Antina von Schnitzler
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691170770
- eISBN:
- 9781400882991
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691170770.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This book examines how residents' administrative links to the state emerged as a central political terrain during the antiapartheid struggle in South Africa and the ways that this terrain persists in ...
More
This book examines how residents' administrative links to the state emerged as a central political terrain during the antiapartheid struggle in South Africa and the ways that this terrain persists in the postapartheid period. It explores the techno-politics underlying contemporary conflicts from the perspective of infrastructure by historically and ethnographically following the life of a small device: a prepaid water meter. Focusing on Operation Gcin'amanzi (“Save Water”) in Soweto, the book shows how, in the aftermath of apartheid and in a context of neoliberal reforms, many of the central questions of the antiapartheid struggle such as citizenship, social obligation, and the shape of democracy in the “new South Africa” were reframed as technical-managerial and procedural questions. This chapter provides an overview of the prepaid meter as well as the concept of techno-politics, along with the triumphalist rise of liberal democracy in postapartheid South Africa.Less
This book examines how residents' administrative links to the state emerged as a central political terrain during the antiapartheid struggle in South Africa and the ways that this terrain persists in the postapartheid period. It explores the techno-politics underlying contemporary conflicts from the perspective of infrastructure by historically and ethnographically following the life of a small device: a prepaid water meter. Focusing on Operation Gcin'amanzi (“Save Water”) in Soweto, the book shows how, in the aftermath of apartheid and in a context of neoliberal reforms, many of the central questions of the antiapartheid struggle such as citizenship, social obligation, and the shape of democracy in the “new South Africa” were reframed as technical-managerial and procedural questions. This chapter provides an overview of the prepaid meter as well as the concept of techno-politics, along with the triumphalist rise of liberal democracy in postapartheid South Africa.
Antina von Schnitzler
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691170770
- eISBN:
- 9781400882991
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691170770.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
In the past decade, South Africa's “miracle transition” has been interrupted by waves of protests in relation to basic services such as water and electricity. Less visibly, the postapartheid period ...
More
In the past decade, South Africa's “miracle transition” has been interrupted by waves of protests in relation to basic services such as water and electricity. Less visibly, the postapartheid period has witnessed widespread illicit acts involving infrastructure, including the non-payment of service charges, the bypassing of metering devices, and illegal connections to services. This book shows how such administrative links to the state became a central political terrain during the antiapartheid struggle and how this terrain persists in the postapartheid present. Focusing on conflicts surrounding prepaid water meters, the book examines the techno-political forms through which democracy takes shape. It explores a controversial project to install prepaid water meters in Soweto—one of many efforts to curb the non-payment of service charges that began during the antiapartheid struggle—and traces how infrastructure, payment, and technical procedures become sites where citizenship is mediated and contested. The book follows engineers, utility officials, and local bureaucrats as they consider ways to prompt Sowetans to pay for water, and shows how local residents and activists wrestle with the constraints imposed by meters. This investigation of democracy from the perspective of infrastructure reframes the conventional story of South Africa's transition, foregrounding the less visible remainders of apartheid and challenging readers to think in more material terms about citizenship and activism in the postcolonial world. The book examines how seemingly mundane technological domains become charged territory for struggles over South Africa's political transformation.Less
In the past decade, South Africa's “miracle transition” has been interrupted by waves of protests in relation to basic services such as water and electricity. Less visibly, the postapartheid period has witnessed widespread illicit acts involving infrastructure, including the non-payment of service charges, the bypassing of metering devices, and illegal connections to services. This book shows how such administrative links to the state became a central political terrain during the antiapartheid struggle and how this terrain persists in the postapartheid present. Focusing on conflicts surrounding prepaid water meters, the book examines the techno-political forms through which democracy takes shape. It explores a controversial project to install prepaid water meters in Soweto—one of many efforts to curb the non-payment of service charges that began during the antiapartheid struggle—and traces how infrastructure, payment, and technical procedures become sites where citizenship is mediated and contested. The book follows engineers, utility officials, and local bureaucrats as they consider ways to prompt Sowetans to pay for water, and shows how local residents and activists wrestle with the constraints imposed by meters. This investigation of democracy from the perspective of infrastructure reframes the conventional story of South Africa's transition, foregrounding the less visible remainders of apartheid and challenging readers to think in more material terms about citizenship and activism in the postcolonial world. The book examines how seemingly mundane technological domains become charged territory for struggles over South Africa's political transformation.
Antina von Schnitzler
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691170770
- eISBN:
- 9781400882991
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691170770.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This chapter concludes that the book has explored the political terrain in postapartheid South Africa, where infrastructure and administration had for decades been central political arenas in which ...
More
This chapter concludes that the book has explored the political terrain in postapartheid South Africa, where infrastructure and administration had for decades been central political arenas in which much of the urban struggle unfolded. In particular, it has examined how producing liberal democracy, including the constitutive splits between the public and the private and the political and the administrative, became a central task of the postapartheid state, one that has always been prone to failure and contestation from multiple directions. The book has outlined the contours of this techno-political terrain beginning in the late-apartheid period when infrastructure and action on the administrative terrain became a central feature of the antiapartheid struggle. In conclusion, it considers how, in the postapartheid period, many of the questions that animated the liberation struggle are often continually being negotiated and re-articulated in a variety of spaces.Less
This chapter concludes that the book has explored the political terrain in postapartheid South Africa, where infrastructure and administration had for decades been central political arenas in which much of the urban struggle unfolded. In particular, it has examined how producing liberal democracy, including the constitutive splits between the public and the private and the political and the administrative, became a central task of the postapartheid state, one that has always been prone to failure and contestation from multiple directions. The book has outlined the contours of this techno-political terrain beginning in the late-apartheid period when infrastructure and action on the administrative terrain became a central feature of the antiapartheid struggle. In conclusion, it considers how, in the postapartheid period, many of the questions that animated the liberation struggle are often continually being negotiated and re-articulated in a variety of spaces.
