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Development as unfreedom : the role of mine migrant labour institutions as agents of development in the Transkei, 1886-1980s
Early liberal historians predominantly criticised the migrant labour system for its economic irrationality. After high GDP growth and steady benefits from gold mining in the 1960s, Marxist scholars in the 1970s pointed to the destructive impact of the system. Since 1994, the challenge inter alia has...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Historical Studies
2015
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| _version_ | 1867613161849356289 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Glover, Michael John |
| author2 | Mager, Anne |
| author_browse | Glover, Michael John Mager, Anne |
| author_facet | Mager, Anne Glover, Michael John |
| author_sort | Glover, Michael John |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Early liberal historians predominantly criticised the migrant labour system for its economic irrationality. After high GDP growth and steady benefits from gold mining in the 1960s, Marxist scholars in the 1970s pointed to the destructive impact of the system. Since 1994, the challenge inter alia has been to forge a new developmental path for the economy. In 2012 the National Development Plan set out its aim to “eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030”.1 This is the challenge. For the country or region to ‘develop’ and eliminate ‘poverty’ we need to know what we are trying to eliminate and what our development is trying to achieve. This thesis examines the migrant labour system in the Transkei through a lens of development and asks how and to what extent the system inhibited the development of the Transkei and its peoples. Using Amartya Sen’s conception of development - which sees development as a process of expanding social, political, and economic freedoms/capabilities - this thesis offers a view of migrant labour institutions in terms of how they created and engendered deprivation and unfreedom in the Transkei. It is an attempt to understand our ‘developmental past’ and to understand how development in the Transkei has been frustrated and inhibited by formal institutions. Amartya Sen’s notions of ‘development’ and ‘deprivation’ offer an autonomy- and freedom-centred approach to thinking about poverty and development. Specifically the thesis examines the nexus of formal institutions underpinning the migrant labour system - including state laws, the Native Affairs Department, and the Native Recruiting Corporation - in terms of how they acted to inhibit the development of mineworkers and labour exporting regions like the Transkei. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13685 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:31:45.395Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publishDateRange | 2015 |
| publishDateSort | 2015 |
| publisher | Department of Historical Studies |
| publisherStr | Department of Historical Studies |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13685 Development as unfreedom : the role of mine migrant labour institutions as agents of development in the Transkei, 1886-1980s Glover, Michael John Mager, Anne Historical Studies Early liberal historians predominantly criticised the migrant labour system for its economic irrationality. After high GDP growth and steady benefits from gold mining in the 1960s, Marxist scholars in the 1970s pointed to the destructive impact of the system. Since 1994, the challenge inter alia has been to forge a new developmental path for the economy. In 2012 the National Development Plan set out its aim to “eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030”.1 This is the challenge. For the country or region to ‘develop’ and eliminate ‘poverty’ we need to know what we are trying to eliminate and what our development is trying to achieve. This thesis examines the migrant labour system in the Transkei through a lens of development and asks how and to what extent the system inhibited the development of the Transkei and its peoples. Using Amartya Sen’s conception of development - which sees development as a process of expanding social, political, and economic freedoms/capabilities - this thesis offers a view of migrant labour institutions in terms of how they created and engendered deprivation and unfreedom in the Transkei. It is an attempt to understand our ‘developmental past’ and to understand how development in the Transkei has been frustrated and inhibited by formal institutions. Amartya Sen’s notions of ‘development’ and ‘deprivation’ offer an autonomy- and freedom-centred approach to thinking about poverty and development. Specifically the thesis examines the nexus of formal institutions underpinning the migrant labour system - including state laws, the Native Affairs Department, and the Native Recruiting Corporation - in terms of how they acted to inhibit the development of mineworkers and labour exporting regions like the Transkei. 2015-08-10T06:46:25Z 2015-08-10T06:46:25Z 2015 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13685 eng application/pdf Department of Historical Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Historical Studies Glover, Michael John Development as unfreedom : the role of mine migrant labour institutions as agents of development in the Transkei, 1886-1980s |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Development as unfreedom : the role of mine migrant labour institutions as agents of development in the Transkei, 1886-1980s |
| title_full | Development as unfreedom : the role of mine migrant labour institutions as agents of development in the Transkei, 1886-1980s |
| title_fullStr | Development as unfreedom : the role of mine migrant labour institutions as agents of development in the Transkei, 1886-1980s |
| title_full_unstemmed | Development as unfreedom : the role of mine migrant labour institutions as agents of development in the Transkei, 1886-1980s |
| title_short | Development as unfreedom : the role of mine migrant labour institutions as agents of development in the Transkei, 1886-1980s |
| title_sort | development as unfreedom the role of mine migrant labour institutions as agents of development in the transkei 1886 1980s |
| topic | Historical Studies |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13685 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT glovermichaeljohn developmentasunfreedomtheroleofminemigrantlabourinstitutionsasagentsofdevelopmentinthetranskei18861980s |