Covid and Custom in Rural South Africa

Covid and Custom in Rural South Africa
Author: Leslie Bank
Publisher: Hurst Publishers
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2022-06-09
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1787388727

This book explores the impact of Covid-19, and the associated state lockdown, on rural lives in a former homeland in South Africa. The 2020 Disaster Management Act saw the state sweep through rural areas, targeting funerals and other customary practices as potential ‘super-spreader’ events. This unprecedented clampdown produced widespread disruption, fear and anxiety. The authors build on path-breaking work concerning local responses to West Africa’s Ebola epidemic, and examine the HIV/AIDS pandemic, to understand the impact of the Covid crisis on these communities, and on rural Africa more broadly. To shed light on the role of custom and ritual in rural social change during the pandemic, Covid and Custom in Rural South Africa applies long-term historical and ethnographic research; theories of people’s science, local knowledge and the human economy; and fieldwork conducted in ten rural South African communities during lockdown. The volume highlights differences between developments in Southern Africa and elsewhere on the continent, while exploring how the former apartheid homelands–commonly, yet problematically, represented as former ‘labour reserves’–have since been reconstituted as new home-spaces. In short, it explains why rural people have been so angered by the state’s assault on their cultural practices and institutions in the time of Covid.

Covid and Custom in Rural South Africa

Covid and Custom in Rural South Africa
Author: LESLIE. SHARPLEY BANK (NELLY.)
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2021-11-18
Genre:
ISBN: 9781787385733

This book explores the impact of Covid-19, and the associated state lockdown, on rural lives in a former homeland in South Africa. The 2020 Disaster Management Act saw the state sweep through rural areas, targeting funerals and other customary practices as potential 'super-spreader' events. This unprecedented clampdown produced widespread disruption, fear and anxiety. The authors build on path-breaking work concerning local responses to West Africa's Ebola epidemic, and examine the HIV/AIDS pandemic, to understand the impact of the Covid crisis on these communities, and on rural Africa more broadly.To shed light on the role of custom and ritual in rural social change during the pandemic, Covid and Custom in Rural South Africa applies long-term historical and ethnographic research; theories of people's science, local knowledge and the human economy; and fieldwork conducted in ten rural South African communities during lockdown. The volume highlights differences between developments in Southern Africa and elsewhere on the continent, while exploring how the former apartheid homelands-commonly, yet problematically, represented as former 'labour reserves'-have since been reconstituted as new home-spaces. In short, it explains why rural people have been so angered by the state's assault on their cultural practices and institutions in the time of Covid.

South African-Based African Migrants' Responses to COVID-19

South African-Based African Migrants' Responses to COVID-19
Author: Pineteh Angu
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2022-05-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9956552577

This edited volume interrogates the intersection between viral pandemics, transnational migration and the politics of belonging in South Africa during COVID-19. The chapters draw on theoretical conceptions such as biopolitics, necropolitics, xenophobio/afrophobia and autochthonous citizenship to understand how South Africa has responded to the devastating effects of COVID-19 and the implications for the lives and livelihoods of African migrants. The book is written against the backdrop of deepening socioeconomic and political problems in South Africa, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic, exclusionary response strategies employed by the government and populist discourses about the dangers of hosting an increasing population of African migrants. Drawing on the experiences of migrants from Cameroon, DRC, Nigeria, Somalia and Zimbabwe, this book explores the challenges of these diaspora communities during lockdowns, their survival strategies and the effects on their social existence during and post the pandemic. From these case studies, we are reminded about the paradoxes of belonging and how COVID-19 continues to reveal different forms of global inequalities. They also remind us about the burdens of displacement and emplacement and how they are repeatedly politicised in South Africa, as the government grapples with endemic socioeconomic and political problems. The conclusion of the book examines the implications of COVID-19 for migration across the African continent and particularly for South Africa, as we witness new waves of xenophobic/afrophobic vigilantism driven by Operation Dudula.

The Covid Consensus (Updated)

The Covid Consensus (Updated)
Author: Toby Green
Publisher: Hurst Publishers
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2023-01-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1805260111

During the first years of the pandemic, the political mainstream agreed that ‘following the science’ with hard lockdowns and vaccine mandates was the best way to preserve life. But social science reveals the true human cost of this policy. The Covid Consensus provides an internationalist-left perspective on the world’s Covid-19 response, which has had devastating consequences for democratic rights and the poor worldwide. As the fortunes of the richest soared, nationwide shutdowns devastated small businesses, the working classes and the Global South’s informal economies. Gender-based violence surged, and the mental health of young people was severely compromised. Meanwhile, unprecedented health restrictions prevented participation in daily life without proof of vaccination. Toby Green and Thomas Fazi argue that these policies grossly exacerbated existing trends of inequality, mediatisation and surveillance, with grave implications for the future. Rich in human detail, The Covid Consensus tackles head-on the refusal of the global political class and mainstream media to report the true extent of the erosion of democratic processes and the socioeconomic assault on the poor. As the world emerges from the pandemic to confront new modes of monitoring and control, this left-wing reappraisal of global Covid policies exposes the injustices and political failings that have produced the biggest crisis since the Second World War.

Global Health Security

Global Health Security
Author:
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2024-06-19
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1837692491

The current book, Global Health Security - Contemporary Considerations and Developments, represents a collective work of multiple authors from around the world, with an ultimate goal of providing the reader with a comprehensive exploration of critical issues shaping modern global health security, especially in the post-COVID-19 reality of today. It not only highlights the latest trends, challenges, and advancements shaping the field but also delves into unique topics like the impact of geopolitical tensions and barriers, funding gaps, intentional and unintentional misuse of social media platforms, medical and health misinformation, and the need for greater equity and inclusivity. Moreover, the book outlines potential future directions for strengthening global health security, including the enhancement of multisectoral collaboration, investment in research and development, and promotion of health equity. These are critical measures that can help address the current challenges facing our planet following the most devastating pandemic in over a century. This collection of expert manuscripts provides valuable insights and practical recommendations that can help inform policy decisions and guide future research and development efforts. We hope that the reader will find this book to be an essential resource, especially for those looking to gain a deeper understanding of the issues surrounding global health security.

The Emerging Covid-19 Pandemic in South Africa. The Pastoral Response of the Roman Catholic Church to its Socio-Economic Impact

The Emerging Covid-19 Pandemic in South Africa. The Pastoral Response of the Roman Catholic Church to its Socio-Economic Impact
Author: Gilbert Kamta Tatsi
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2023-01-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3346803929

Master's Thesis from the year 2022 in the subject Theology - Practical Theology, grade: 70%, University of KwaZulu-Natal (College of Humanities / School of Religion, Philosphy & Classics), course: Theology and Development, language: English, abstract: This study is an appraisal of the pastoral response of the Roman Catholic Church to the socio-economic impact of the emerging pandemic in South Africa. Central to this study is the contribution that African liberation theology offers, with particular emphasis on the philosophy of Ujamaa and the theology of Ubuntu, in strengthening the pastoral response of the Roman Catholic Church to the socio-economic impact of the emerging Covid-19 pandemic in the country. The Covid-19 pandemic has created unprecedented socio-economic hardships globally. The austerities brought about by Covid-19 has affected all sectors of society. Religious, economic, and political sectors have felt the ordeal of the humanitarian crisis. The emergence of the pandemic in South Africa in March 2020 has had a huge socio-economic impact, mostly on the poor and the less privileged in society. The pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated pre-existing socio-economic inequalities in South Africa. These aggravated inequalities include corruption, unemployment, gender-based violence, and access to public healthcare. The methodology of See-Judge-Act is used in the study. The ‘see’ corresponds to the critical analysis of the socio-economic context of the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa. Conceptually, ‘judge’ uses the guiding categories of the philosophy of Ujamaa and the theology of Ubuntu to thematically analyse various pastoral documents published by the Roman Catholic Church in South Africa in its response to the emerging pandemic during the period March 2020 – March 2021. The ‘act’ elaborates the potential socially transformative actions from the principles of Ujamaa and Ubuntu that would render more effective the pastoral response of the Roman Catholic Church to the socio-economic impact of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa.

COVID-19 Syndemics and the Global South

COVID-19 Syndemics and the Global South
Author: Inayat Ali
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2024-07-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1040020933

This book focuses on syndemics in the Global South and uses COVID‐19 as a window to understand clusters of disparities and disease comorbidities. The pandemic has exposed and multiplied structural inequalities and certain subpopulations were more exposed to COVID‐19 as well as experienced greater morbidity and mortality. The effects of the pandemic differ between countries but have had an especially major impact, although in varying ways, in the Global South. The contributions in this volume explore the differential impacts of COVID‐19 at individual, community, national, or regional levels, considering how structural violence is institutionalized in a way that creates vulnerable situations and disproportionate suffering. The book will be of interest to anthropologists and sociologists as well as to those working in global and public health.

Migrant Labour After Apartheid

Migrant Labour After Apartheid
Author: Leslie John Bank
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre: Migrant labor
ISBN: 9780796925794

"Migrant Labour after Apartheid focuses on internal migrants and migration, rather than cross border migration into South Africa. It cautions against a linear narrative of change and urban transition. The book is divided into two parts. The first half investigates urbanisation processes from the perspective of internal migration. Several of the chapters make use of recently available survey data collected in a national longitudinal study to describe patterns and trends in labour migration, the economic returns to migration, and the links between the migration of adults and the often-ignored migration of children. The last three chapters of this section shine a spotlight on conditions of migrant workers in destination areas by focusing on Marikana and mining on the platinum belt. The second half of the book explores the double rootedness of migrants through the lens of the rural hinterland from which migration often occurs. The chapters here focus on the Eastern Cape as a case study of a region from which (particularly longer-distance) labour migration has been very common. The contributions describe the limited opportunities for livelihood strategies in the countryside, which encourage outmigration, but also note the accelerated rates of household investment, especially in the built environment in the former homelands. Migrant Labour after Apartheid identifies pockets of relative economic dynamism, especially around former homeland towns, and reflects on the continued importance of rural spaces as places of belonging, identity and investment for social and cultural reproduction." --Publisher's description.

Acceleration and Cultural Change

Acceleration and Cultural Change
Author: Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2023-10-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3031330994

This open access book includes socio-anthropological and anthropo-sociological conversations between one of the world’s leading anthropologists, Thomas Hyland Eriksen, and a young scholar, using his groundbreaking "overheating" approach.This book includes socio-anthropological and anthropo-sociological conversations between one of the world’s leading anthropologists, Thomas Hyland Eriksen, and a young scholar, using his groundbreaking "overheating" approach. From the pandemic to the spread of nationalism, from the Anthropocene to the Homogenocene, the authors discuss the most urgent issues of current society: e.g., the loss of biological and cultural diversity owing to the forces of globalisation; and the emergence of new forms of diversity through globalisation and migration; the intersectional dimension of climate change; the incredible rising of anger demonstrations around the world and resentful, overheated identities often linked to right-wing nationalism; the way digital devices have changed the meaning of temporality in people's life-worlds; the regulatory and competitive pressures on universities which are a result of many factors in the intersection of globalisation, massification and marketisation; youth's weakened belief in progress connected to changes in the contemporary world, such as growing inequality, political alienation and environmental destruction; recent pathbreaking research and original theory in sociology and anthropology related to the changes in an overheated world; and what post-Coronavirus social life might become. Highly topical, engaging and written in a conversational style, this book is a must-read for social scientists and discerning lay persons who want a fresh perspective on understanding the critical issues of our time. This is an open access book.