Winelands, wealth and work : transformations in the Dwars River Valley, Stellenbosch
"Through histories of slavery, colonialism, apartheid and paternalism, the Dwars River Valley in South Africa's Western Cape province instantiates labour exploitation and concomitant societal ills. Recently, and in line with South Africa's neo-liberal development tack, investment in the valley has generally turned from wine production to property speculation. Hope for development has become pinned on the commodification of landscape as tourist and elite farming destination. The addition of real estate development to an area of agricultural production around Boschendal provides the backdrop for an investigation of the post-1994 social transformation processes in one of the most sought after landscapes in the Cape. This careful study asks how the people of the Dwars River Valley respond to changing land use and how that relates to the historical and spatial contexts of the valley. It shows, in a richly textured way, how poor people use creative tactics to survive - whether it's by turning to Pentecostalism, patrolling ordentlikheid [respectability] or negotiating the contradictory, gendered norms that frame respectability and entrepreneurship. By exploring Solms-Delta farm as a case study, the book also looks at how initiatives can open up real possibilities for empowerment. Speaking to the massive Western Cape farm strikes of 2012, this book reveals agency in the Dwars River Valley and suggests that marginalised people have not acquiesced."--Publisher's description
Print Book, English, 2014
University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, Scottsville, South Africa, 2014
viii, 247 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), map ; 24 cm
9781869142605, 1869142608
875873511
Part 1. Context. Introduction: researching the social experience of transformation in the Dwars River Valley / Kees (C.S.) van der waal
Chapter 1. The inheritance of loss / Tracey Randle
Part 2. Intervention and planning. Chapter 2. No place like home: the complexities of resettlement and development in Lanquedoc / Francois Louw
Chapter 3. Solms-Delta: transformation or neopaternalism? / Paula Jackson
Chapter 4. Boschendal: politicisation or transformation? / Larry Swatuk
Part 3. Mitigating costs and realising benefits. Chapter 5. The 'slow violence' of poverty: Notebook of a psycho-ethnographer / Lou-Marie Kruger
Chapter 6. Women as 'dorp supporters': new opportunities for female entrepreneurship / Ingrid van der Heijden
Chapter 7. Patrolling respectability with the neighbourhood watch / Kees (C.S.) van der Waal
Chapter 8. Pentecostalism in the Dwars River Valley: challenging the mission legacy / Miemie du Plessis
Part 4. Finally. Chapter 9. Development and dystopia: An afterword / Steven Robins