Rights and Responsibilities in Rural South Africa: Gender, Personhood, and the Crisis of Meaning

Rights and Responsibilities in Rural South Africa explores the gendered and generational conflicts surrounding social change in post-Apartheid South Africa, focusing on the women of Mhlambini village. It offers compelling portraits of how they experience and navigate change and presents their experiences as a way of understanding how people navigate the moral ambiguities of contemporary South African life.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 200 pages
Publication date: 01 August 2023
Publisher: Indiana University Press

Rights and Responsibilities in Rural South Africa delves into the intricate web of gendered and generational conflicts that shape social change in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, a region that emerged from the aftermath of Apartheid approximately two decades ago. While post-Aparatheid South Africa espouses liberal, autonomous, and egalitarian ideals of personhood through rights-based public discourse and state practices, the reality of widespread unemployment and poverty necessitates a reliance on one another and the formation of relationships that challenge the established gendered and generational hierarchies deemed traditional and culturally authentic. In her examination, Kathleen Rice explores the ways in which these tensions and restructurings create uncertainties about how South Africans should coexist in their daily lives.

Drawing particularly from the experiences of women in the village of Mhlambini, Rights and Responsibilities in Rural South Africa presents compelling portraits of how these individuals navigate the sweeping social and economic transformations sweeping through their community. Through their narratives, the book offers valuable insights into how people navigate the moral complexities of contemporary South African life, shedding light on the diverse ways in which individuals confront and reconcile the competing demands of tradition, modernity, and individual agency.

This insightful exploration of rights and responsibilities in rural South Africa provides a rich and nuanced understanding of the complex dynamics that shape society in this region. By examining the intersections of gender, generation, and social change, Rice offers a valuable contribution to our understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing South Africa as it continues to evolve and adapt to the changing world around it.

Weight: 316g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 16 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780253066176