Browsing by Author "Russell, Margo"

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    Are urban black families nuclear? a comparative study of black and white South African family norms
    (Taylor & Francis, 2003) Russell, Margo
    The debate over whether black South Africans are in the process of transition from an extended lineage-based consanguinal family system to a Western style nuclear conjugal system has focused primarily on household composition. Another way of assessing this supposed transition is to examine the strength of verbal commitment to Western conjugal family norms. A set of statements about appropriate family behaviour was devised and used to compare the responses of three groups of South Africans: urban whites, urban blacks and rural blacks. We found that urban blacks respond to some statements like rural blacks but to others like urban whites. In matters of family and kinship, urban blacks are still influenced by a distinctive African cultural approach to kinship as well as adapting their views in light of new urban experiences.
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    Are urban black families nuclear?: a comparative study of black and white South African family norms
    (2002) Russell, Margo
    It has been repeatedly argued that black South Africans are in the process of transition from an extended lineage-based consanguinal family system to a Western style nuclear conjugal system (for example, Nzimande, 1987; Clark and van Heerden, 1992; Steyn, 1993a; Amoateng, 1997).? To date, most of the debate over this supposed transition has focused on household composition (see, most recently, Ziehl, 2001).? Another way of assessing this supposed transition is to examine the strength of verbal commitment to Western conjugal family norms.? This Working Paper reports on research into such commitment. A set of thirteen statements about appropriate family behaviour was devised (see further Russell, 1999) and used to compare the responses of three groups of South Africans: urban whites, urban blacks and rural blacks.? The implicit hypothesis of the exercise was that urban blacks would respond like rural blacks rather than like urban whites: that, in matters of family and kinship, urban blacks are more likely to share norms about appropriate behaviour with rural blacks (on the basis of a shared distinctive African cultural approach to kinship) than with urban whites (on the basis of a shared urban experience).
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    The employment of domestic workers by black urban households
    (2002) Russell, Margo
    Studies of domestic work have generally focused on the inter-racial relationship between white employers ('madams') and black workers ('servants'). At least one-third of the households employing domestic workers are not white, and most of these employers are black or African. This paper reports the findings from an exploratory research project, conducted by students using a very small sample, on domestic work in black residential areas in Cape Town. The probability of a household employing a domestic worker rises if the household is smaller, headed by a man, has members in more skilled occupations, and has no one at home during the day; the probability falls in extended families, multiple-earner households and severely overcrowded houses. The number of children makes little difference. Wages paid are substantially below the minimum wages legislated in 2003.
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    Male anti-rape activists : an exploratory study
    (1999) Ntsoelikane, Motselisi; Bennett, Jane; Russell, Margo
    This thesis focuses on two questions: Why some men have chosen to work as anti-rape activists and what ideas these men have about the nature of rape, its causes and the way in which activism should combat rape. Information was gathered from face to face interviews with 12 male anti-rape activists from Cape Town, who were chosen using "snowball" sampling. This technique involves the location of one or more informants and requesting them to supply names of other people who would be likely participants in the research. The interviews were tape recorded and later transcribed. Nine of the respondents were interviewed in their offices while three were interviewed at home. The method of analysing data was to re-arrange it in terms of the main themes in the interview schedule.
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    The social consequences of establishing 'mixed' neighbourhoods
    (2010) Seekings, Jeremy; Jooste, Tracy; Muyeba, Singumbe; Coqui, Marius; Russell, Margo
    The post-apartheid state has, through the provision of subsidies, fuelled a massive expansion of formal, low-income housing in South African towns and cities. The new public housing neighbourhoods are, however, as segregated racially as their apartheid-era predecessors. Whilst the relative importance of different reasons for the reproduction of racial segregation might be unclear, it is clear that the adoption of different procedures for allocating new housing would result in neighbourhoods that are more diverse or mixed in terms of race and other characteristics. Adopting new procedures and creating more mixed neighbourhoods might have undesirable social, economic and political consequences. Mixed neighbourhoods might be characterized by social tensions and conflict, weak social capital, and hence economic disadvantage and political problems. The Department of Housing and Local Government in the provincial government of the Western Cape commissioned research into the social consequences of establishing more mixed neighbourhoods. ‘Mixed’ was understood as including both racial mixing, and mixing in terms of ‘community of origin’, i.e. of the neighbourhood from which beneficiaries had come.
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    Understanding Black Households in Southern Africa: The African Kinship and Western Nuclear Family Systems
    (2004) Russell, Margo
    Households can be taken for granted in the West because the nuclear family system with its bilateral descent ensures a fairly standard pattern of coresidence, with predictable patterns of pooling resources. In contemporary southern Africa, the tradition of patrilineal descent entails a much wider set of options for co-residence as relatives disperse to make a living in the new global economy. The agnatic idiom continues to give coherence to volatile contingent Black households. The paper traces the distinctive historical roots of Western and African households and argues against the assumption that black South Africans are engaged in some sort of transition to a Western pattern.
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    Understanding black households: the problem
    (Taylor & Francis, 2003) Russell, Margo
    Households can be taken for granted in the West because the nuclear family system with its bilateral descent ensures a fairly standard pattern of coresidence, with predictable patterns of pooling resources. In contemporary southern Africa, the tradition of patrilineal descent in black families entails a much wider set of options for co-residence as relatives disperse to make a living in the new global economy. The agnatic idiom continues to give coherence to volatile, contingent black households. The paper traces the distinctive historical roots of Western and African households and argues against the assumption that black South Africans are engaged in some sort of transition to a Western pattern.