NALSU Labour Studies Podcast | Bill Freund, University of Kwazulu-Natal: Twentieth-Century South Africa: A Developmental History

SPEAKER AND TOPIC: Bill Freund, University of Kwazulu-Natal: "Twentieth-Century South Africa: A Developmental History"

THE TOPIC: In this seminar and book launch, the late Professor Bill Freund argued that South Africa in the twentieth century should be understood as a nascent "developmental" state, with economic development acting as a key motivating factor. While issues of race, segregation and apartheid were central, there was another facet: a state-led drive towards modernisation and industrialisation, to move the country away from a dependent position. Freund considered the achievements and failures of that drive, as well as how it related to the state's ethnic and racial policymaking. The twentieth century has brought considerable political, social, and economic change to South Africa -- and this is part of that story, developing a new interpretation of modern South African economic development, essential for development studies and economic history.

DETAILS: This is a recording of a live event in the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU) Labour Studies Seminar Series, held on Wednesday, 6 March 2019, at Eden Grove, Seminar Room 2, Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa.

HOSTS: The series is run by the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU) in partnership with the Departments of Sociology & Industrial Sociology, and Economics & Economic History, Rhodes University. ABOUT NALSU: Based in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, NALSU is engaged in policy, research and workers' education. Built around a vibrant team, including from the disciplines of Sociology and Economics, NALSU has a democratic, non-sectarian, non-aligned and pluralist practice, and active relations with a range of advocacy, labour and research organisations. We draw strength from our location in a province where the legacy of apartheid and the cheap labour system, and post-apartheid contradictions, are keenly felt. NALSU is named in honour of Neil Hudson Aggett, union organiser and medical doctor who died in an apartheid jail in 1982 following brutality and torture. MORE: www.ru.ac.za/nalsu