Isaac Khambule – författare

South Africa’s struggle in balancing its domestic needs while playing a dynamic developmental role in the African region and global context exposes a complex web of relations shaped by its geostrategic location on the continent, and the world, and the staggering legacies of colonialism and apartheid. As such, understanding the complexities of the global economy and of South Africa's place in it, is of great importance. This book builds upon an existing body of literature which has demonstrated that while the post-apartheid South African state has recast its nation building goals - with advances having been made notably in the area of a stellar post-apartheid constitution, policy directives, and democratic political integration - economic integration and policy implementation presents a projection of captured interests, where big business concerns are entrenched in the post-apartheid state’s apparent neo-liberal turn.The main focus of the book is to contextualise issues relating to three main trends in global discourses on development, which are significant for South Africa, and indeed, for the study of the political economy of regional development in the country from the prism of South Africa as a global capitalist state. These trends include the impact of globalisation, regionalisation, and the marginalisation of South Africa and indeed the African continent in the global economy, thus unpacking the possible role that South Africa might play in regional development.This volume will be a valuable resource to academics, researchers and students in the fields of regional studies, economics and political theory as well as policymakers, planners and local economic development practitioners.

This book interrogates the nexus between the state and development in post-apartheid South Africa. It highlights current problems, and suggests ways of consolidating state capabilities, improving public institutions and enhancing governance and development outcomes.Framed around developmental state theory, the book argues that the role of the state in South Africa will be fundamental for addressing the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty, and inequality. There is a growing concern that South Africa is at a development impasse, with ongoing crises in energy, infrastructure, and unemployment. The chapters investigate the role of the post-apartheid state in pursuing development and navigating a neoliberal globalised society. The book explores state capacity in all spheres of government, the relationship between politics and bureaucracy, and the role of state-owned enterprises in the country’s developmental aspirations. The book concludes by summarising the successes, challenges and lessons that have emerged over the course of the book; and anticipating future directions or possibilities for the state in South Africa’s development impasse.Bringing together leading voices in the field, this book will be an essential read for researchers of African politics, political economy and development. The book is also relevant for policymakers, students and practitioners in social sciences.

Contested Airport Land draws attention to the accelerating airport development in the Global South. Empirical studies provide nuanced analysis of socioeconomic, administrative, and political dynamics on the land beyond the airport grounds, such as the project area of greenfield development, the airport city, or land resources reserved for future airport expansion.The authors in this book emphasise why airport construction is a politically sensitive issue in low-income and low-middle-income countries, which serve as the last development frontier of the aviation sector. They argue that observed airport development was rather motivated by the perception of airports as engines for national economic growth, while improving air mobility of national populations was not the main driver. Under dominant national development visions, airport-induced dynamics threatened local livelihoods by triggering economies of anticipation, the reconfiguration of land markets, rapid land use changes, a transition from rural to urban livelihoods, the displacement of communities, the perpetuation of human–wildlife conflicts, or inter-ethnic violence. The authors also highlight colonial path dependencies; legal pluralism in land tenure; the hegemonic relations between builders, investors, and the affected residents; as well as strategies of local protest movements.This book is recommended for readers interested in infrastructure-induced conflicts and environmental injustice.Chapter 1, Chapter 6 and Chapter 8 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA) 4.0 license.