IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/wisagr/12679.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Sense in Sociability? Social Exclusion and Persistent Poverty in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Adato, Michelle
  • Carter, Michael R.
  • May, Julian

Abstract

Social capital has been identified as an important avenue of upward mobility for poorer people. However, recent theoretical work suggests that in highly polarized societies, the accumulation of social capital is likely to be fragmented and ineffective for people at the bottom of the economic pyramid. In South Africa, apartheid-era policies created such deep, socially embedded inequality producing a self-reinforcing circle of social exclusion and persistent poverty as another of apartheid's legacies. Work to date on post-apartheid income distribution-with its demonstration of increasing inequality and poverty-is consistent with this legacy hypothesis. This paper takes this hypothesis further by using a two-pronged approach that draws on quantitative and qualitative data to explore the role of different types of assets in explaining poverty status. First, novel econometric analysis of poverty and livelihood dynamics is used to test for a poverty trap that would signal the existence of a ceiling to upward mobility for poor people. The analysis finds evidence of such a trap. Secondly, the qualitative data is used to confirm and more deeply probe the reasons behind the patterns of truncated upward mobility, finding accessibility and stability of employment and state pensions as key factors explaining why people remain poor or non-poor. While this analysis finds ample evidence of active social capital and networks, these are more helpful for non-poor households while for the poor they seem to at best help stabilize livelihood at low levels and seem to do little to promote upward mobility. This paper's confirmation of the legacy hypothesis suggests the publicly provided social safety nets that exist in South Africa need to be at least maintained if not strengthened, while state policy needs to take a more aggressive role in assuring that households have access to a minimum bundle of assets and to the markets needed to effectively build on those assets over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Adato, Michelle & Carter, Michael R. & May, Julian, 2004. "Sense in Sociability? Social Exclusion and Persistent Poverty in South Africa," Staff Papers 12679, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:wisagr:12679
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.12679
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/12679/files/stpap477.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.12679?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dercon, Stefan, 1998. "Wealth, risk and activity choice: cattle in Western Tanzania," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 1-42, February.
    2. Carter, Michael R. & May, Julian, 1999. "Poverty, livelihood and class in rural South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 1-20, January.
    3. Michael Carter & Christopher Barrett, 2006. "The economics of poverty traps and persistent poverty: An asset-based approach," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 178-199.
    4. Carter, Michael R. & May, Julian, 2001. "One Kind of Freedom: Poverty Dynamics in Post-apartheid South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 1987-2006, December.
    5. repec:dau:papers:123456789/1560 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Ajit Bhalla & Frédéric Lapeyre, 1997. "Social Exclusion: Towards an Analytical and Operational Framework," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 28(3), pages 413-433, July.
    7. Gary Fields & Paul Cichello & Samuel Freije & Marta Menéndez & David Newhouse, 2003. "For Richer or for Poorer? Evidence from Indonesia, South Africa, Spain, and Venezuela," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 1(1), pages 67-99, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Barrett, Christopher B. & Swallow, Brent M., 2006. "Fractal poverty traps," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-15, January.
    2. Shoba Arun & Samuel Annim & Thankom Arun, 2010. "How can asset accumulation strategies be meaningful for adivasis in Southern India?," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 11210, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    3. Epo, Boniface Ngah & Abiala, Mireille Ambiana & Maimo, Clovis Wendji & Choub, Péguy Christophe Faha, 2010. "Globalization, Institutions, Asset Endowments and Poverty Reduction Outcomes in Africa within the Context of the Financial Crisis: Establishing a Transmission Mechanisms," MPRA Paper 20655, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. John Toye & David Hulme & University of Manchester, 2005. "The case for cross-disciplinary social science research on poverty, inequality and well-being," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-001, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    5. Chengedzai Mafini & Daniel Francois Meyer, 2016. "Satisfaction with Life Amongst the Urban Poor: Empirical Results from South Africa," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 12(5), pages 33-50, OCTOBER.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Barrett, Christopher B. & Swallow, Brent M., 2006. "Fractal poverty traps," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-15, January.
    2. Dylan Fitz & Shyam Gouri Suresh, 2021. "Poverty traps across levels of aggregation," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 16(4), pages 909-953, October.
    3. Sommarat Chantarat & Christopher Barrett, 2012. "Social network capital, economic mobility and poverty traps," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(3), pages 299-342, September.
    4. Christopher B. Barrett, 2005. "Rural poverty dynamics: development policy implications," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 32(s1), pages 45-60, January.
    5. Özler, Berk, 2007. "Not Separate, Not Equal: Poverty and Inequality in Post-apartheid South Africa," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(3), pages 487-529, April.
    6. Aguero, Jorge M. & Carter, Michael R. & May, Julian, 2006. "Poverty and Inequality in the First Decade of South Africa's Democracy: What Can be Learned from Panel Data?," Staff Papers 12621, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    7. Schulte, Oliver & Mumber, Julian & Nguyen, Trung Thanh, 2023. "Agricultural commercialisation, asset growth and poverty in rural Vietnam," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 67(03), April.
    8. Swati Dutta, 2015. "Identifying Single or Multiple Poverty Trap: An Application to Indian Household Panel Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(1), pages 157-179, January.
    9. Tareq Sadeq & Michel Lubrano, 2018. "The Wall’s Impact in the Occupied West Bank: A Bayesian Approach to Poverty Dynamics Using Repeated Cross-Sections," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-24, May.
    10. Marisa von Fintel & Asmus Zoch, 2015. "The dynamics of child poverty in South Africa between 2008 and 2012: An analysis using the National Income Dynamics Study," Working Papers 05/2015, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    11. Simone Schotte, 2019. "Structural poverty dynamics in urban South Africa: A mixed-methods investigation," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-100, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Ana María Ibañez & Andrés Moya, 2010. "Do Conflicts Create Poverty Traps? Asset Losses and Recovery for Displaced Households in Colombia," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Crime: Lessons For and From Latin America, pages 137-172, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Barrett, C. B. & Reardon, T. & Webb, P., 2001. "Nonfarm income diversification and household livelihood strategies in rural Africa: concepts, dynamics, and policy implications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 315-331, August.
    14. Anderson, Bret, 2012. "Converting Asset Holdings into Livelihood: An Empirical Study on the Role of Household Agency in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 1394-1406.
    15. Radeny, Maren & van den Berg, Marrit & Schipper, Rob, 2012. "Rural Poverty Dynamics in Kenya: Structural Declines and Stochastic Escapes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1577-1593.
    16. Michael Carter & Christopher Barrett, 2006. "The economics of poverty traps and persistent poverty: An asset-based approach," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 178-199.
    17. Liverpool, Lenis Saweda O. & Winter-Nelson, Alex, 2010. "Asset versus consumption poverty and poverty dynamics in the presence of multiple equilibria in rural Ethiopia," IFPRI discussion papers 971, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    18. Oliver Schulte & Julian Mumber & Trung Thanh Nguyen, 2023. "Agricultural commercialization and asset growth for poverty reduction: Evidence from panel data for rural Vietnam," TVSEP Working Papers wp-032, Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Institute for Environmental Economics and World Trade, Project TVSEP.
    19. Swati Dutta & Lakshmi Kumar, 2016. "Is Poverty Stochastic or Structural in Nature? Evidence from Rural India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 957-979, September.
    20. Michael Carter & Peter Little & Tewodaj Mogues & Workneh Negatu, 2005. "Shocks, Sensitivity and Resilience: Tracking the Economic Impacts of Environmental Disaster on Assets in Ethiopia and Honduras," Development and Comp Systems 0511029, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food Security and Poverty;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:wisagr:12679. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dauwius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.