Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Wage workers in a 'homeland township' : their experiences in finding, maintaining and losing employment

Bibliography: pages 254-266.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Niehaus, Isak Arnold
Other Authors: Spiegel, Andrew David
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Social Anthropology 2016
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867614407757922304
access_status_str Open Access
author Niehaus, Isak Arnold
author2 Spiegel, Andrew David
author_browse Niehaus, Isak Arnold
Spiegel, Andrew David
author_facet Spiegel, Andrew David
Niehaus, Isak Arnold
author_sort Niehaus, Isak Arnold
collection Thesis
description Bibliography: pages 254-266.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/22390
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:51:33.629Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2016
publishDateRange 2016
publishDateSort 2016
publisher Social Anthropology
publisherStr Social Anthropology
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/22390 Wage workers in a 'homeland township' : their experiences in finding, maintaining and losing employment Niehaus, Isak Arnold Spiegel, Andrew David Ethnology Unemployed - South Africa Unemployment Social Anthropology Bibliography: pages 254-266. Workers domiciled in Qwaqwa, South Africa's smallest 'homeland', experience high rates of unemployment and job instability. Yet most terminations of employment are employee-instigated. This dissertation examines the reasons for employment instability among wage workers resident in a housing section in Phuthaditjhaba, the 'homeland's' only urban area. The approach adopted in the dissertation is primarily ethnographic. It describes the everyday experiences of African workers and treats their own perspectives of their working lives as central. Quantitative and qualitative data, collected from two samples drawn from the population in the housing area selected for study, are presented. It is argued that employment instability must be understood as a consequence of a web of interrelated circumstances and cannot be explained in terms of any one single causal factor. The following employment and employment-related circumstances are examined: workers' views of, and reactions to, wages and working conditions; problems with transport between places of work and home, and with workplace accommodation; conflicts of interest arising from domestic pressures undermining workers' ability to remain in a job; and the experience of joblessness. These various factors are then drawn together to show that workers do not perceive these factors in isolation from one another, but that they experience the oppressive conditions of their domestic and working lives as a totality. Any attempts to find ways to increase workers' job stability will have to look both within and beyond the workplace. 2016-11-01T10:31:01Z 2016-11-01T10:31:01Z 1987 Master Thesis Masters MSocSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22390 eng application/pdf Social Anthropology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Ethnology
Unemployed - South Africa
Unemployment
Social Anthropology
Niehaus, Isak Arnold
Wage workers in a 'homeland township' : their experiences in finding, maintaining and losing employment
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Wage workers in a 'homeland township' : their experiences in finding, maintaining and losing employment
title_full Wage workers in a 'homeland township' : their experiences in finding, maintaining and losing employment
title_fullStr Wage workers in a 'homeland township' : their experiences in finding, maintaining and losing employment
title_full_unstemmed Wage workers in a 'homeland township' : their experiences in finding, maintaining and losing employment
title_short Wage workers in a 'homeland township' : their experiences in finding, maintaining and losing employment
title_sort wage workers in a homeland township their experiences in finding maintaining and losing employment
topic Ethnology
Unemployed - South Africa
Unemployment
Social Anthropology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22390
work_keys_str_mv AT niehausisakarnold wageworkersinahomelandtownshiptheirexperiencesinfindingmaintainingandlosingemployment