MONDAY MONTHLY THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN NEWSPAPER JUNE 2014 UNEQUAL CELEBRATE OUT IN EDUCATION AFRICA AFRICA Are sociology and economics Relive Africa Month and UCT’s What’s queer about Africa – courses adequately preparing 20 Years of Freedom concert and what’s to be done about students to deal with poverty and and commemoration rising anti-homosexuality on the continent inequality? PAGE 4 PAGE 2 PAGE 12 Photo by Michael Hammond by Photo 2 MONDAY MONTHLY JUNE 2014 3 From 23 to 26 April 2013, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba led a delegation of eminent South Africans (which included Professors Njabulo Ndebele and Pierre de Vos) on a ‘solidarity visit’ to schools in the Eastern Cape. On the second day, they visited Ntapane Senior Secondary School, where there were 135 learners in one Grade 9 classroom (seen here), sitting three or four to a desk. Teachers stood pressed up against the blackboard, and contact with learners at the back We always say that the pie’s getting macro-economic courses, ‘growth’ unquestioned assumption that the This society of the class was almost impossible. and ‘development’ are two terms that youth wage subsidy is ‘obviously’ a bigger, but we never ask if somebody is you will almost always come across. good thing: “Maybe it is and maybe has operated for actually getting a bigger slice of the pie, “Poverty is central when thinking it isn’t. But the point is there is a 100 years in such or if it’s just the same people that are about economic growth. The way legitimate debate that goes on about a way that the we think about it is that you have a real issues, and it isn’t entertained. going to get the bigger slices. cake, and this cake must be divided. “We always say that the pie’s very way we have getting bigger, but we never ask generated wealth Joshua Budlender Some people can get larger pieces, some people can get smaller pieces.” if somebody is actually getting a has generated The ‘traditional’ way of solving bigger slice of the pie, or if it’s just poverty. [The] boils down to how individuals give us whatever, but this poverty the problem was to make the cake the same people that are going to behave, and the way they ascend to nonsense?’ Either they’re escaping bigger, says Muchapondwa. Much get the bigger slices,” observed way in which we [the superstructure]. from it, or they’re not concerned. of this way of thinking came from Budlender. used the migrant “The trouble is, if you ignore “In the subjects that teach theories that posited the separation Emeritus Professor Francis labour system that whole tradition of political inequality, you have disinterest. of ‘efficiency’ and ‘redistribution’, Wilson used his position as chair economy, it gives economics – They’re doing it; they’re making with a focus on efficiency until the to suggest that teachers needed to generated poverty including economics at UCT – a time, and [students] fail not because cake was big enough for it to be give students a “gut sense” of what in the rural areas very one-sided feel, especially when they’re stupid – many of them are distributed equitably. poverty was about. He observed … So it’s no use viewed from other disciplines. It clever – but [because] they think He agrees with Nattrass that neo- that students tend to confuse diverts attention from the political very little of it.” This is not to say classical economics dominates the analytical thinking with being skilful talking about and other superstructures that that all students are uninterested in scholarly landscape at present, and in technique, which is detrimental growth. You’ve interact with economic power, and researching poverty and inequality, that there’s a need for an economic to how they approach problems shape distribution.” got to talk about says Sitas; but in the main, this is history component. that require innovative solutions: how you shift the Another “blind spot” is the near- what he has observed. “Of course, we recognise that “This society has operated for 100 absence of economic history in the It doesn’t help that there is a “total there are different models which years in such a way that the very dynamics at work Unequal education course work, says Nattrass: “There’s urban bias” in the course content way we have generated wealth has explain how nations grow,” he in a society, and no compulsory economic history – not just in sociology, but across points out, adding that this is generated poverty. [The] way in I don’t think we of capitalism in the School of most of the university, says Sitas. why “high-level” courses expose which we used the migrant labour Economics, or of how political and There are also pedagogical issues students to both neo-classical and system generated poverty in the do enough about Story by Yusuf Omar economic struggles affected the that need addressing: “Inequality alternative models. rural areas … So it’s no use talking that. Photo by Sydelle Willow Smith way that incomes are distributed, is taught too economistically Furthermore, the undergraduate about growth. You’ve got to talk and the kinds of social insurance sometimes. It’s [reduced to] doing curriculum does expose students to about how you shift the dynamics at Emeritus Professor that have been implemented in the Do courses in economics and sociology adequately prepare bad economics in sociology, really, issues of poverty and inequality, says work in a society, and I don’t think Francis Wilson world over time.” whereas there are other inequalities, we do enough about that.” students to deal with issues of poverty and inequality in This gap means students are not Muchapondwa, but the next step is vital inequalities. taught that there are multiple paths ensuring that these bits and pieces “Finally, as sociologists, we can society? Professors Nicoli Nattrass, Ari Sitas and Associate to economic growth, when this is dovetail and add up to a coherent certainly the case, says Nattrass. do only this much,” says Sitas, foundation of knowledge that Professor Edwin Muchapondwa debate the point. holding his hands slightly apart. “It students can put to use. Inequality in all would be fantastic if these themes were being taught differently, and Let them eat cake Economic theories that justify the Speaking at a seminar devoted to of Sociology at UCT, and Associate which tends to be dismissed as, ‘Oh, Let me put disciplines status quo dominate curricula – to interrogating whether the university’s Professor Edwin Muchapondwa, that’s just wrong’. But the trouble is, through different lenses in other By its very nature, suggests Sitas, Joshua Budlender, an economics the detriment of students’ ability to economics and sociology curricula head of the School of Economics. it resonates really strongly in other it bluntly. Most spaces – and not only that they sociology tackles inequality: “It’s honours student present at the navigate the real world, says Professor are adequately preparing students were taught, but that we knew they disciplines and in society. students are about an unequal, interconnected, debate, agreed there was not Nicoli Nattrass, a professor in to deal with issues of poverty and A space for radical were being taught; in other words, “And the thing about radical not interested in patterned and evolving sociality. It’s enough debate about economic UCT’s School of Economics and a inequality in society, Nattrass was political economy political economy – and you don’t that we could communicate with theories at an undergraduate level: poverty. ‘Give us to be expected that sociology would each other.” researcher at the Centre for Social joined on the panel by Professor Neo-classical economic theories have to believe in Marxist labour teach something about inequality “There’s no real attempt to Science Research (CSSR). Ari Sitas, head of the Department theories of value; in fact, there’re a identity, give us engage with South African issues – which gained near-hegemony … Well, it does. If you take away Explicit economics during Margaret Thatcher’s reign as lot of Marxist economists who use multiple identities, sociology and social development [in class]. For example, why is What [economists] don’t take seriously British Prime Minister in the 1980s fairly mainstream economic tools give us sexuality, and some other centres in other Meanwhile, Muchapondwa agreed it the case that throughout my is the kind of radical political economy, – are simply assumed to be the – is that it takes a broader look at give us whatever, faculties, [the teaching of inequality] that while the economics curriculum undergrad there were always snide only logical way to think about the power. It looks at power more like will disappear.” did address issues of poverty and comments coming from lecturers the old Marxist tradition, which tends to world, argues Nattrass; and as such, Marx used to talk about it. but this poverty Sociologists at the university are inequality to an extent, it could do so and students, about COSATU, say get dismissed as, ‘Oh, that’s just wrong’. students are not properly exposed “There’s an economic base nonsense?’ Either pondering the high failure rate of more explicitly. – ‘Oh, these are the unions; they’re and a superstructure, and this “In most of our courses, you the troublemakers; they’ve got no But the trouble is, it resonates really to alternative ways of thinking. they’re escaping their courses, and Sitas offered one Third degree: (from left) Professors Edwin Muchapondwa, Ari “For me, the persistent blind superstructure is serving particular explanation. probably won’t see a section interest in developing South Africa; strongly in other disciplines and from it, or they’re it’s all about their own interests’.