultural customs in rural Makanye village created patriarchal structures and household hierarchies where women were at the bottom of the hierarchy. Thus, the hierarchical and patriarchal structures helped in the manifestation of gender inequality within the households. The findings of the survey from Makanye village proved that the women are still not fully liberated from the past oppression and marginalisation. The persistence of domestic violence within Makanye village indicates that women are still given the lowest status within the households. In other words, the past patriarchal structures and hierarchies are still visible in rural areas and not many women are taking part in decision making within the households. The multiple roles women play within the households remains a huge challenge in rural areas. The persistence of gender inequality in Makanye village helps in the manifestation of poverty. The implementation of Affirmative Action policy and Employment Equity Act, 1998 will result in the achievement of gender equality in the labour market and within households.In conclusion, the improper implementation of Affirmative Action Policy and EEA, 1998 in South Africa will empower women, making them become independent, thus eradicating gender inequality and poverty

This thesis examines the structure and flow of public funding between the public and private sectors in the South African health system and the consequences thereof for the achievement of equity. The conceptual framework used to undertake the analysis derives from Richard Titmuss’ core theoretical framework, the Social Division of Welfare. The application of the Social Division of Welfare applied to the South African health care context demonstrates how state resources end up benefitting the non-poor and, as a result, reproduce inequality. Those who access public institutions such as public health care are assumed to be ‘dependent’ on the state, whilst those who access private health facilities claim to be ‘independent’ of the state. However, this thesis shows that these assumptions are flawed. Access to the formal labour market, and subsequently the paying of taxes, authorises one to access state subsidies not available to those who do not. The application of the Social Division of Welfare shows that tax-paying private health care patients benefit considerably from state resources. This thesis argues that due to cost escalation in the private health sector, a consequence of the commodification of health care, these private health care ‘consumers’ as well as the private health industry in general are dependent upon state resources. This thesis analyses the role played by the profit motive present in the private health industry and the consequences for equity, quality, access and efficiency in health care provision

The relatively stable overall wage inequality in South Africa between 2001 and 2011 has hidden two distinct trends. Strong growth above the median for high wage earners has increased inequality at the top of the earnings distribution, whilst similarly, strong growth below the median has decreased inequality at the bottom of the distribution. This paper uses the 'task' approach alongside a Recentred Influence Function decomposition framework to explore the factors associated with this pattern of change. The findings suggest that routine-biased technical change and minimum wage laws enacted over the decade have important roles to play in the changes.

This thesis explores the impact that gender equality in employment and education in South Africa has on the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth on a quarterly basis from 2008 – 2017. The hypothesis is that gender equality in employment and education will impact economic growth in South Africa because the inclusion of women as economically active and educated equals will have a direct impact on the economy. The Autoregressive Distributive- Lag (ARDL) model is used to quantify the long run relationships between the dependent (economic growth) and independent (women’s employment and education levels) with Granger causality tests used to examine short-run causal relationships between the variables. The study discovered that women’s employment and the combined variable of women’s education and employment have an impact on GDP growth. However, women’s education does not have a significant impact on economic growth. It is also found that women’s employment has an impact on women’s education but the reverse does not hold. The results from this study inform employment and education policy in South Africa and ensure that women and men have equal access to labour markets and schooling. The objective is to facilitate the equal contribution of men and women to economic growth.

This doctoral thesis analyses the changes in income inequality in post-apartheid South Africa. The thesis adds to the existing literature by explaining the underlying causes of the changes in observed income inequality. As such, this thesis applies different decomposition methods to the Gini coefficient. In the analysis of household income sources, traditional static decompositions are supplemented by applying micro-simulations that allow for a dynamic decomposition of changes in income sources reported in household surveys. The results corroborate previous findings of the significant contribution of labour market incomes and governmen grants. However, the application of advanced dynamic methods highlights the effects of changes in other factors, such as investment income and the role of employed household members, which have previously received less attention. Further study of household survey data and a unique set of tax administration data enabled a decomposition of the Gini coefficient of taxable income to investigate the effect of high earners on income inequality and the accuracy of capturing them in household surveys. This analysis highlights a significant weighting issues of high earners in the latest wave of the household survey data. Therefore, when combining the two types of data sets, a significant decrease in overall inequality of taxable income can be found between 2011 and 2014. The results ascertain the vast differences between the top and the bottom of the income distribution and concrete policies addressing both sides of the issue need to be implemented in order to overcome persisting income inequality. Finally, the strong effects of labour market incomes on overall income inequality warrant further investigation. Therefore, changes in earnings inequality are decomposed to assess the effect of changes in the labour market. The application of micro-simulations thereby allows to decompose the changes in earnings inequality into ‘price effect' and ‘endowment effect' but also to assess the effect of changes in labour market participation, employment, occupational structure and unobserved characteristics. The results show that key drivers of an increase in earnings inequality between 1993 and 2012 were changes in the endowments of working age individuals. This effect was partially counteracted by the price effect. The findings show persisting discrepancies between male and female employment in the labour market and the ongoing marginalization particularly of African women which highlights the need for a revision of existing affirmative action laws and their implementation. The National Development Plan offers several strategies for more inclusive growth for South Africa, however, government is already falling behind with its implementation. Therefore, policy makers need to re-examine the efficiency of current social spending and labour laws in order to set the right growth path for the South African economy. The methods utilized throughout this thesis harmonise different sources of information and enable an integrated analysis of the dynamics of the South African income distribution. The static and dynamic decompositions make use of the 1993 household survey of the Project for Statistics on Living Standards and Development (PSLSD) and the 2008 and 2014 National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS). The assessment of high earners is performed by comparing tax administration data provided by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) for the 2010 and 2014 tax years with household survey data from NIDS in 2011 and 2014. Finally, the decomposition of earnings inequality is carried out using data sets from the Post-Apartheid Labour Market Series (PALMS) between 1993 and 2012.

Inequality is a complex issue and an integral part of the sustainability challenge. This research examines how social entrepreneurs (SE) can be catalysts to increase equality in South Africa. In order to navigate through the complexity of inequality within this context, the authors designed a conceptual model. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD), based on Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD) concepts, such as backcasting and systems thinking, was incorporated into the research to ensure a systematic and comprehensive link to sustainability. The FSSD and the conceptual model assisted in exploring how social entrepreneurship could be a strategic approach to increase equality in South Africa, and in turn, help to open the social trap and contribute towards creating a more sustainable society. During the research process, the researchers identified nine high impact areas that could be addressed by SE and other stakeholders. These include: awareness; attitude and mind-set; a shared understanding; government support; education and training; economic environment; financial sustainability; social and physical infrastructure; and collaboration and asset sharing. The aim of these high impact areas is to help foster social entrepreneurial development and guide SE in strategically increasing equality in South Africa.

Magister Legum - LLM
This study explores the nexus between gender inequality and food security through the lens of female students at tertiary institutions in South Africa. It aims to highlight the gendered dimensions of the political, socio-economic and cultural structures contributing to South Africa’s national food crisis. In so doing, it argues that legislation on the right to food with specific gender considerations is essential for ensuring food security for female students on campuses in particular and women in general.

This thesis aims to provide a subjectivist account of women and people of colour's leadership experiences within a specific social context, in order to offer a contribution to the largely acontextual leadership literature. A multi-level, intersectional analytical framework was used to explore the experiences of people who are marginalised in their attempt to access and practice leadership. The study used the South African private sector as a social context with unique and interesting gender and race dynamics to conduct this case study. The experiences of significantly underrepresented groups in organisational leadership were explored by means of 60 in-depth, face-to-face interviews with women and people of colour in strategic leadership positions, aspiring leaders in leadership development programmes and key informants, all from the South African private sector. Interviewees were grouped according to their intersectional identities and responses were analysed considering individual-level challenges and enablers, organisational-level challenges and enablers and also by considering responses within the socio-historic and socio-legal context. Key findings include evidence of the problematic nature of theorising leadership as an element of the leader; support for theoretical frameworks of occupational segregation and embodied social identities; evidence of the internalisation and rationalisation of institutionalised discrimination; evidence of social identities being mutually constituting, reinforcing and naturalising; evidence of the conflation of gender, race and merit in the equality debate; as well as a strong aversion among research participants towards positive discrimnination initiatives. The findings also suggest several areas of possible further research. This study addressed the limitations of leadership research, which is characterised by leader-centricism, romanticism, objectivism, gendered and racialised norms and additive theorising. Findings make theoretical and policy contributions by problematising merit, exposing leadership in the South African private sector organisations as a site of intersectional identity salience, disrupting key assumptions underpinning leader-follower relations, highlighting the potential for leveraging adversity and also by demonstrating the importance of leadership language in either disrupting or reinforcing inequality.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD
With the advent of democracy, the ANC government was faced with the problem of addressing abject poverty, persistent unemployment and rank economic inequality that beset black South Africans under apartheid. To address these problems in a structured and comprehensive fashion, the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003 (BBBEE Act) was promulgated. Several economists believed that growth in the economy is the bedrock upon which black economic empowerment would provide the foundation to correct these economic problems. This study sought to interrogate black economic empowerment as a means to address economic inequality and unemployment. The method of analysis and critique employed in this study is based on theories that Marx formulated in Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. In particular, this study draws on Marx’s theories of fictitious capital, surplus value production and appropriation, and the creation of the industrial reserve army. The thesis uses the theory to examine two BEE cases namely the Sanlam and Sasol equity transactions. It also analyses the relationship between productive capital and fictitious capital through an examination of Lonmin plc and Shanduka Pty Ltd, with a focus on the use of labour power to produce surplus value. Finally, it looks briefly at Sanlam and Sankorp to understand the rise of the black middle class in South Africa. Ultimately, this study charts a Marxist path to explain why black economic empowerment is unable to address economic inequality and unemployment. At the centre of this study is the problematisation of the capitalist mode of production on which black economic empowerment rests. The central argument advanced is that the very capitalist structure upon which this growth strategy was based, in fact laid the foundation for the reproduction of these self-same phenomena.

Includes bibliographical references.
Subnational estimates of child mortality are difficult to produce and are rare in Sub- Saharan Africa. It is the overall aim of this research to derive estimates of child mortality rates for the municipalities and provinces of South Africa using the 2011 census data, and to assess the results in relation to the level of poverty and inequality. The estimation of child mortality rates is achieved through the use of direct synthetic cohort methods with Bayesian spatial smoothing. The Bayesian spatial smoothing process is used to generate municipal level estimates of child mortality rates. The model utilises information from neighbouring municipalities by controlling the effects of women’s education and HIV/AIDS.

This research sought to examine how development occurs when it takes place from a relational approach. The relational approach forms part of a growing body of literature within development studies in search of alternative ways of understanding development. Orthodox theories tend to be resistant to alternatives that threaten their path dependency. Development-related ideological traps have also locked development policy in redundant arguments. Development theories from various disciplines continue to grapple with the multidimensionality of poverty and inequality, but they often fail to consider the central role human relationships play in approaching these issues. This study used Relational Thinking and relational and human economy approaches in search for alternative models and methods to the neoliberal tradition and current development enterprise. Increasing global inequality and deprivations create a vital opportunity to think of new perspectives, interpretive categories and predictive models. A case study approach was used to examine the relational dynamics of a nongovernmental organisation (NGO) called the James 1:27 Trust, which works with children and youth in Pretoria, South Africa. Relational Thinking was utilised within an interpretivist philosophy using a mixed-model approach, including the Relational Proximity Framework survey (quantitative tool) and in-depth qualitative research through semi-structured interviews and a focus group. The research established that development studied from a relational perspective deepens understanding of the varying meanings that people give to development. It informs a relational economy in which development is seen as a circular, “messy” and often unpredictable process where belonging, pain, “family”, forgiveness and learning in an intricate, embedded network of relationships are valued beyond material resources. Development requires philosophies and measures that enable the identification of questions, problems and interventions that are not currently considered in studies on development.
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020.
DAAD-NRF In-Country Scholarship (German Academic Exchange Service and National Research Foundation). University of Pretoria’s Postgraduate Study Abroad Programme.
Political Sciences
PhD
Unrestricted

Social protection has become an important tool in efforts to eradicate poverty in developing countries and also risen strongly on the global development agenda the last decade. This thesis will look at different approaches to social protection and their relation to the human right to social security with South Africa as a case study. In using different scholars in the field of social protection and social justice together with qualitative fieldwork, the thesis explores the importance of social protection and the politics underlying efforts to protect the right to social security of South Africans living in poverty. The thesis suggests that South Africa’s social protection system lies somewhere in between rights and relief and more universal systems comply better with a rights based approach to social protection. Although significant progress has been made to social protection in South Africa the last decade, more needs to be done for South Africa to reduce rampant inequalities and combat poverty in the future.

Problem statement: How do South African women experience the current gender equality work in their workplace and how does it affect their working conditions? Purpose: The purpose of our study is to contribute to an understanding of how South African women are experiencing gender equality work in their workplace and how this is affecting their working conditions. The aim is to find personal experiences of working women in South Africa of how gender equality work is being experienced on an individual level. South Africa has a broad range of legislations about gender equality but the perspective interesting for this study is how the individual South African women experience this is being realized. Methodology: A qualitative research method with an inductive approach. The empirical material was conducted with semi-structured interviews and later a thematic analysis was applied. Conclusions: Social structures, organizational culture and motherhood are areas identified by South African women to affect their working conditions as well as how they experience gender equality work within their organization. Although these are hard to change to some extent, the study found that by contributing to an understanding of the women’s experiences and identify the reasons of these, it creates possibilities for organizations to strive for a more gender equal workplace initiated with acknowledging aspects that can result in gender equality being experienced as fulfilled.

This thesis aims to illuminate, through the lens of Murphy’s interpretation of Weber’s theory of social exclusion, contemporary challenges faced by the South African accounting profession pertaining to the shortage of professional accountants. In particular, increasing the throughput of students to the profession (Paper 1), member recruitment (Paper 2) and racial transformation of the profession (Paper 3) are considered. Paper 1 provides additional validity for the technique of biodata-based selection through the use thereof to differentiate between students in a dual medium university who will, or will not, complete their accounting education programmes in a society exhibiting tacit exclusionary closure. The models development suggested that education and language remains a tacit form of social exclusion of Blacks in the South African accounting profession. Paper 2 suggests that SAICA is the students’ preferred choice of professiona l accounting association, regardless of demographic group. The students appear to hold a collective view of the accounting profession. Consequently, in an environment characterized by the significant exclusionary closure achieved by a particular association, competing associations may need to look beyond marketing the attributes of the association to students and perhaps consider challenging the colonization of higher education by the dominant association. Competing associations, with their less onerous education requirements, should additionally consider promoting the alternate pathways to the profession they may offer to the Black students tacitly excluded from the dominant association, SAICA, on the basis of their inability to access to a quality education. An ideological challenge facing professional accounting associations in post-Apartheid South Africa, is racial transformation of the profession. Paper 3 explored the success or otherwise of the transformation projects implemented by SAICA through the lens of impression management and the use of voluntary disclosure. Given the disconnect between the slow pace of racial transformation achieved and the perceived ‘success’ of the profession transformation initiatives both in South Africa and abroad, it is suggested that the projects may have served more as a tool to manage the state’s impression of transformation, rather than achieving sufficient student outputs to redress the racial imbalances in the profession. Consequently, significant expansion and / or revision of these projects are encouraged.

This study examines the extent to which material and social inequality in post-apartheid South Africa affect possibilities for poor citizens to gain access to mainstream spaces of mediated political deliberation. Access is problematized in terms of the possibilities that exist for poor citizens to ‘appear’ in these spaces as emancipated citizens with political agency. The study is motivated by a perception that South Africa’s middle-class and privileged citizens have more access to political deliberation because mainstream journalists pay more attention to their political concerns. Because mediated political deliberation provides a space for articulating the political will of citizens it is important that it reflects the multiple, and diverse range of voices that make up South Africa’s polity. If the experience of socioeconomically marginalised citizens is not registered in the same way as the experience of citizens with economic and political power, the balance of political decision-making continues to be skewed against the interests of the poor. Rather than a media-centric approach, the study centres on perceptions and views of poor citizens about their relationship with mainstream journalists. The study combines information from group interviews with citizens from Hangberg, Cape Town with 410 news reports in 18 mainstream newspapers about Hangberg citizens over a 20-year period. The interviews show that poor citizens feel largely excluded from mediated political deliberation; not because they do not appear in the news but because of how they appear in the news. The news reports confirm that mainstream journalists pay more attention to voices with political and economic power than to the voices of poor citizens. Even in news reports about Hangberg citizens, political leaders and non-governmental experts often talk about the problems in Hangberg more than the citizens of Hangberg themselves talk about these problems. Building on a relatively new scholarly interest in ‘active’ and ‘political’ listening in media studies and democratic theory (Bickford 1996, Dreher 2009, Couldry 2009, Dobson 2014, Wasserman 2013, Garman and Malila 2014), I consider listening as a constitutive element of the way in which journalists engage with poor citizens in mediated deliberative spaces. I ask whether different practices of listening can enable journalists to construct narratives that provide marginalised groups with different possibilities for equal access to, and participation in these spaces?

Recent writing in the anthropology of affect and cognate fields has positioned hope as a useful category with which to examine socio-political life and formulate a political and theoretical response adequate to its form. This dissertation extends this endeavour by exploring the ‘hopeful projects' mothers and families undertake in order to secure their children's futures in contemporary Cape Town. Based on ethnographic research conducted with Black mothers between March and October 2018, I argue that the supposedly private maternal hopes my interlocutors hold are in fact indexical of the ways in which social inequality functions and becomes manifest in everyday life and care. Situated at the interface of embodied experience and political histories, their hopes are indicative of how liberal logics of selfextension, self-mastery, and self-maximisation are inhabited to produce alternative futures. At the same time, however, such hopes are continually undone by contexts of intractable structural violence and deprivation, reinvested into normative notions of kinship, domesticity, sexuality, and the body, or marshalled to perform reparative work that should properly fall under the purview of the state. In detailing the ways in which my interlocutors attempt to craft more capacious, more just, and more materially abundant futures for their children, I illustrate the affective entailments of life-building in post-Apartheid South Africa

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1995.
Includes tables. Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Thomas Bailey. Dissertation Committee: Francisco Rivera-Batiz. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 201-212).

Orientador: Marcelo Weishaupt Proni
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia
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Resumo: O principal objetivo desta dissertação foi estudar a transformação do setor da construção na África do Sul durante o período 1994-2013, investigando em que medida esse setor foi capaz de transformar a desigualdade social do apartheid e qual foi o impacto sobre as empresas construtoras e sobre a força de trabalho. O setor da construção passou por uma transformação significativa e forte expansão desde o fim do apartheid na África do Sul. Até 1994, o setor da construção, como a maioria dos outros setores da economia, estava constrangido por sanções e políticas raciais que cercearam seu crescimento. Uma constatação importante após o fim do apartheid é a falta de reparação de pendências herdadas da infraestrutura social e econômica, especialmente na prestação de serviços sociais, incluindo a habitação, água e eletricidade. Em consequência de políticas estatais de propriedade negra, junto com a crescente internacionalização das corporações multinacionais no setor da construção, aumentou a monopolização e a desigualdade social dentro do setor. Os enormes gastos de obras públicas, incluindo a Copa do Mundo FIFA 2010, também contribuíram para o processo de elevação da concentração e centralização do capital, incluindo um aumento maciço do exército de reserva de mão de obra. Políticas de Estado têm sido ineficazes para superar o legado do capitalismo excludente e a estratificação do mercado de trabalho pós-1994, mantendo a oferta de mão de obra negra barata herdada do apartheid. O setor é conhecido pelas relações de trabalho precárias. Trabalhadores da construção civil são em grande parte negros, não qualificados e semiqualificados. E são regidos por contratos esporádicos, de duração limitada, por tempo parcial. Na sua maioria, são trabalhadores subcontratados ou trabalhadores com poucos benefícios trabalhistas, com possibilidades limitadas de acesso à formalização e à qualificação. A transformação do setor de construção sul-africano continua tendo como principais beneficiárias as multinacionais. Os sindicatos, fechados em sua abordagem reformista ("sindicalismo de negócios"), tornaram-se mais fracos e, como consequência, não têm sido capazes de defender o padrão de vida dos trabalhadores. As opções políticas do governo e a ineficácia das estratégias sindicais resultaram na manutenção de elevadas desigualdades sociais, associadas com uma força de trabalho ainda marcada pelo racismo, com a maior parte dos trabalhadores africanos ¿ vulneráveis e desfavorecidos ¿ trabalhando sob condições precárias de emprego. Palavras-chave: apartheid, setor de construção, trabalho precário, sindicalismo, desigualdade, África do Sul
Abstract: The main objective of this thesis was to study the transformation of the construction sector in South Africa over the period 1994-2013; to investigate to what extent the construction sector has been able to transform apartheid social inequalities and what has been the impact on construction companies and the labour force. The construction sector has undergone significant transformation and marked expansion since the end of apartheid in South Africa. During apartheid the construction sector, like most other economic sectors, was constrained by sanctions and racial policies which curbed its growth. An important reality after the demise of apartheid is the lack of redress of inherited backlogs in social and economic infrastructure, especially in the delivery of social services, including housing, water and electricity. The consequence of state policies of black ownership together with the growing internationalisation of South African construction Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) has increased monopolisation and social inequality within the sector. The massive public works expenditures, including the 2010 FIFA World Cup, have also assisted in the process of increasing the concentration and centralisation of capital, including a massive increase in the reserve army of labour. State policies have been ineffective in overcoming the legacy of apartheid capitalism as the labour market stratification post-1994 maintained the cheap black labour system inherited from apartheid. The sector is renowned for its preferred choice of precarious employment relations. Construction workers are largely black, unskilled and semi-skilled; are casual, part-time, self-employed or employed on limited duration contracts mostly by sub-contractors or labour brokers with little work benefits and limited possibilities of accessing formalised skills training. The transformation of the South African construction sector has as its main beneficiaries the MNCs that also benefited under Apartheid. The trade unions, locked into their reformist "business unionism" approach, have become weaker and, as a consequence, have not been able to defend the living standards of workers. The policy choices of the government and the ineffectiveness of the trade unions have produced more social inequalities within which a continued racialised labour force, and the bulk of vulnerable and disadvantaged African workers in particular, finds itself working under deteriorating employment conditions. Keywords: apartheid, construction sector, transformation, workers, trade unions, inequality, South Africa
Mestrado
Economia Social e do Trabalho
Mestre em Desenvolvimento Econômico

This thesis focuses on the unprecedented exodus of Zimbabweans from the country of their birth to South Africa and the UK and their subsequent experiences of life in the diaspora. Since the late 1990’s, Zimbabwe has lost a significant percentage of her population. This loss accelerated towards the dawn of and into the new millennium in a series of migration episodes that were spawned by both economic and political catastrophes. These migration episodes to South Africa and the UK comprised of mixed flows i.e. both skilled and unskilled migrants; economic and political refugees etc. Leeds and Limpopo were chosen as the main loci of this study because of the contrasting stock of migrants found there. Given that this thesis explores the differences in human and social capital and migration strategies between the two countries, these two areas were selected because of their contrasting population of migrants. These differences are evident in terms of educational and professional qualifications, levels of financial capital and histories of transnational circulation. This thesis uses a mixed method approach consisting of both quantitative and qualitative methods. This was informed by the dearth of credible statistical data on the Zimbabwean diaspora resident in Leeds and Limpopo. The thesis therefore, draws on a questionnaire survey, semi structured interviews and ethnographic data that was gathered in Leeds and Limpopo with members of the Zimbabwean diaspora. Data gathered from the survey enabled a detailed profile of migrants to be constructed which disentangled the different constituents of this nascent diaspora. Migrants’ transnational activities were investigated given the public interest currently surrounding diasporic activities such as remittances. Migrants’ diasporic experiences are shaped by complex and intertwined factors e.g. immigration status. These factors have a bearing on migrants’ ability to meet their transnational obligations. Furthermore, migrants’ transnational linkages and transactions have an impact on their return intentions.

Magister Artium - MA
In this thesis I present – from the perspective of the capability approach and within the context of South Africa – a conceptual analysis of the relationship between quality of life, education, poverty and inequality. The role of education within the South African context is of particular importance. The capability approach, which was pioneered by economist-philosopher Amartya Sen and significantly further developed by philosopher Martha Nussbaum and a growing number of other scholars across the humanities and social sciences, is a theoretical framework for the assessment and comparison of quality of life and social justice. The argument is made that when inquiring about the prosperity of a nation or region in the world, traditional economic approaches – such as gross domestic product (GDP), which is the most commonly used indicator of economic activity – are not, by themselves, accurate or adequate. When assessing individuals and societies‟ quality of life and sense of well-being, we need to know not only about their levels of income, wealth, or consumption; but also about the opportunities they have, or do not have, to choose and to act. The capability approach provides a more comprehensive conceptualisation of quality of life, because it takes into account broader and more encompassing measures of well-being. Conceptualising quality of life from the perspective of the capability approach, makes it clear that large numbers, if not the vast majority, of people experience many forms of unfreedom that impedes their development (i.e. their freedom to choose), and prevents them from leading lives they consider valuable and worthwhile. Many people lack capabilities. The capability approach asserts that the expansion of the real freedoms that people enjoy (i.e. what people are effectively able to be and to do) is both the primary end and the principle means of development. Expansion of freedom equates to enhanced individual agency as a result of an increase in capabilities. Furthermore, individual agency is central to addressing various deprivations (both individual and societal).

It is increasingly acknowledged that the proper objective of government efforts towards economic development should be aimed at improvements beyond simple measures of growth, poverty and inequality towards richer measures of human well-being. Herein, the economic and non-economic quality of life, as well as the quantity of life, becomes important indicators. Economists and other social planners therefore need to develop more meaningful indicators of the quality of life. Objective and subjective indicators of the quality of life can be distinguished. For various reasons, this thesis will focus on the search for more meaningful objective indicators of the quality of life. One of the most wellknown objective indicators of quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI). There is, however, a growing dissatisfaction with the HDI. In this thesis, two recent methodological advances in the measurement of quality of life are applied and combined and, in particular, in the measurement of the non-economic quality of life, to the sub-national quality of life in South Africa. As such, this thesis’ contribution is twofold. First, it investigates the extent to which the quality of life differs within a developing country, as opposed to most studies that focus on either inter-country differences in quality of life, or studies that focus only on spatial inequalities within countries using a restricted set of measures such as per capita income or poverty rates and headcounts. Secondly, this thesis applies a recent methodology proposed by McGillivray (2005) to isolate the non-economic (non-monetary) quality of life in various composite indices and to focus on the non-economic quality of life across 351 South African magisterial districts Indices for the non-economic quality of life are compiled for geographical quality, for demographic quality, and based on the human development index. Furthermore, given that composite indices used in the construction of measures of quality of life consist of weightings of multiple proxies, this thesis implements the method of Lubotsky and Wittenberg (2006) which proposed a new estimator for the case where multiple proxies are to be used for a single, unobserved variable such as quality of life. This thesis establishes that when the non-economic quality of life of the demographic index is considered, the top ten regions in 1001 were as follows: Pretoria, Johannesburg, Soweto, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Inanda, Pietermaritzburg, Wynberg, Mitchellsplain and Vanderbijlpark. It is important to note that, when interpreting these results, one should take caution since variables such as the number of people, number of households etc. is included in this index and as a region grows in population size the more negative consequences such as a higher crime rate can be associated with the particular region. The top ten regions in which to reside in 1004 as determined by the geography quality of life index were: Calvinia, Gordonia, Namaqualand, Kenhardt, Carnarvon, Ubombo, Williston, Hlabisa, Ceres and Ingwavuma. This geography index measures a region's natural beauty which, according to Wey (2000), contributes positively to one's perceived quality of life. Considering changes in non-economic quality of life indices between 1996 and 2004, the conclusion can he drawn that the South African government has been successful to a certain degree in addressing non-economic quality of life. Social policies such as health care, education, housing, water and sanitation appear to have had a positive effect on people's perceived non-economic quality of life in areas that were relatively deprived in 1996.
Thesis (Ph.D. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

In South Africa social dialogue is the agreed process in which the exchanging of viewpoints to facilitate harmonious labour relations. Twenty years on and inequality remains a grave concern within the socio-economic context of South Africa. It is necessary to understand current context to determine where viewpoints amongst the social partners are aligned and where they diverge. It is clear that all agree that inequality needs to be addressed, minimum wages are not the point of dispute, and seemingly the process of collaboration needs to be investigated further. A review of the literature indicates that more are concerned around the level at which the national minimum wage should be set and the procedures for setting the minimum wage. Furthermore the literature on institutions that set minimum wages indicates that the institutional design is important to consider an understanding on the differences between these institutions lacks. Following a case study approach, the purpose of this research was to assess how the perspectives of South African Government, Business and Trade Unions on addressing socio-economic inequality in South Africa impact social policy determination. In doing so, this research: ? explored the divergent perspectives of inequality from the viewpoints of government, organised business and organised labour in South Africa in determining the agreed approach to address socio-economic inequality in South Africa; and ? understand how these main groups collaborate to achieve the goal of developing a shared ?lens' through which to collectively address socio-economic inequality. This research argues that a common lens through which to consider inequality in South Africa is lacking.
Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2017.
zk2017
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
MBA
Unrestricted

Includes bibliographical references (leaves [117]-124).
This research investigates the relationship between economic well-being and attitudes to race amongst its respondents who took part in a survey known as the Cape Area Study (CAS) in 2005. In this inquiry, economic well-being is measured in two ways, by (household) income level and living conditions, the latter by means of a Living Coalitions Index (LCI), created by the author. The degree to which these two measures are able to explain variability in attitudes to race in the respondent sample is investigated. The specific aspect of attitude to race focused upon in this investigation is amenability to racial integration, and is measured by means of the Amenability to Racial Integration Index (ARII), also constructed by the author. Aside from the chief explanatory element of economic well-being, the degree of influence of other factors on attitude to race such as gender, age, education and employment status are also explored.

Throughout the twentieth century so-called Poor Whites caused anxiety in countries where racial domination was crucial, such as South Africa, the colonies of European empire and the United States. The Poor Whites were troubling for a number of reasons, not least because they threatened white prestige and the entire system of racial control. The efforts of various governments, organisations and experts to discipline, control and uplift the group necessarily disadvantaged other races. These controls, such as colour bars and Jim Crow laws, had an enormous effect on the countries where the Poor Whites were seen as a problem. The results can still be seen in the profoundly unequal contemporary racial landscape, and which is given expression by protest groups such as Black Lives Matter. Yet the efforts to manage the Poor Whites have thus far been examined on a national basis — as a problem of the United States, or of South Africa, to name just the most significant locales and regimes. This dissertation attempts to expand our understanding of the geography of the Poor Whites by arguing that the ‘Poor White Problem’ was a transnational concern rooted in racial interests that transcended national concerns. The racial solidarity displayed by so-called ‘white men’s countries’ was also extended to the Poor Whites. Efforts to control and discipline the population were thus in service of the white race as a whole, and ignored national interests and national borders. The transnational management of the Poor Whites was done through a network of transnational organisations such as the League of Nations and the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as the careering experts they employed. The dissertation argues that these attempts constituted a transnational ‘governmentality’ according to which these organisations and their experts attempted to discipline a Poor White population that they viewed as transnational in order to uphold white prestige and tacitly maintain both global and local racial systems. This dissertation examines some of the ways in which Poor Whites were disciplined and racially rehabilitated. It examines health and sanitation, education and training, housing standards and the management of urban space, and finally photographic representation.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are human rights, thus they should be universally accessible. Young women and girls are often considered a disadvantaged group with low access to human rights. Various feminist scholars have highlighted gender inequality as the cause of this marginalisation. Intersectionality scholars instead argue the marginalisation of women to be more complex. The approach emphasises that oppressed women and girls are not only discriminated because of their gender but that the prevalence of intragroup discrimination hampers them from accessing their rights. This thesis aims to study if and how social identities, more specifically class and ethnicity, affect adolescent girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and rights within the South African school realm. A case study is conducted on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, focusing on secondary- and high school teachers and on how the subject Life Orientation is implemented to create access to SRHR. Empirical results of the study indicate that class- and ethnic belonging impacts the access of female students to their rights in various ways. Monetary resources, information and knowledge influence social identities and access to SRHR in Life Orientation. As well as overall school conditions, including level of school violence and harassment. Finally, this thesis illustrates that privileged girls are also impeded from accessing their SRHR, due to the implementation of school fees. This system allows guardians to gain substantial influence and constrain school teachings of controversial topics.

Thesis (M.A. (Administration and Development)) --University of Limpopo, 2010
Feminist studies show that gender inequality is an impediment for livelihoods diversification among rural households. Whereas women are understood to be the designers, planners and managers of livelihoods for household survival, their roles in diversification of the means of earning a living are generally undermined through a myriad of social and cultural laws, values, norms and beliefs. Despite the publicity, attempts and efforts in redressing gender inequality in a demographic South Africa, the dissertation argues that gender inequality in rural areas has remained persistent, posing an obstacle to the capacity of households to diversify their livelihoods. The study uses survey results from Sebayeng Village in order to demonstrate that the community’s perceptions of women’s roles perpetuate the status quo wherein women’s capacity to diversify livelihoods are undermined. The survey involved 200 households that were sampled through the simple random design. The respondents consisted of 56.5% females and 43.5% males. The survey results demonstrate that gender inequality remains deep in Sebayeng Village and that such inequality negatively affects the ability of households to diversify their livelihoods. Therefore, this study tends to confirm the general principle that gender inequality renders women as unexplored resources in rural development. To that extent, the study concludes that one of the tests for the success in gender transformation in South Africa is in releasing the energies of women in the sphere of livelihoods diversification.

A key challenge of the Anthropocene is to advance human development without undermining critical ecosystem services. Central to this challenge is a better understanding of the interactions and feedbacks between biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being, which interact in dynamic and complex social-ecological systems. These relationships have been the focus of much work in the past decades, however more remains to be done to comprehensively identify and quantify them, especially at larger scales. In this thesis, a social-ecological systems approach is adopted to investigate connections between biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being in South Africa. The country’s high levels of biological and socio-economic diversity, as well as its emerging economy make South Africa an interesting case for exploring these connections. Using data from a variety of public sources, and at different sub-national scales, the thesis first identifies and analyses a variety of bundles of ecosystem service use. Based on these bundles, three social-ecological system archetypes were identified and mapped in South Africa, namely the green-loop (high overall use of local ecosystem services), transition, and red-loop (low overall use of local ecosystem services) systems. Further analysis explored the social and ecological drivers of these patterns, and found the distribution of systems mainly influenced by social factors including household income, gender of the household head, and land tenure. Second, this thesis uses human well-being indicators to construct, analyse and map multi-dimensional human well-being bundles. These bundles were found to spatially cluster across the landscape, and were analysed for congruence with the ecosystem service use bundles. Discrepancies in the expected overlap of ecosystem service use and human well-being were highlighted and concur with findings elsewhere and the ongoing debate in the literature on the impacts of time-lags, indicator choice and scale of these interactions. Third, biodiversity in South Africa was analysed by employing an indicator of biodiversity intactness (BII) at the population level. The BII was found to have declined by 18.3% since pre-industrial times. Biodiversity loss was linked to the potential supply of ecosystem services, as well as human well-being patterns. A potential threshold at 40% biodiversity loss was detected, beyond which population abundances decline sharply. Finally, the thesis examines multiple perspectives on ecosystem services in sustainability research, including the social-ecological systems perspective, and discusses the complementarity of the different perspectives in furthering a deeper understanding of the connections between people and ecosystems. The social-ecological systems perspective employed throughout the empirical work presented in this thesis contributed towards cross-cutting insights, the testing of new kinds of data and the development of new approaches, all of which represent important steps towards unravelling the connections between biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being, and contributing to the key Anthropocene challenge of sustainable development.

At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Submitted. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.