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| South African Capitalism: Global and local Dynamics in an Historical Context. [Trajectories of Capital Accumulation] |
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Brief Description: This project originated in the question of whether South African capitalism constituted a distinctive national type to join the others which together make up the ‘varieties of capitalism’ literature. That there are durable continuities in the South African variant seems palpable, but it is hard to say what exactly they are. Moreover, one runs up against two methodological problems. South Africa (SA) is manifestly an integral part of world economy, even if for a time it was regarded as a pariah state. Yet much work on the history of its political economy takes on the blinkered aspect of a country study with the rest of the world a blur. So I set out to ask how national and global perspectives on SA’s economic history might be fruitfully combined. I make no claim to empirical discovery here, since the facts and many of my interpretations are easily found in the secondary literature. But writers with a global perspective generally ignore local circumstances, while national discourse leaves out the world; and both perspectives are indispensable to historical understanding. The other issue lies in the wide swings that have characterized South African and world capitalism over the last century and a half. A period of imperial globalization was succeeded by more introverted versions of national capitalism, only to be followed by a renewal of globalization under neoliberalism; and the latest break, the financial crisis of 2008, is undoubtedly a harbinger of another swing in global and national political economy. So, whatever the consistencies in SA capitalism, these contrasts must be taken into account. Moreover, living through a turning point in world economy that coincides with the first major political crisis of ANC rule, has alerted us to the need to focus not only on the stable features of different periods, but also on the epochal moments when they change. In this way, I hope to identify the scope and limits of the possibilities for new developments within South Africa and globally at this time.
Participants:
 Professor Vishnu Padayachee
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