Afrikaners in the New South Africa: Identity Politics in a Globalised Economy

✍ Scribed by Rebecca Davies

• Publisher: Tauris Academic Studies
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 209
• Series: International Library of African Studies
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

How has the position of Afrikaners changed since the end of the Apartheid regime in South Africa? While the links between Afrikaner nationalist identity and the apartheid regime have been irrevocably altered, it is evident that this newly disempowered minority still commands a vast material and cultural capital. Certain Afrikaans speakers have become important players in the new South Africa and on the world stage. Davies argues that the global political economy and the closely associated ideology of globalization are major catalysts for change in Afrikaner identifications and positions. She identifies multiple Afrikaner constituencies and identities and shows how they play out in the complex social, economic and political landscape of South Africa. Accessible, informative and well-written, Afrikaners in the New South Africa is a vital contribution to our understanding of post-apartheid South Africa. It will be indispensable for those interested in South Africa, identity politics, globalization, international political economy and geography.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgements......Page 8
Introduction......Page 10
A political economy of post-apartheid Afrikaner identity......Page 13
Theorising identity in a global era......Page 18
2. The Afrikaner Nationalist Project......Page 27
Appropriating the past: The development of an Afrikaner identity......Page 28
Moving towards consensus......Page 34
A volk retreat?......Page 40
The nationalist project unravels......Page 46
A class apart: The maturation of Afrikaner capital......Page 48
3. The Nature of Consensus in the 'New' South Africa......Page 53
Consolidating dominance? The shape of the new hegemonic order......Page 54
Neo-liberal orthodoxy and the capital transition......Page 60
Connecting with the global consensus......Page 65
Compromise on the domestic front......Page 68
An African Renaissance......Page 72
4. Contemporary Manifestations of Afrikaner Identity in an Era of Increasing Globalisation......Page 80
Rethinking the cultural: The future of the Afrikaner past......Page 81
The politics of transformation......Page 83
The new discourse of minority rights......Page 85
The culture industry......Page 90
The rise of a globalised capital consensus......Page 101
5. The 'Logic of the Local' in contemporary afrikaner Identity Politics......Page 108
The local tradition in Afrikaner nationalist politics......Page 109
An alternative Afrikanerdom?......Page 114
Recreating the cultural: New visions of Afrikaans......Page 126
Reorienting the local: Politics at the provincial level......Page 132
6. Renewing the Consensus in a Post-Apartheid Era?......Page 139
Notes......Page 148
Bibliography......Page 186
Index......Page 202