Echoes of austerity

Policy, temporality, and public health in South Africa

in Focaal
Author:
Theodore Powers University of Iowa theodore-powers@uiowa.edu

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2019.830102
Keywords:
activism; austerity; inequality; public health; South Africa; temporality
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Abstract

South Africa's post-apartheid era has been marked by the continuation of racialized socioeconomic inequality, a social situation produced by earlier periods of settlement, colonization, and apartheid. While the ruling African National Congress has pursued a transformative political agenda, it has done so within the confines of neoliberal macroeconomic policy, including a period of fiscal austerity, which has had limited impact on poverty and inequality. Here, I explore how policy principles associated with austerity travel across time, space, and the levels of the state in South Africa, eventually manifesting in a public health policy that produced cuts to public health services. In assessing these sociopolitical dynamics, I utilize policy process as a chronotope to unify diverse experiences of temporality relative to austerity-inspired public health policy.

Contributor Notes

Theodore Powers is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Iowa and Research Associate with the Human Economy Programme at the University of Pretoria. His research focuses on the dynamics of health, politics, and social inequality in post-apartheid South Africa. Building on conceptual approaches from medical anthropology, the anthropology of transnationalism, political economy, and African studies, his work analyzes the socio-spatial pathways of health activists to understand the relationship between people, pathogens, and politics. Email: theodore-powers@uiowa.edu

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Focaal

Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology

Cover Focaal
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
12
Keywords:
activism; austerity; inequality; public health; South Africa; temporality
Print Publication Date:
01 Mar 2019
Online Publication Date:
01 Mar 2019
Copyright:
© Stichting Focaal and Berghahn Books 2019

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