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Overview"In the past decade, South Africa's ""miracle transition"" has been interrupted by waves of protests in relation to basic services such as water and electricity. Less visibly, the post-apartheid period has witnessed widespread illicit acts involving infrastructure, including the nonpayment of service charges, the bypassing of metering devices, and illegal connections to services. Democracy's Infrastructure shows how such administrative links to the state became a central political terrain during the antiapartheid struggle and how this terrain persists in the post-apartheid present. Focusing on conflicts surrounding prepaid water meters, Antina von Schnitzler examines the techno-political forms through which democracy takes shape. Von Schnitzler explores a controversial project to install prepaid water meters in Soweto--one of many efforts to curb the nonpayment of service charges that began during the antiapartheid struggle--and she traces how infrastructure, payment, and technical procedures become sites where citizenship is mediated and contested.She follows engineers, utility officials, and local bureaucrats as they consider ways to prompt Sowetans to pay for water, and she shows how local residents and activists wrestle with the constraints imposed by meters. This investigation of democracy from the perspective of infrastructure reframes the conventional story of South Africa's transition, foregrounding the less visible remainders of apartheid and challenging readers to think in more material terms about citizenship and activism in the postcolonial world. Democracy's Infrastructure examines how seemingly mundane technological domains become charged territory for struggles over South Africa's political transformation." Full Product DetailsAuthor: Antina von SchnitzlerPublisher: Princeton University Press Imprint: Princeton University Press Volume: 9 Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 23.50cm Weight: 0.510kg ISBN: 9780691170770ISBN 10: 0691170770 Pages: 256 Publication Date: 08 November 2016 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Temporarily unavailable  The supplier advises that this item is temporarily unavailable. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out to you. Language: English Table of Contents"Acknowledgments ix Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Democracy's Infrastructure, Apartheid's Debris Chapter 2 The ""Discipline of Freedom"" 31 Neoliberalism, Translation, and Techno-Politics after the 1976 Soweto Uprising Chapter 3 After the Rent Boycotts 65 Infrastructure and the Politics of Payment Chapter 4 The Making of a Techno-Political Device 105 Chapter 5 Measuring Life 132 Living Prepaid and the Politics of Numbers after Apartheid Chapter 6 Performing Dignity 168 Human Rights and the Legal Politics of Water Conclusion 196 Infrastructure, Democracy, and the Postapartheid Political Terrain References 203 Index 233"ReviewsA savvy account of an overtly troubled nation. --David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews Von Schnitzler provides a well-documented scholarly analysis of threats to democracy in South Africa. Specifically, she analyzes the gap between South Africa's success in conducting open elections and maintaining a relatively open political system and the continued reliance upon illiberal techno-political infrastructure from the previous regime in the form of prepaid meters for such public services as electricity and water. --Choice Von Schnitzler provides a well-documented scholarly analysis of threats to democracy in South Africa. Specifically, she analyzes the gap between South Africa's success in conducting open elections and maintaining a relatively open political system and the continued reliance upon illiberal techno-political infrastructure from the previous regime in the form of prepaid meters for such public services as electricity and water. --Choice Von Schnitzler provides a well-documented scholarly analysis of threats to democracy in South Africa. Specifically, she analyzes the gap between South Africa's success in conducting open elections and maintaining a relatively open political system and the continued reliance upon illiberal techno-political infrastructure from the previous regime in the form of prepaid meters for such public services as electricity and water. --Choice Author InformationAntina von Schnitzler is an anthropologist and assistant professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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