The socioeconomic dimensions of racial inequality in South Africa: a social space perspective

Nicola Branson, Johs Hjellbrekke, Murray Leibbrandt, Vimal Ranchhod, Mike Savage and Emma Whitelaw

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: It is well evidenced that South Africa is characterised by extreme socioeconomic inequality, which is strongly racialised. We offer an original sociological perspective, which departs from established perspectives considering the dynamics of vulnerability and poverty to focus on the structuring of classed and racialised privilege. We map how stocks of economic, cultural, and social capital intersect to generate systematic and structural inequalities in the country and consider how far these are associated with fundamental racial divides. To achieve this, we utilise rich, nationally representative data from the National Income Dynamics Study and employ Multiple Correspondence Analysis to construct a model of South African ‘social space’. Our findings underscore how entrenched racial divisions remain within South Africa, with White people being overwhelmingly located in the most privileged positions. However, our cluster analysis also indicates that forms of middle-class privilege percolate beyond a core of the 8% of the population that is white. We emphasise how age divisions are associated with social capital accumulation. Our cluster analysis reveals that trust levels increase with economic and cultural capital levels within younger age groups and could therefore come to intensify social and racial divisions.

Keywords: racial inequality; social; social class; South Africa; wealth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A14 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2024-09-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
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Published in British Journal of Sociology, 1, September, 2024, 75(4), pp. 613 - 635. ISSN: 0007-1315

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