Overview

Examines more than a decade of enterprise development strategies in marginal economic contexts in South Africa's mining communities and shows how this might impact on development strategies. In 1987, workers in South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) staged a historic national strike, and 40,000 mineworkers lost their jobs. To assist them, the NUM set up a job creation programme, starting with worker co-operatives before shifting to wider enterprise development strategies. Against the backdrop of South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy, this programme provided support in communities hard hit by escalating job losses onthe mines - including in neighbouring countries. In this book, Kate Philip, who ran NUM's job creation programme for over a decade, charts the often-difficult lessons learned from grappling with the limits and opportunities thatsuch market participation offer to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods. She explores whether and how it might be possible to make markets work better for the poor - and what the notion that markets are social constructs might mean for constructing them differently. Kate Philip is a Senior Economic Development Advisor in the Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC) of South Africa's National Treasury. Through the International Labour Organisation, she has also been supporting the government of Greece in the design and development of a public employment programme.

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9781847011763

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As the worldwide trend toward employment that is more precarious, less well paid and scarcer continues and accelerates, the rest of the world would be well advised to see its own future in the extreme inequality and massive structural unemployment of South Africa. The specialists and generalists of the rest of the world should read this book. * AFRICA JOURNAL OF PUBLIC SECTOR DEVELOPMENT AND GOVERNANCE * This book should be read by all development practitioners who believe in the importance of small business ownership as a means to alleviate poverty. * ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW * The strength of Philip's book is the depth of its historical excavation and the synchronization of relevant literature on the NUM. . Philip succeeded in applying accurate, original thinking to one of the most important development issues of our time-the rapid economic and political changes occurring in Africa. * AFRICAN STUDIES QUARTERLY *

As the worldwide trend toward employment that is more precarious, less well paid and scarcer continues and accelerates, the rest of the world would be well advised to see its own future in the extreme inequality and massive structural unemployment of South Africa. The specialists and generalists of the rest of the world should read this book. AFRICA JOURNAL OF PUBLIC SECTOR DEVELOPMENT AND GOVERNANCE

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