Women and empowerment through the 'economy of affection' in KwaZulu-Natal: Its significance for sustainable development

Anand Singh

Development Southern Africa, 1999, vol. 16, issue 3, 467-488

Abstract: This article is an attempt to demonstrate how, in the absence of infrastructural requirements for development in the rural areas, the interpersonal relationships of women articulated through their households, kinship networks and community structures serve as indispensable mechanisms for their survival. These mechanisms are seen as part of an indigenous socio-economic framework that is referred to here as the 'economy of affection'. This framework is presented, through ethnographic data, as a means of facilitating moral, social and economic support among the indigent rural people in KwaZulu-Natal. Taking cognisance of local organisational forms and resources is the best possible way to reconstruct South Africa's vast hinterland against the background of a history of development patterns, where rhetoric has played a more important role than actual substantive contributions to development of the rural poor, and where capital investments, technology and expertise of a post-industrial nature are unlikely to spread.

Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1080/03768359908440093

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