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Symbolic violence is (re)produced within families at the nexus of blame and shame. This paper presents an understanding of symbolic violence that extends beyond processes of internalisation, in which shame is directed against the self, to questions of processes of reproduction within families, in which shame is externalised through blame. Drawing on mother-tongue life-history interviews with mothers and grandmothers in rural KwaZulu-Natal, the paper explores how this nexus of blame and shame is situated at the intersect of race and gender. It is bound by intergenerational poverty and educational exclusion that span the apartheid and post-apartheid eras in South Africa. Our understandings of gendered poverty thus need to attend to these intergenerational processes of shaming, in which pervasive neoliberal discourses around individual effort and success mask structural constraints, potentially damaging relationships within families and across social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date the international community has tended to direct HIV prevention programmes, treatment, care and supportive services to young adults and children, with little concern about the impact on older people. Since empirical evidence on the socioeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS on households with older persons is lacking, this paper attempts to fill this gap, using data from a household-based survey conducted in Bhambayi, a mixed formal and informal settlement north of eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal. The findings highlight the links between the uptake of the South African old age pension, poverty and HIV/AIDS in households with older persons. The paper makes recommendations for both government and non-governmental organisations in respect of community-based support systems for such households affected by HIV/AIDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines trends in the political marginalisation of women in KwaZulu-Natal between 1994 and 2004. South Africa's political representation of women has been increasing significantly since 1994. KwaZulu-Natal has just over 25% female representation in provincial governance, an enviable percentage compared to world figures. This paper examines the quality of that representation to discover how effectively this 25% has addressed the concerns of the region's women, especially rural African women, and what sociocultural notions have hampered their political participation and thus escalated their socioeconomic marginalisation. Looking at primary and secondary data from interviews with women in rural KwaZulu-Natal and in public decision-making structures, and with female and male political science students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the paper finds that politics is still masculinised, and poverty by implication remains feminised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Divisions between the public and private health sectors in South Africa have resulted in inequalities in access to each of these sectors. Using the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Survey, the aim of the paper is to explore the patterns and determinants of health-seeking behaviour among black Africans. The results show that the majority of respondents consulted public health services. Despite this, it was possible to determine that income-based poverty and access to medical aid were the most significant predictors of healthcare choice. Poverty was related to other predicting factors such as employment, level of education and household size. Surprisingly, a sizable proportion of the poor without access to health insurance were using private health services. Although the reasons for this could not be determined, this presents opportunities for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While conventional explanations of drop-out and grade repetition acknowledge the role of socioeconomic factors, this paper uses data collected in a KwaZulu-Natal study of adolescents to investigate the explicit contribution of poverty and shocks to school disruption episodes. The asset-vulnerability framework developed by Moser and others is used to develop a poverty-based theory of school disruption. Evidence against such a theory is also put forward. The results indicate that the poverty-based theory accounts in part for school disruption. Poverty is predictive of school disruption, female adolescents are particularly vulnerable to drop-out episodes, and adolescent pregnancy emerges as an important influence. However, household shocks do not seem to predict school disruption. Programmes that offer incentives for school attendance and improving school quality are put forward as policy options for South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study primarily adopted the absolute approach to examine time poverty in South Africa by analysing the 2000 and 2010 Time Use Survey data. The findings indicated that absolute time-poor individuals were predominantly young unmarried female Africans who had incomplete primary education, were inactive in the labour market and resided in bigger-sized households in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. Examining the relationship between money-metric poverty and absolute time poverty, the results showed the proportion of people who were both income- and time-poor decreased whereas the percentage of individuals who were neither income- nor time-poor increased over time. Last, money-metric, multidimensional non-money-metric and absolute time poverty headcount rates all declined between 2000 and 2010, but the extent of decrease was greatest in the first rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the rationale for a dynamic perspective of poverty in South Africa and the magnitude and characteristics of those in chronic versus transitory poverty using data from the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study. Rationale for research into poverty dynamics; Data and methodology; Discussion on the incidence, depth and severity of poverty in KwaZulu-Natal; Poverty transitions in KwaZulu-Natal from 1993 through 1998.

This article explores the use of participatory video in finding solutions to challenges faced by schools and communities in the contexts of poverty and the AIDS pandemic in one rural community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Locating the analysis within the study of feminist visual culture and the notion of the female gaze, the article focuses on a close reading of the production of a three-minute video produced by women participating in a project involving teachers, learners, community healthcare workers, and parents. We use textual analysis to look at three levels of textuality: the primary text, the production text, and audience text. Working with video offers a critical way to engage more broadly with texts within qualitative research in education, to engage women in examining their everyday lives, and to make visible new possibilities for addressing the problems of AIDS and poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from a cohort of schoolgoing children, their households and caregivers (the Amajuba Child Health and Wellbeing Project, ACHWRP) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, we compared demographic characteristics, care burden, health, physical function and social capital of caregivers of orphans (n = 300) with those of non-orphans (n = 298). This analysis presents cross-sectional findings from questions for caregivers that were added for the study's second round, conducted between September 2005 and June 2006. Caregivers of all children were overwhelmingly women (87%). Compared to non-orphan caregivers, caregivers of orphans were on average older (49.5 vs. 45.2 years, p = 0.0002), had fewer years of education (6.7 vs. 7.8 years, p = 0.0042) and were less likely to be married or cohabiting (29% vs. 46%; p < 0.0001). Caregivers of orphans reported caring for more children than those of non-orphans (4.8 vs. 3.8 children, p < 0.0001). A larger proportion of orphan caregivers reported having cared for an ill adult in the previous year (28% vs. 19%), and for that adult to have been a biological child (p = 0.0531). There was a high prevalence (55%) of self-reported poor health among all caregivers; caregivers of orphans were more likely to report poor general health and chronic illness. Although there was a high prevalence of functional impairment (self-reported inability to perform primary activity) among all caregivers (59%), there was no difference between groups. In terms of social capital, although similar proportions of orphan and non-orphan caregivers reported having friends outside the household, orphan caregivers were less likely to have a source of a small emergency loan [51% vs. 63%; adjusted odds ratio: 0.60 (0.41-0.88)]. Our results suggest that orphan caregivers are indeed more vulnerable, and that their particular limitations and needs must be considered when developing strategies for assisting vulnerable households to ensure better support for both caregivers and the children in their care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The panel study known as the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS) has been extended by a new wave of data collection conducted in 2004. This third wave of the study interviewed 865 households containing core adult members from 760 of the households contacted in 1993. It also conducted interviews in next-generation households that have split off from the parental households and in the current households of children who have been fostered out. The study finds that the proportion of people aged 20-44 dying between the second and third waves was nearly three times the proportion dying between the first two waves. The pattern of income distribution is one of increasing poverty and inequality since 1993, although the partial reversal of these trends in the post-1998 period is hopeful, as are signs of relative prosperity among those who established independent next-generation households. In addition, access to services has improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration and population movement are probably the most neglected of the significant dynamics behind rural poverty in South Africa. Little is known about how people move from place to place, and much of what we thought we knew may be incorrect. In Kwa-Zulu-Natal job search is no longer the single dominating reason given for migration. Instead, infrastructure ties with it for first place today, with land close behind. The first article in this two-part report notes that as many as two thirds of the province's disadvantaged families have broken away from their communities of origin and moved at least once during their lifetimes. Perhaps three million have migrated in the last fifteen years. A second unexpected finding is the predominance of rural-to-rural migration. Three quarters of all moves recorded were rural to rural, with many orientated towards advantaged rural areas around small towns and secondary cities. Results show how streams are channelled towards poverty or opportunity, and argue for a review of prevailing concepts of rural-urban relations which structure delivery efforts. The second article, to follow later, notes that recorded income levels are now higher in some rural destination areas than in the urban shack communities that accommodate rural-to-urban migrants. Results of various studies presented show how access to information affects migration patterns, and the article also explores the role of infrastructure as a determining force in the regional distribution of population and as a factor in people's own bootstrap anti-poverty efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]