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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
Models of class in Soweto
| Panel |
59. Class in contemporary Africa
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| Paper ID | 686 |
| Author(s) |
Ceruti, Claire ; Mudau, Rudzani
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | How do people see class in South Africa after Apartheid? Interviews revealed that even people who did not recognise the word class nevertheless used a rich lingo of stratification when discussing the township. Generally their class models are consumption-based when referring to the township, with class most often described in terms of what a person has or is deprived of. However initial interviews suggest that other elements, such as control, were introduced when people were asked to talk about class at, where control is more likely to enter the definition. Our survey of 2400 people in Soweto confirmed that a 3-class model is by far the most common in the township context. Interestingly, employed people were more likely to volunteer the identity middle class than working class when asked ?what class are you?? but they described their middle class status using very different criteria from those used by the ?classic? middle classes. Finally, the paper situates the paradox of the middle class worker and the prevalence of the 3 class model in the growth of visible poverty in Soweto alongside the hype about the growth of a black middle class in South Africa.
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