Browsing by Author "Graaff, Johann Frederick de Villiers)"

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    Dependency theory and urbanisation in Southern Africa : a conceptual critique
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1990-03) Graaff, Johann Frederick de Villiers); Cilliers, S. P.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Sociology & Social Anthropology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Marxist development theory has been in trouble recently. As it has been applied in Southern. Africa, this theoretical stream originated in the theories of Arrlre Gunder Frank and Imnanuel Wallerstein. From the critique against these theories, most notably by Ernesto Laclau and Robert Brenner, a new theoretical direction arose. This was called modes of production theory. However, today this theory is also in crisis as a result of EP Thampson' s withering attack on Althusser. Amid the debris of such old theories, same writers feel that Marxist development theory is at an impasse. New directions are being sought in Weber and various micro-theories. These writers are being unnecessarily pessimistic. New theories are already emerging from the ruins of the old, as one would expect them to. The central concern of this thesis, then, is the new direction in which Marxist development theory might move in order to go beyond its present dilemma's in its consideration of the Southern African context. There are three main elements necessary for viable renewal. All of these draw on Anthony Giddens' structuration theory. The first is a theory of the postcolonial or peripheral state which avoids instrumentalist and functionalist notions. These latter see the state as subjected to the interests of the ruling class or to the logic of capitalist development. But state incumbents in peripheral countries have distinct enough interests and anxieties, on the one hand, and sufficient resources, on the other hand, to make them a separate class with a significant measure of independence over and against both national and international bourgeoisies. The second innovation in Marxist development theory concerns the relationship between core and periphery. Core-periphery interaction is conceptually worth retaining on condition that it jettisons the stagnationist, quantitative, unidimensional and uninodal assumptions introduced by Frank and Wallerstein. Core and periphery thus interact at international, national, regional and intra-urban levels. Such levels are superimposed 'on to' each other and operate simultaneously. In addition, cores exercise their dominance over peripheries in multifarious ways which include both trade am class mechanisms. Exploitation is therefore not a quantative, zero-sum game, but a qualitative relational one. Finally, once one moves beyond neat notions of discrete systems each with a single core, it becomes possible to think of multiple systems, not only superimposed 'on top of' each other, but also existing 'next to' each other. The interaction between defies neat boundaries. The final innovation in Marxist development theory concerns the notion of structure. Earlier Marxist writers, following Althusser and Poulantzas, were strongly structuralist positivist. Later Marxists, particularly among social historians in South African, by contrast, have been influenced by subjectivist and relativist theories. Structuration theory rejects both of these polarities. Giddens proposes that social analysis must start with subjective meaning, as subjectivist theories would say. Unlike subjectivist theories, structure must be seen as constitutive of subjective meaning. At the epistemological level Giddens also rejects relativism. In this view a form of critical theory which applies to both the object and the subject of theory can replace vicious with virtuous cycles of knowledge.