Abstract: Richard Pithouse discusses the political history
of the shack settlement in South Africa and seeks to bring this history, as
well the experience of contemporary shack dwellers’ struggles, into dialogue
with an international debate about the prospects for an emancipatory politics
in the shack settlement.
Title: Thought Amidst Waste: Politics in Shack Settlements
in South Africa
Speaker: Richard Pithouse, George A. Miller Visiting
Professor of History, and Political and International Studies, Rhodes
University
Description: The shack settlement has often become a site of
acute political intensity in post-apartheid South Africa. There were also
moments when this was the case during and before apartheid. This paper gives a
broad outline of the political history of the shack settlement in South Africa
and seeks to bring this history, as well the experience of contemporary shack
dwellers’ struggles, into dialogue with an international debate about the
prospects for an emancipatory politics in the shack settlement. It argues that
the shack settlement needs to be understood as a site in which people inhabit a
particular situation and not, as is frequently the case, a site inhabited by a
set of people with particular ontological characteristics. It also makes some
remarks about the political possibilities, dangers and limits arising from some
aspects of that situation.
Sponsors: Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities,
Spurlock Museum
Lecture series: IPRH “Revolution” Theme Lecture
Click here to watch the video of this talk.
