IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v59y2014icp451-460.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Social Dynamics of Labor Shortage in South African Small-Scale Agriculture

Author

Listed:
  • Hull, Elizabeth

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between unemployment, family structure, and labor allocation in rural South Africa. Chronic joblessness has meant that many young, unemployed adults remain in the parental home. However, their productive labor is often not utilized in family farming. Using detailed ethnographic data on intra-household social relations, I argue that the prohibitive cost of marriage, and its consequent decline, has led to the erosion of obligations formerly implied by the “conjugal contract”. Young, unmarried adults often have limited responsibilities to provide labor or income to the parental home, diminishing the overall viability of small-scale farming.

Suggested Citation

  • Hull, Elizabeth, 2014. "The Social Dynamics of Labor Shortage in South African Small-Scale Agriculture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 451-460.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:59:y:2014:i:c:p:451-460
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.02.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X14000485
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.02.003?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aliber, Michael, 2003. "Chronic Poverty in South Africa: Incidence, Causes and Policies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 473-490, March.
    2. Hull, Elizabeth & James, Deborah, 2012. "Introduction: popular economies in South Africa," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 42043, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Bryceson, Deborah Fahy, 2002. "The Scramble in Africa: Reorienting Rural Livelihoods," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 725-739, May.
    4. Harald Witt & Rajeev Patel & Matthew Schnurr, 2006. "Can the Poor Help GM Crops? Technology, representation & cotton in the Makhathini flats, South Africa," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(109), pages 497-513, September.
    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. Lincoln Addison & Matthew Schnurr, 2016. "Introduction to symposium on labor, gender and new sources of agrarian change," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(4), pages 961-965, December.
    2. Jessie K. Luna, 2020. "‘Pesticides are our children now’: cultural change and the technological treadmill in the Burkina Faso cotton sector," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(2), pages 449-462, June.
    3. Zhe Chen & Apurbo Sarkar & Md. Shakhawat Hossain & Xiaojing Li & Xianli Xia, 2021. "Household Labour Migration and Farmers’ Access to Productive Agricultural Services: A Case Study from Chinese Provinces," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-20, October.
    4. Aditya, K.S. & Praveen, K.V. & Ahamed, B. Zaheer & Mazumder, Chiranjit & Kumar, Pramod & Kar, Amit, 2018. "Quantifying the Role of Disembodied Technologies in Enhancing Farm Income: A Case of Dibbling Method of Redgram Cultivation in Kalaburgi District of Northern Karnataka," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 73(03), July.
    5. Gouse, Marnus & Sengupta, Debdatta & Zambrano, Patricia & Zepeda, José Falck, 2016. "Genetically Modified Maize: Less Drudgery for Her, More Maize for Him? Evidence from Smallholder Maize Farmers in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 27-38.
    6. Fischer, Klara, 2016. "Why new crop technology is not scale-neutral—A critique of the expectations for a crop-based African Green Revolution," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1185-1194.
    7. Meemken, Eva-Marie & Aremu, Olayinka & Fabry, Anna & Heepen, Celestina & Illien, Patrick & Kammer, Marie & Laitha, Andrew, 2024. "Policy for decent work in agriculture," IAAE 2024 Conference, August 2-7, 2024, New Delhi, India 344353, International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE).

    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. Zack Zimbalist, 2017. "Breaking down rural and urban bias and interrogating spatial inequality, evidence from South Africa," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35, pages 246-269, October.
    2. Shackleton, Sheona & Campbell, Bruce & Lotz-Sisitka, Heila & Shackleton, Charlie, 2008. "Links between the Local Trade in Natural Products, Livelihoods and Poverty Alleviation in a Semi-arid Region of South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 505-526, March.
    3. Ward, Catherine D. & Shackleton, Charlie M., 2016. "Natural Resource Use, Incomes, and Poverty Along the Rural–Urban Continuum of Two Medium-Sized, South African Towns," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 80-93.
    4. William G. Moseley, 2016. "Agriculture on the Brink: Climate Change, Labor and Smallholder Farming in Botswana," Land, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-14, June.
    5. Osawe, Osayanmon Wellington, 2013. "Livelihood Vulnerability and Migration Decision Making Nexus: The Case of Rural Farm Households in Nigeria," 2013 Fourth International Conference, September 22-25, 2013, Hammamet, Tunisia 161628, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    6. Baiyegunhi, L.J.S. & Fraser, Gavin C.G., 2010. "Determinants of Household Poverty Dynamics in Rural Regions of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa," 2010 AAAE Third Conference/AEASA 48th Conference, September 19-23, 2010, Cape Town, South Africa 97078, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    7. Julius Uti Nchor, 2023. "Livelihood Strategies and Their Determinants among Informal Households in Calabar, Nigeria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-20, February.
    8. Fintel, Dieter von & Fourie, Johan, 2019. "The great divergence in South Africa: Population and wealth dynamics over two centuries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 759-773.
    9. Santos Bila & Mduduzi Biyase, 2022. "Determinants of Subjective Poverty in Rural and Urban Areas of South Africa," Economics Working Papers edwrg-02-2022, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, revised 2022.
    10. Sabina Alkire & Suman Seth, 2015. "Identifying destitution through linked subsets of multidimensionally poor: An ordinal approach," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-151, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Johnson, Cathryn Evangeline, 2021. "Connecting Malian and Burkinabe women’s local experiences of livelihood security to how they participate in politics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    12. Daniel Neff, 2007. "Subjective Well-Being, Poverty and Ethnicity in South Africa: Insights from an Exploratory Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 80(2), pages 313-341, January.
    13. Quang Tran, Tuyen, 2012. "A review on the link between nonfarm activities, land and rural livelihoods in Vietnam and developing countries," MPRA Paper 55850, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Nov 2013.
    14. Gareth A. Jones & Stuart Corbridge, 2010. "The continuing debate about urban bias," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, January.
    15. 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.
    16. David Crosoer & Murray Leibbrandt & Ingrid Woolard, 2005. "Asset-based versus money metric poverty indices in South Africa: An assessment using the Chronic Poverty Research Centre RSA 2002 Survey," SALDRU/CSSR Working Papers 109, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    17. Porter, Gina & Tewodros, Amleset & Bifandimu, Flavian & Gorman, Mark & Heslop, Amanda & Sibale, Elisha & Awadh, Abdul & Kiswaga, Lorraine, 2013. "Transport and mobility constraints in an aging population: health and livelihood implications in rural Tanzania," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 161-169.
    18. Mashapure Rahabhi & Madzimure Grace P.K & Msipah Nothando & Dandira Martin & Kandjinga Elias, 2021. "Women Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Rural Livelihoods," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 8(2), pages 64-73, February.
    19. James Sumberg & Nana Akua Anyidoho & Michael Chasukwa & Blessings Chinsinga & Jennifer Leavy & Getnet Tadele & Stephen Whitfield & Joseph Yaro, 2014. "Young People, Agriculture, and Employment in Rural Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-080, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Raney, Terri & Matuschke, Ira, 2010. "Genetically Modified Crops In Developing Countries: Back To The Future," 14th ICABR Conference, June 16-18, 2010, Ravello, Italy 188106, International Consortium on Applied Bioeconomy Research (ICABR).

    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:eee:wdevel:v:59:y:2014:i:c:p:451-460. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    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.